After Gasol’s 36 points, the weight is gone

He is standing in the Staples Center tunnel, waiting to step inside the interview room, a giant wet mop with this dorky, delightful smile, and you just have to ask him.

“It’s the monkey, isn’t it?” you say.

“What?” says Pau Gasol.

“You got the monkey off your back, didn’t you?” you say.

“Oh man, it was more than a monkey,” Gasol says. “It was huge. It was a burden. It followed me everywhere.”

He pauses.

“It was more like an orangutan,” he says. “I got the orangutan off my back.”

One of the NBA’s best players to never win a playoff game indeed looked about 200 pounds lighter Sunday, the longest Laker flitting through the Denver Nuggets’ defense on the wings of taps and tips and tosses.

With his frumpy hair and delicate gait, sometimes he looked like a bird. With his long thin arms spread wide, other times he looked like a plane.

In the end, though, he looked like Super You-Know-Who, scoring 36 points with 16 rebounds to lead the Lakers to a 128-114 victory over the Nuggets in their first-round playoff opener.

“I had a blast out there,” said Gasol after leaving a building full of roaring fans who agreed with him.

It was a day of class, with Rick Fox bringing out the ball to start the game.

It was a day of crass, with some Lakers fans chanting, “D-U-I” when Carmelo Anthony shot his first free throws.

It was a day of sass, with Coach Phil Jackson, during pregame interviews, impulsively calling out Shaquille O’Neal for never getting his proper sleep during the playoffs.

But mostly, it was a day of Gas.

“As hard as it was for me to have that burden of never winning a playoff game, I think it made me who I am,” Gasol says.

Oh yeah, the burden. Before Sunday, in his six previous professional seasons, all with the Memphis Grizzlies, Gasol’s teams have gone 0 for 12 in playoff games.

He was their leader, so it was on him. He was labeled soft, he was described as indifferent, his career was going nowhere when he was sent here in the already-legendary deal on Feb. 1.

“He was languishing,” said Jackson.

As of Sunday, officially, he’s flourishing.

“This just ain’t Memphis,” said Bryant with a grin.

On Sunday, because of Gasol, nobody here was singing the previous two postseasons’ blues.

Remember in the last two springs when Bryant would get double-teamed and the offense would disappear?

On Sunday, Gasol made them pay.

Remember in the last two postseasons when Lamar Odom would be pushed around underneath and the aggressiveness would disappear?

On Sunday, Gasol made them sorry.

In the first half, the harried Bryant had scored four points, but it was OK, because Gasol had already scored 18.

Little shots. Follow shots. And one jump shot where, afterward, he actually posed with his skinny right arm in the air for a few seconds, Air Stork.

“He was better than good,” said Odom. “He was amazing.”

In the third quarter, the Lakers blew out a two-point lead into a 13-point lead in less than five minutes, and again Gasol was there.

A dunk, a layup, four free throws, arms and legs and hair everywhere.

“Some opportunities were easy for us,” said Jackson. “Pau was a recipient of a lot of them.”

This was a postgame theme, folks saying that Gasol’s success was about being in the right place at the right time.

The Nuggets being the Nuggets, though, they turned an explanation into a criticism.

Said Coach George Karl: “I don’t know if it was Gasol. I think the film will show it was the L.A. Lakers. I think Coby Karl could have scored the baskets.”

Said Kenyon Martin: “He had [36] points, and I think he took one or two jump shots the entire game.”

Fine. But in an offense featuring the best player in the game, isn’t that what complementary players do?

“Whatever they give us, we will find,” said Gasol.

In the previous two postseasons, they have found little.

But now, with a reborn Gasol and a revived Odom, their pockets are full, and the jangling is incessant.

He was having so much fun, during the final seconds of the game, he walked away from the offense and headed straight to the bench, where he shook his fist at his team as if to thank them.

“The energy has been rocket high,” he said.

His first playoff win marked his playoff scoring high and playoff assist high (eight) while tying his playoff rebounding high.

And, for now, provided some answers to questions held by many in the league, questions about Gasol’s ability to match the energy of the postseason.

There remain some toughness questions, but those will be more appropriate in later rounds against the likes of possibly Utah and San Antonio.

Said Bryant: “I think this offense has freed him up a little bit and showcased more what he can do.”

Said Jackson: “I think [the trade] was a boost to his attentiveness, to his basketball skills. He’s had a lot of attention internationally, but in the NBA, it hasn’t been a success yet, so I think that was important to him.”

With 2:37 left and Lakers leading by nine, Gasol threw a perfect alley-oop pass that Bryant slammed down to all but clinch it.

It wasn’t Kobe to Shaq in the 2000 playoffs, but, as postseason introductions go, it will do.

“One down and 15 to go” intoned public address announcer Lawrence Tanter afterward.

One game, one burden.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.