Lakers’ Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom step up

Pau Gasol had a bad Game 5 last Sunday in Boston. Lamar Odom topped him, having a bad NBA Finals, period.

But they each rose at important times for the Lakers in Game 6, contributing to an 89-67 victory Tuesday that meant one final game would be played Thursday against the Boston Celtics.

Gasol had 17 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Odom had eight points and 10 rebounds, his first double-digit rebounding game of the Finals.

They each ended the night on different planes of health, Gasol smiling in a suit and doing countless interviews, Odom coughing nonstop into a handkerchief as he left the Lakers locker room by himself.

“I’m tired,” Odom said as he walked slowly to his car. “Gonna go home, take a hot bath, get some steam going and hopefully get this thing out of my system.”

Odom has been fighting flu-like systems since Game 5, while Gasol couldn’t fight through the Celtics last Sunday, scoring only 12 points on five-for-12 shooting. Even Kobe Bryant rolled his eyes after that game, muttering into an interview microphone that Gasol had been “consistent for us for a while now, so he can afford to have a bad game every once in a while.”

Gasol wasn’t only solid in Game 6. He was also angry.

He got knocked to the ground near the mid-point of the third quarter and answered it by playing aggressive defense on Paul Pierce, leading directly to a steal and fastbreak dunk by Shannon Brown at the other end.

Gasol was also deft, setting a personal playoff record with his assists.

“He got creative and started playing the kind of post game we’ve been accustomed to playing in the postseason,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

Odom, who came into the game with paltry averages of 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in the Finals, didn’t shoot well in Game 6, making three of nine attempts, but he did enough in 28 minutes to catch Jackson’s eye.

“He made some plays and made some baskets that were important,” Jackson said.

TV guide

The Lakers complained to the NBA after Jackson was caught by an ABC camera in Game 5 saying the Celtics have trouble holding fourth-quarter leads.

Jackson was heard telling it to Lakers players during a timeout last Sunday, with the video and audio shown on ABC. The Celtics staved off the Lakers in that game, 92-86.

An NBA official sits in an ABC broadcasting truck and clears any material gleaned from cameras and microphones that are used in huddles during timeouts and in locker rooms before games and at halftime.

“I was surprised it was broadcast,” Jackson said.

Off the air

Some Time Warner cable television customers on the Westside, and in Compton, Culver City and the South Bay area missed part of the Lakers game when a router failure caused the picture to go black.

Time-Warner spokesman Darryl Ryan said the problem caused Time Warner customers to lose multiple channels including ABC, which was carrying the Lakers and Celtics. Time Warner had similar bad timing last July when the picture froze just before Manny Ramirez hit what turned into a game-winning home run for the Dodgers.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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Diane Pucin contributed to this report