Pau Gasol can’t understand why the Lakers aren’t utilizing their advantage inside to better effect.

“I wish we would take more advantage of our height and the inside game, because it’s pretty effective. It’s unfortunate that we don’t recognize it enough,” Gasol said, according to the Daily News.

“It’s frustrating because we lose games,” Gasol said, according to the report. “I don’t mind when we win, because the bottom line is, I want to win. But I feel like we have an advantage, and I’m effective, we should stay with what works and what’s effective and not get away from it. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Gasol is shooting almost 63% in the series and should be getting the ball more. The Nuggets have been reluctant to double team, so if the Lakers start feeding him the ball and let him go to work, it will force Denver to adjust (or let him score efficiently). Derek Fisher has been awful from the perimeter, and Lamar Odom isn’t bringing much to the table, so the Lakers might as well go with what’s been working. After all, he is their second-best player.

Typically, an NBA team can expect to score one point per possession (or thereabouts) over a course of a game. So when one team outrebounds another on the offensive glass by a margin of 20-9, it’s really 11 extra possessions and 11 extra opportunities to score. That’s why the Nuggets were able to bounce back tonight from a tough loss in Game 3; they dominated the glass by a margin of 58-40, and went on to win 120-101.

The win is even more impressive considering the struggles of Carmelo Anthony, who went 3 of 16 from the field. Chauncey Billups picked up the slack, and had key back-to-back buckets when the Nuggets were nursing a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter. He drove to the hole and got the “and one,” and then on the Nuggets’ next possession, he brought the ball up and drained a three. Billups was one of seven Nuggets to score in double figures; J.R. Smith deserves mention for his 24 points and four assists off the bench.

Kobe Bryant posted 34 points on 10 of 26 shooting (39%). Pau Gasol added 21 points and 10 boards, and Andrew Bynum had 14 points and five boards, but Phil Jackson isn’t getting much production from the rest of the roster. Two vets that the Lakers are counting on — Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher — combined to shoot 3 of 15 for 10 points.

The series moves back to L.A. for Game 5 and if the Nuggets can avoid the mental errors in crunch time, they have a good shot to win this series. The Lakers are inconsistent and out of synch, and they really need that supporting cast to raise its game.