Kobe Bryant: Can the L.A. Lakers Afford to Sacrifice His Offense for Defense?

The Los Angeles Lakers evened their first-round playoff series against the New Orleans Hornets at one game apiece on Wednesday night, but if you didn't see the game, that would be hard to believe by glancing at the stat sheet.

Lakers stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol shot a combined 5-of-20 from the field for a grand total of 19 points, and yet the Lakers were still able to walk out of Staples Center with a 87-78 victory. How did the Lakers accomplish this?

In a word, defense.

The Lakers only shot 44 percent from the field as a team, but they held the Hornets to 39 percent from the field while employing a tight, suffocating brand of defense.

Coach Phil Jackson couldn't afford to let Chris Paul ravage the Lakers as he had in Game 1 with his 33-point, 14-assist performance, so he designated the task of defending Paul to Bryant as he has done in the past.

Bryant did an admirable job of guarding Paul at the point of attack, and it was a total team effort as almost any Laker who saw a minute of action found themselves in front of Paul at one time or another.

Paul responded well to the challenge, scoring 20 points and dishing out nine assists, but the Lakers defense did its job by limiting Paul's overall impact. Lakers fans can thank Bryant for spear-heading the effort.

Bryant understood that Paul was really the only player on the Hornets roster who could hurt the Lakers and his sole focus in Game 2 was to prevent that from happening.

In the process, Bryant reminded everyone what type of individual defender he can be when motivated, and he didn't mind sacrificing his offense to do it.

Andrew Bynum dominated in the post with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and newly crowned NBA Sixth Man of the Year Lamar Odom added 16 points and seven rebounds, but Gasol was once again largely absent on the score sheet.

Gasol matched his Game 1 total of eight points on 2-of-10 shooting and therein lies the biggest question mark facing the Lakers down the road.

The Lakers can beat the Hornets if they dominate in the paint and play stifling defense as they did in Game 2 with minimal offensive contributions from Bryant, but can they do the same against better competition?

Gasol is the key, because as Bryant said earlier, the Lakers quest for a three-peat basically boils down to him and Gasol. At the end of the day, no other team has two players who have the potential to dominate on the perimeter and the post like they can.

The fact they Bryant and Gasol are surrounded by players like Odom, Bynum and Derek Fisher certainly doesn't hurt, but in order for the Lakers to win this year's championship Gasol has to find motivation.

Bryant may very well be called on to defend elite point guards down the road, and he may have to sacrifice his offense to do it, but the Lakers will not advance unless Gasol backs him up.

Hornets forward Carl Landry basically handled Gasol like a rag doll in the paint, and Landry's physical play seemed to affect Gasol mentally.

Landry employed the same strategy that Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins and New York Knicks forward Amar'e Stoudemire have described recently concerning Gasol.

Both Perkins and Stoudemire said that if you bang and push Gasol enough he will eventually crumble under the physical pressure, and that certainly seemed to be the case against the Hornets.

It's so bad that Bynum could be seen screaming in Gasol's face several times, imploring him to play with more heart and aggressiveness.

If only Gasol had Bynum's heart.

If the Lakers survive New Orleans, neither Portland nor Dallas have players who can physically impose their will on Gasol, but Perkins and possibly DeJuan Blair are lurking down the road.

Those players will try to push, pull and stomp Gasol into submission, and how he responds could determine the Lakers playoff fate.

One of the things that makes the Lakers so dangerous is they have other players who can step up and provide offensive fire-power when Bryant has an off night or his focus is drawn to the defensive end of the floor.

On most nights Gasol is one of those other players, and the Lakers quest for a three-peat depends on him finding the courage and heart to perform like it.