"Each time Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol touched the ball in Wednesday night's 87-79 Los Angeles win over the Hornets, the sellout crowd at the Staples Center grew restless, a throaty roar imploring the All-Star to make something, anything, happen.

Yet 10 times Gasol shot the ball, and eight times he missed. He finished with eight points on two field goals and four free throws.

In the first two games of this Western Conference first-round playoff series, Gasol is 4-of-19 with 16 total points.

Yet Gasol talked afterward as though he had a game worth smiling about.

"You've got to stay aggressive out there," Gasol said, "no matter what's going on, no matter whether things are going your way or not. You've got to continue to play and continue to make plays whichever way you can."

Gasol has essentially been a non-factor in the series' first two games. The Hornets are being extremely physical with Gasol, who seems generally lost on the floor.

But Gasol's mediocre performance, at least on Wednesday night, was counterbalanced by Andrew Bynum's 17 points, and 16 off the bench from Lamar Odom.

"Especially from a bigs standpoint, they brought much more energy," Hornets center Aaron Gray said. "And we expected it. Like they weren't able to match our energy in Game 1, we weren't able to match their energy tonight. Andrew Bynum did a great job; Gasol took 10 shots even though he's not finishing yet. He's going to find his groove. Lamar Odom off the bench is such a spark."