Pau Gasol is Blake Griffin’s most recent victim

Pau Gasol saw Blake Griffin begin to elevate from outside of the key. Then the details became a bit blurry. The next thing he knew, a forearm was clobbering his face, a freight train knocking him off his feet.

“You don’t really see what happened,” Gasol said. “It was quick, a hit-and-run kind of thing, right? The ball went in, I was on my [rear end], I woke up, I stood up and told the referee I had a ... forearm on my face, on my throat, and that’s something that needs to be looked at. But it happened too quick. I didn’t realize.”

Gasol was Mozgov[ed]. He was Perkin[ed].

He was Griffin’s most recent victim.

The Lakers’ Andrew Bynum winced. The Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan gave Griffin a celebratory shove. People sitting courtside covered their mouths in disbelief. Players on the Clippers’ bench jumped up and down.

Gasol argued that he was fouled.

The play happened in the third quarter of Wednesday’s game and immediately inspired a flood of comments on Twitter.

Tweeted Reggie Bush: “You know your ballin when your play is number one on Sports Center and your game hasn’t even finished yet...”

Gasol, however, got the final laugh. He finished with 12 points and seven rebounds as the Lakers won, 113-108, clinching the teams’ series.

There’s a chance the teams could meet again in the postseason, a prospect that Gasol suggests that the Clippers approach with a bit of caution.

“When you make a great play, obviously there’s a lot of emotions and I understand the excitement of it,” Gasol said. “But at the same time, you have to be respectful too. Otherwise, you probably will instigate retaliation or a bad, violent reaction. So you have to be careful with that. But that’s just me.”

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