2011 Playoffs: If Lakers Are Forced Out, Fans Will Blame Gasol.

The Los Angeles Lakers will play a must-win Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks this afternoon.  The two-time World Champions face historically impossible odds, down 0-3 in a best of seven series.  No NBA team has ever come back from such a deficit.  If their quest for a three-peat ends today, Los Angeles fans will hold Pau Gasol responsible.

To say the All-Star forward's numbers are down is to speak of the Titanic as a boating accident.  The lanky Spaniard who carried the Lakers through the early months of the season has sleepwalked through the playoffs.  Fans in Los Angeles are taking notice.

I caught Game 3 at Dillon's Irish Pub on Hollywood and Vine.  Angel Alvarez, 27, is a diehard Los Angeles sports fan.  His shoulder is tattooed with a Dodgers "LA" symbol, and half his wardrobe is Lakers gear.  Alvarez is so laid back that his sleepy-dog eyes make people ask if he is Asian.  I've spent entire afternoons with the man, and there are times he doesn't utter a paragraph.  But during the fourth quarter of Game 3, when a pass to Gasol bounced off his back, Alvarez was pleading with anyone who would listen to have Pau Gasol benched.  "They have to take out Gasol.  He's hurting the team!"

A Hispanic couple at a nearby table nursed their drinks quietly.  If it weren't for their Lakers jerseys, they would have looked like they were at a wake.  They complained to each other in Spanish, and the only word I could make out, which came up over and over, was "Gasol."

Fans weren't the only ones who had words for Gasol.  Near the end of Game 3, Phil Jackson admonished his confused player, punctuating his words with a fist to Gasol's chest.  It was as if the Lakers's coach had officially endorsed finding fault with the bewildered forward.

If the Lakers season ends today in the American Airlines Center, Pau Gasol may find himself on the trading block.  If he doesn't, he might still opt for leaving town.  In Los Angeles, all fingers will be pointed at him.