Pau Gasol is becoming more and more comfortable with the Lakers.  And he’s getting more effective, too.

Gasol continued his playoff tear, giving the Lakers 22 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks in route to their 111-103 Game 2 win over the Utah Jazz.  The Spaniard has averaged 19.4 points, 12.5 boards and is shooting over 55% from the floor in the 2010 postseason.

Gasol led a trio of Lakers who posted points-rebounds double-doubles in the game, including Andrew Bynum (17 and 14) and Lamar Odom (11 and 15).  The big men helped Los Angeles put together a 58-40 advantage on the glass.  Thanks to their poor shooting (39.6%), Utah was able to secure 19 offensive rebounds. – the vast majority of which did not convert into points for the Jazz.  To complement its boardwork, L.A. continued to use its height effectively by swatting away 13 Jazz field goal attempts. 

Kobe Bryant was able to score 30 points in the contest, and he really wasn’t forced to work hard for any of them.  He was also a willing distributor (8 assists) and even blocked three shots – one of which directly led to a breakaway one-handed flush by acrobatic, reserve guard Shannon Brown.

The Utah Jazz could use Ronnie Brewer to help bottle up Bryant.

The Jazz were never exactly out of the game, but they just couldn’t do enough to put themselves in position to seriously threaten the Lakers.  Utah point guard Deron Williams managed nine assists, but shot horribly from the field (4-16).  Power forward Paul Milsap was great with 26 points and 11 rebounds (8 offensive), but otherwise the remaining Jazz players had mediocre performances.

Utah is normally a rather physical bunch.  Williams, Milsap and Carlos Boozer are all very strong and ususally can manhandle the opponents at their respective positions.  They don’t have that luxury against the Lakers, who have the ability to place a trio of seven-footers (Bynum, Gasol, Odom) out on the floor at the same time without sacrificing any speed or skill.

The one thing that the Jazz have going for them will be the atmosphere at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake.  Utah has been a much better team at home (32-9) than they have been away from home (21-20).  They defeated L.A. in a matchup back on December 12, 102-94.  In that game, the Jazz held Kobe Bryant to 16 points on 7-24 shooting.  But re-channeling that effort will be hard to do, because at the time they had defensive specialist Ronnie Brewer on the roster.  Now that Brewer has been traded and Kirilenko is still injured (at the moment), the Jazz do not have one bonafide player who can even be a bump in the road for Bryant.

It goes without say that Game 3 is a must win for Utah.  But if the Lakers can continue their paint domination, this series could very well end without making a return trip to the City of Angels.