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AP Photo/Chris Carlson

As much as I was concerned about Kobe Bryant going off last night, I was equally concerned with the Los Angeles Lakers (8-1) front line of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Even though Derrick Rose (25 points, 9 assists) and Ben Gordon (23 points, 4 assists) combined to score 48 points and 13 assists, it was offset by Bynum (18 points, 9 rebounds) and Gasol's (34 points, 6 rebounds) 52 points and 15 rebounds.

Bryant finished the game with 21 points, but Gasol bested that number by halftime with 24 points in the first half, 18 of those coming in the first quarter alone on 7-9 shooting from the field.

The Bulls (5-6) made the game close in the fourth quarter, by coming back from an 18 point deficit to get to within ten, but Bryant was inserted back into the lineup with under four minutes remaining and made a three pointer during his first possession back into the game, to keep the Bulls back.

Final score 116-109

You may look at this score and say, Only a seven point loss against a championship calibur team, not bad. Wrong, you would be. The Lakers had control of this game before making their way to the arena. Gasol had his way inside, Bryant played as cool as a game as I've ever seen him play and the Lakers simply played the Bulls like puppets.

Did anyone happen to see Luol Deng (9 points)?

The Bulls traveled to Portland, Oregon following the game and are set to take on the Trailblazers (6-5) tonight.

I'm very interested in seeing this game because of several mathups and there are two players that could have been in Bulls uniforms, Brandon Roy (21ppg) and LaMarcus Aldridge (15 ppg), that are sure to give us some trouble. We'll also be getting our first look at Greg Oden (9ppg, 7rpg), who had 22 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to the Golden State Warriors last night.

The Blazers depth is almost unfair as they have several of options of the bench with Rudy Fernandez (13 ppg), Sergio Rodriguez and Travis Outlaw (11ppg), not to mention rookie Jerryd Bayless, who hasn't seen much time after averaging 30ppg in summer league play.