CHICAGO -- Pau Gasol admittedly didn't think he'd be able to put up these kinds of numbers this quickly for the Chicago Bulls. But now that he is, now that he appears to have turned back the clock, he wants to make sure the world has an accurate count of what he has been responsible for each game.

When asked after Thursday's practice if he expected to be a 20-point, 10-rebound player at this stage of his career, Gasol was quick with a retort.

"20 and 12," Gasol said. "20 and 12. ... I will forgive you. Please don't let it happen again."

The surrounding media chuckled, but Gasol's point was well-taken. After struggling to find his old form at various points throughout his last two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol has revitalized his game with the Bulls, who are currently 13-8 and fourth in the East. Heading into Friday night's showdown with the Portland Trail Blazers, Gasol is averaging 19.8 points and 12.2 rebounds a game, his highest totals in over seven years. He's also shooting 48.8 percent from the field.

To put those numbers in context, through the Lakers' first 20 games last season, Gasol averaged 14.2 points and 9.7 rebounds and shot 41.2 percent.

So why does Gasol think he has fit in so well so quickly in Chicago?

"A variety of factors, I guess," the affable big man said. "The structure and complexity of the team. The complexion of the team. It's just a really nice fit for me, and something I evaluated before I made my decision. ... The system, the way we run things, our principles, how we want the ball to touch the paint and get to the post and then operate from there."

Having watched Gasol from a distance the past few seasons as an analyst for TNT, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has a different theory.

"I thought watching Pau the last couple years as an analyst, he just looked unhappy," Kerr said recently. "He wasn't in the right fit. It wasn't a good fit and it was a team that was maybe on the descent. And he just looked sort of spiritually spent. I know he's got a lot of wear and tear, but sometimes at the stage in your career when you've won titles and you've made plenty of money, it's more about the spiritual lift than anything."

Whatever the reason, through the first month and half of the season, Gasol has become an integral part of what the Bulls are doing on and off the court. Respected for his work ethic and championship experience, he has fit in very well into a tight-knit Bulls locker room and has offered guidance, when needed, to his younger teammates.

"He's certainly playing at an All-Star level," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "There's not many guys, I think there's probably two or three guys who are 20 [points] and 10 [rebounds] guys in the league right now, and he's one of them. So he's playing at a high [level], but he plays to win. He's not a selfish guy at all, he's sometimes too unselfish. But he's terrific. He's been great for us."

At 34, Gasol is averaging almost 36 minutes per night, but his effort has been steady amid all the lingering injury issues the Bulls have dealt with this season in regards to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Gasol, who missed three games of his own earlier in the season because of a calf strain, has teamed with Jimmy Butler on most nights to lead the Bulls offensively.

For a Bulls team that struggled to score without Rose the past two seasons, it's refreshing that Thibodeau can now have his players just dump the ball down to Gasol on the blocks and let him go to work.

"Pau is one of the premier post guys in the league," veteran Mike Dunleavy said. "To always have an option of somebody you can throw it in to and get a bucket when you need to is great. But he's also a really good passer, so you can play off him, make cuts, and he does so many other things well. He's such a luxury to have on our team."

In a short span, Gasol has turned into one of the best free-agent acquisitions of the offseason. His teammates and coach routinely discuss his intelligence on the floor, and his cerebral demeanor has had an instant impact on a Bulls squad that has championship aspirations.

The single biggest difference in Gasol's game might be the fact that he looks more engaged defensively in Thibodeau's schemes. Thibodeau said before the season that he believed Gasol could be an even better defender than he had shown, and so far the numbers seem to back that up.

According to NBA.com's player tracking data, with an assist from the ESPN Stats & Information department, opponents are shooting just 45.2 percent at the rim against him this season compared to 54.8 percent last season with the Lakers. Thibodeau is more intense than Gasol is used to, but the pairing is paying dividends.

"He's very methodical, very disciplined," Gasol said of Thibodeau. "He's always on edge, and he keeps the team on edge and gets the team ready to play, pays attention to detail. Just a guy who's completely committed and devoted to basketball and to do his part to help the team win."

The great thing for the Bulls is that the same things can be said about Gasol.