Bill Kostroun / AP

Lakers' Pau Gasol shoots around the Nets' Richard Jefferson. Gasol scored 24 points in his L.A. debut on Tuesday.

updated 11:47 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2008

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Kobe Bryant was hurting and coming off his worst scoring night in more than a year, and yet kept coming back to the same word: easy.

Thanks to Pau Gasol, the Lakers no longer need Bryant to be great every night anymore.

Gasol had 24 points and 12 rebounds in his Los Angeles debut, and the Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets 105-90 on Tuesday night despite a season-low six points from Bryant, his first single-digit effort in more than a year.

“He played extremely well,” Bryant said. “Defenses are used to playing a certain way. You know, screen-and-roll, where I come off the pick, they’re used to playing a certain way. Now they have to evaluate how they play that. It’s going to be a little bit more for defenses to kind of try to come up with a scheme.”

Derek Fisher matched a season high with 28 points to lead the Lakers, who improved to 3-1 on their nine-game road trip. Bryant shot 3-of-13 from the floor but had eight assists in his lowest-scoring effort since an eight-point game against Denver on Jan. 5, 2007.

“I think if you would tell us that going into the game, we’d have a pretty good chance of winning,” Nets guard Jason Kidd said. “But that just shows the player that Kobe is, if his shot’s not going he found Gasol or whoever else. Because he gets so much attention, he found the open guys and he’s got a nice addition of Pau to the team, which he can help take care of that load. And if you pay attention to those two guys, then Derek knocks down 3s.”

Bryant, who dislocated the pinky finger on his right hand, seemed to work well with Gasol, who was 10-of-15 and showed he may help the Lakers get by just fine until Andrew Bynum returns from his knee injury.

“I still don’t know a lot of the wrinkles and a lot of details, but my teammates helped me out a lot on it through the whole game,” Gasol said. “I was pretty comfortable.”

Vince Carter scored 27 points for the Nets, who trailed by only three points midway through the fourth quarter before Gasol keyed the decisive surge.

Consecutive baskets by Richard Jefferson cut the Lakers’ lead to 84-81 with 6:13 remaining before Gasol pulled down the rebound of Bryant’s missed jumper and put it back while being fouled. His three-point play made it a six-point game and kicked off an 11-2 spurt, and he added another bucket off a feed from Bryant before Fisher capped it with a layup to make it 95-83 with under 3 minutes to play.

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