Davis and Clippers Find Success in Fresno

Another pre-season game in the books and chalk up another one in the loss column. Tonight Davis and company beat their Staples Center roommates by a sound 27 points. Baron Davis made his debut as a Los Angeles Clipper, scoring 12 points and handing out a game-high 7 assists. The leaner, quicker Davis wasted no time in search for an additional endorsement now that he is in Hollywood; attributing his new physique to the Jenny Craig Diet. If Jenny is able to keep Baron healthy and on the court, the Warriors and Hornets will be left wishing they had called “Jenny” for him.

For the Lakers, it appears some aspects from their pre-season opener carried over in Fresno. First off, they were playing in front of a crowd of nearly 10,000, most of whom were Lakers fans. Yelling such things as, “Baron back to the Bay, Kobe owns L.A.” Unfortunately, the home cooking hasn’t done them any favors. Once again this Lakers squad shoots themselves in the foot by committing a ghastly number of turnovers — 25 tonight. And once again Odom’s forgettable performance leaves people questioning whether or not he even played.

Tonight, the world was introduced to the duo that everyone has eagerly awaited to see since February — Gasol and Bynum. They weren’t Robinson and Duncan, they weren’t Hakeem and Sampson, and they weren’t quite the Odd Couple either. Their first stint on the floor together, with the world watching, was as expected. Bumpy, confusing, chaotic, and new. These two are still in the meet-and-greet phase, they haven’t had the opportunity to spend much time with one another on or off the court, and they are adjusting to spots on offense. No one really expected an instantaneous gelling process did they? Fast forward a couple months from now, several games and perhaps a Jay-Z concert from now, and this version of the twin towers should be in a groove. With that, here are tonight’s post-game tidbits (about…you guessed it):

Mike Bresnahan (LA Times):

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum weren’t effective together in the front court Thursday at Save Mart Center.

The Lakers were outplayed by the undermanned Clippers during the nine awkward minutes Gasol and Bynum were in the lineup at the same time. Gasol had four points and Bynum one point during that stretch, though it wasn’t from lack of trying.

On one play, Gasol tried to pass to Bynum for an alley-oop dunk, but the ball bounced off the front of the rim.

“We have to figure out how we’re going to do [this] together,” Gasol said. “We have to bring more intensity out there and bring more intimidation — dominate more in rebounds and stuff. We lose speed, but we should gain in strength and size.”

Bynum finished with six points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes.

Gasol had 12 points and one rebound in 16 minutes.

When Gasol was the first of the two to get position down low, Bynum drifted too far from the basket, a point the Lakers will try to clean up.

Jeff Eisenberg (Press Enterprise):

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum finally shared the floor for the first time as Lakers, but their long-awaited debut featured the type of chemistry you’d expect from an awkward first date.

Individually, the two 7-footers shined in short bursts, Gasol hitting an array of soft mid-range jumpers and Bynum cleaning up on the defensive glass. But their inexperience playing together was apparent Thursday night as they struggled with spacing and passing in two brief stints during the Lakers’ 107-80 exhibition loss to the Clippers.

Whether Bynum and Gasol will thrive in the same front line remains the most pressing question facing the Lakers through two exhibition games. A cut lower lip in the first quarter kept Gasol from playing with Bynum during the Lakers’ exhibition opener against the Jazz on Tuesday night, and the two did little Thursday to combat Coach Phil Jackson’s evaluation that they were “clumsy” during the first week of training camp.

“We talked about how we’re going to do things as far as giving each other space, not crowding each other and not posting up on top of each other,” Bynum said. “It is a little confusing sometimes because you have one guy who played (center) all last season and I’ve been playing there for three years.”

Jeff Eisenberg (Press Enterprise Blog):

It’s difficult to evaluate the duo in just a handful of minutes together, but they certainly weren’t intimidating at either end of the floor. Both were frequently out of position defensively and Bynum said he was unsure where to go when Gasol beat him down court and established low-post position, forcing him to pop to the elbow or the wing.

“It’s going to take time for Andrew and I to gel,” Gasol said. “We weren’t in there for long together, but we have to bring a little more intensity, a little more intimidation and dominate more on the rebounds. We lose speed, but we should gain in strength and size.”

Injury Report

Mike Bresnahan (LA Times):

Vujacic did not make the trip for Thursday’s game because of soreness in his sprained left ankle. He practiced Wednesday but felt pain afterward and went for an MRI exam Thursday. Test results are expected to be released today.

Jeff Eisenberg (Press Enterprise):