French rookie and Portland Trailblazer Nicolas Batum had a nasty dunk on Pau Gasol last night in Portland’s 100-86 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The dunk occurs in the first quarter as the LaMarcus Aldridge steals a lazy Derek Fisher passs, dribbles down court and leaves a pass to the trailing Nicolas Batum.  Gasol, whom was recently honored with the Euroscar award for the 2008 European player of the Year (and had a nice highlight himself earlier in the week), turned around to see the 6-8, 200lb lanky forward beginning to elevate.  Gasol put his hands up in a futile attempt, hoping his length might block the shot, or throw Batum off.

It was too late. Batum came down hard on Gasol, whom was sent reeling back from the impact.  Check out the video below (click “watch in high quality” on the bottom right hand side of the video for much better resolution)

If you want a souvenier of the Batum dunk, you can check out the great photo of the facial (Gettys Image). The quiet rookie from Lisieux, France finshed the game with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists on a perfect shooting night.  Batum hit all six of his field goal attempts; 2 two-point shots and 3 three-point shots.

Links and Resources:  Haier NBA Play of the Day (01/04/2009) (YouTube.com), Picture of Batum dunk on Pau Gasol (Getty Images),  Lakers 100 – Portland 86 Boxscore (Yahoo!),  Nicolas BatumProfile & Bio (Interbasket),  Pau Gasol wins 2008 Euroscar Award (Interbasket)