Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers 113-80 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday ...

After manning the sidelines for more than 1,500 regular season games coming into Friday night, Lakers coach Phil Jackson knows how to pick apart a postgame stat sheet pretty easily to find out what went wrong or what went right.

Before the game PJax rattled off the things he looks for: shooting percentage, assists, blocks, steals turnovers ...

After moving on to another answer he circled back to the query about significant statistical markers.

"Quarter totals," he added to the list.

The Lakers won by 33 points, so you know there was a lot to like in the stat sheet, but they did it by winning every quarter; 21-16 in the first, 31-19 in the second, 30-17 in the third and 31-28 in the fourth.

Holding an NBA team under 20 points for one quarter is a defensive accomplishment. Doing it three quarters in a row a defensive demoralization.

"There’s almost no team in this league that can survive if they don’t score," Jackson said after the game. "It’s a game that scoring is such an important part that when teams don’t get 20 points in a quarter, it kind of dints their effort, takes the heart out of them. So, that’s a big part of playing basketball."

The Lakers snapped their four-game losing streak by doing what they couldn't do in loss No. 1 of the streak against Utah. The Lakers held a 33-17 lead after the first quarter but failed to extend the lead. Against Sacramento, the Lakers led by five after the first, 17 at halftime, 30 after the third and 33 at the final buzzer.

"One of the things we've been emphasizing since the post-Thanksgiving game in Utah is that when we've had leads, we've relaxed our defense to the point where teams gain momentum and we haven't been able to slow them down when the momentum shift happens."
When Pau Gasol arrived at the locker room almost 40 minutes late before the game because of personal reasons, he wasn't sure he was going to play because of his strained left hamstring. He quickly changed into his uniform, went out to the court to warm up and decided to give it a go.

"It was a little sore, a little tight, but I managed it well," Gasol said. "During the game I didn’t really push it too hard and I was able to play through it."

Gasol finished with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting, five rebounds, five assists and three blocks in 27 minutes of playing time.

"He looked alright," Jackson said. "I thought he moved OK. He played inside of the framework of what we were trying to do tonight, so it wasn't a really aggressive offensive game for him."

Jackson was able to rest Gasol along with starters Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher the entire fourth quarter. It was welcome bench time for a team finishing its third game in four nights.

Gasol's night almost included a little extra work he hadn't accounted for. Back-up center Derrick Caracter picked up his fifth foul with 3:53 remaining in the fourth while Gasol had spent the entire period watching comfortably from the bench.

What followed between Gasol, Jackson and Caracter was the type of comical exchange that makes you wish NBA Entertainment was on hand to capture for the archives.

First, Phil went up to Pau.

Gasol: "I wasn’t aware [of Caracter's five fouls] but then Phil told me when there were three minutes left, ‘Pau, stay loose.’ I’m like, ‘Huh?’"

Then, Pau went up to Derrick.

Gasol: "I had to tell him, ‘Please do not pick up a sixth foul,’ because I could see it, I could see it happening."

Caracter: "He just said, ‘Play smart these last four minutes and don’t get your last foul.’"

Jackson: "He got quite animated and asked Derrick to watch his fouls. It was the most animated he was all night I think in a lot of ways."

Then, Pau offered Phil an alternative fill-in at center.

Gasol: "I told Phil, ‘Ron is ready.’"

Was Jackson just joshing with his three-time All-Star?

"I would hope so but you never know and I didn’t like my chances," Gasol said after rolling his eyes.

Other than almost fouling out, the rookie Caracter might have had his best game as a pro.

The 6-9, 275-pound second-round pick set season highs in points (10), minutes (21), blocks (two) and both field goals made (five) and attempted (eight), while adding four rebounds, plus an assist and a steal.

"It’s a dream come true," said Caracter. "This is something that I always wanted to do. It’s my job now and everybody is here for a reason and I like to believe that I’m in the same position. I’m out here as a professional basketball player and I can produce like any of the other guys out there and it’s just about being confident and continue to get the reps in."

Caracter, the No. 58 selection in last June's draft, also outplayed Sacto rookie big man DeMarcus Cousins (nine points on 3-of-9 shooting, six rebounds in 27 minutes) who was a lottery pick, going No. 5 to the Kings.

"I like competing with against DeMarcus, we’re both rookies, and I feel that it’s going to be a battle for the rest of our careers," Caracter said.

Before Caracter gets too excited, he might want to continue to work on impressing his coach.

Here's what Phil said about him before the game: "The team in general has to support his presence on the floor. We have to help out. He’s not even a center. He’s maybe a power forward [and] a small power forward at that. We may have to help out with him in those situations with him at the center spot and come help and double team and do some of those things."

And here's what Phil said about him aftward: "He’s still finding his way. There’s still a lot of things that are missing out there on the floor. Those things are going to happen until his learning curve increases. It inhibits his ability to be out there in critical times of the game for us when we need to have recognition. But his effort’s good and he wants to play and his attitude is good about this game, so we appreciate that. We like that."

Devin Ebanks, the Lakers No. 43 draft pick, also had a nice night, scoring a season-high nine points in just eight minutes and 34 seconds of playing time while going 4-of-4 from the field.

Neither performance by the young guys was enough to totally impress their 65-year old coach.

"You know what I say about rookies; it still pertains," Jackson said.


Even with his bum hammy, Pau had some extra motivation to play Friday because of his company at the game, 13-year-old Isabelle Shattuck.

Gasol observed Isabelle's grueling spinal cord surgery this summer (and ESPN.com's Tom Friend detailed the event in an excellent piece) and was beaming when asked about her progress since then.

"She enjoyed it," Gasol said of Isabelle's first game she got to come see him play. "I kept asking her if she was having a good time. I think she had a really good time and it was a very good experience for her. It was really special having her here tonight after the surgery and the experience I had with the family.

"I was able to witness this little girl who was laying on a table with her spine wide open and correcting her spine is not an easy surgery at all. There’s a lot of drilling, they had to straighten the whole thing out. It was intense. That’s what makes it special."

Gasol said that the Shattucks weren't basketball fans at first and hadn't even really heard of him before procedure, but now him and the family connect on a level much deeper than sports.

"It’s about personal, human caring overall," he said.

Now we go from a heart-warming Gasol story to a President-warning Ron Artest story.

Watch out Barack Obama, Ron Ron's coming for you.

"I’m assuming he wouldn’t want to play me in basketball," Artest said. "If that little, horrible player gave him 12 stitches, playing up against Ron Artest would be pretty tough. I’m assuming he doesn’t want to see my defense. I’m assuming he won’t be in basketball apparel, I’m assuming he’ll be in a president outfit."

The Lakers will meet with President Obama in Washington D.C. on Dec. 13, the day before they play the Wizards, in honor of their championship over the Boston Celtics. The team hasn't announced where they will be meeting with the Commander in Chief, but the assumption is that it will be a different ceremony than last year and not held at the White House.

Earlier in the week, Artest admitted, "I'm the worst dresser on this team," when thinking about finding a suit to wear for the occasion. If the meeting involves some pickup hoops, Ron will be ready.

"I’ll shut him down," Artest said. "I shut everybody down. I know he’s going left anyway, so I’m not worried about it."

Last year, when the team went to the White House, Artest came down with a mysterious illness and opted out of joining his teammates to meet Obama because he was not part of the 2009 championship team.

"I won’t [have a] three-hour flu on Dec. 13," Artest joked to reporters. "My flus are scheduled."

Artest shared he has already met former U.S. Presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton in the past, but there was one president that eluded him.

"I always wanted to meet Ronald Reagan because my name is Ronald," Artest said.

Who said he wasn't logical?

Ron is always good for a laugh, but Friday was one of his better media sessions to date.

First, he explained a recent prank-call interview he had with Houston radio station 1560 AM: "The Game."

"When I picked up the phone they said, ‘Hey, Luis Scola! How’s it going?’ … I just took it from there," Artest said.

And really, have you ever heard a better way to tease a story than Artest saying, "I just took it from there," after being misidentified as a 6-9, 245-pound Argentinian with shoulder-length hair?

"The accent was horrible … I had an Arabian accent," Artest said.

Sending his media session totally over the top, Artest described his special style of taking off his T-shirt before bedtime to surprise his wife by wearing a necktie underneath it against his bare chest.

"Man lingerie," was the phrase Artest coined for the look. "The ladies love it, you should try it. Once you take your shirt off and they see that tie, they’re going to be like, ‘Wow, man lingerie.’"

Luke Walton had an excellent end to practice Thursday during the team's 4-on-4 scrimmage. He was so hot at one point Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw yelled out incredulously, "Has Luke missed?!"

So, when the seldom-used Walton started the second-quarter on the floor again Sacramento, it seemed like a reward of sorts for his efforts.

Not so.

"It’s just because his dad was sitting on the sidelines," cracked Jackson after the game.

Luke's dad, Hall of Famer Bill Walton, joined the Kings this season as a part-time broadcaster and will call 5-10 games, including when the team plays in L.A.

Quote of the night: "It kind of impinges our life around a social calendar. It just turned December. I celebrate Christmas like on the 21^st and I kind of think, ‘Well, Christmas is coming up …’" -- Lakers coach Phil Jackson on the team's two holiday obligations coming up Saturday and Monday. He finished his thoughts on the subjects by crooning the first line of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to the assembled media.

Stats of the night: All 12 players that suited up for the Lakers scored ... L.A. beat Sacramento 68-30 in points in the paint ... Bryant (9-of-18) shot better than 50 percent from the field for the first time in nine games.

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.