The offense continues to flow seamlessly under Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced system and two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol appears to be benefiting with a green light to score every time he touches the basketball.
Coming into Sunday night’s matchup with the Houston Rockets at Staples Center, Gasol was only a few points away from reaching the milestone of 15,000 points for his career.
Gasol easily passed that mark in the third quarter with a jumper near the charity stripe. According to Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com:
Lakers forward Pau Gasol’s foul-line jumper with 9:21 remaining in the third quarter of the Lakers’ game against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night gave him 15,000 career points. Gasol is only the 10th foreign-born player in NBA history to reach the mark and the first player from Spain to do so.
After scoring his 15,000th point, Gasol is now in select company of international players in the NBA with only nine others reaching that mark, including active players Jamaica’s Tim Duncan, Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki and teammate Steve Nash out of South Africa.
Among the retired foreign-born players to reach 15,000 or more points during their NBA careers are Detlef Schrempf (Germany), Rolando Blackman (Panama), Kiki Vandeweghe (Germany), Dominque Wilkins (France) and Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria).
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