Are Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant Fighting Over Girl Trouble?

The Los Angeles Lakers are down 2-0 to the Dallas Mavericks and face a pivotal Game 3 Friday night. It’s looking bleak for the Lakers and a lot of their problems seem to be related to “trust issues,” as Andrew Bynum described it.

Many people didn’t know what to think of Bynum’s postgame comments, but it’s painfully obvious the Lakers aren’t playing the brand of basketball that’s gotten them to three straight NBA Finals and netted them back-to-back championships.

A lot of the Lakers’ struggles have been pinned on their superstar power forward, Pau Gasol. Pau’s averaging just 14.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game against Dallas in the postseason and a putrid 13.6 points and 7.8 rebounds in the 2010-11 playoffs, all below his All-Star worthy season. Now we’re hearing that Pau may be sulking because of personal problems that may also involve Kobe Bryant. The OC Register explains:

Pau Gasol, who has seemed somewhat melancholy lately on and off the court, reportedly was dumped by his girlfriend, Sylvia Lopez Castro two weeks ago and the Spaniard blames Kobe Bryant’s wife. MediaTakeOut.com claims an unnamed Lakers wife might have talked Lopez Castro out of the relationship, resulting in the two players engaging in a heated argument over their women.

How damaged the Pau-Kobe relationship is we may never know, but right now the entire team looks broken and this story could explain things. It would be a sad closing to a storied run for the Lakers if high school-type drama costs them a chance at their fourth straight trip to the Finals and a threepeat in what will most likely be Phil Jackson’s final season as the Lakers’ head coach. We probably won’t know what’s really going on unless Phil spills all the beans in his next tell-all book.

Want to see what Pau’s girlfriend Silvia Lopez Castro looks like? Click here

UPDATE: According to Kevin Ding, “Kobe dismissed theory about discord between his wife and Pau’s girlfriend: “They barely know each other.”

and “Pau expressed dismay at “lies” reported about personal life upsetting people “very close to me.” “To me, it’s sad.”