WASHINGTON -- Former Los Angeles Laker Pau Gasol said it will be "emotional" and "weird" to face his old teammates on Christmas night when his new team, the Chicago Bulls, takes on his former one.

"Emotional, weird, hard to focus," Gasol said of what he expects for his range of emotions Thursday night. "But at the same time, I kind of look forward to it in a way. To see some of the people that I've been through a lot with."

Gasol, who scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Tuesday's 99-91 win over the Washington Wizards, signed with the Bulls as a free agent over the summer after spending 6½ years with the Lakers. He knows it's "a little more special" to play on Christmas and is looking forward to facing former teammate Kobe Bryant, who sat out the Lakers' win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday to rest.

"He's playing really well," Gasol said of Bryant. "I think it's impressing a lot of people about what he's able to do at this point in his career. And all his accomplishments and milestones that he's achieving are incredible. It must be hard for him to lose most of the games, but they have a pretty new team with a lot of new faces and a new coach, a lot to adjust to. And the Western Conference, you get no breaks, it's no joke, and everybody's going to challenge you and everybody wants to beat the Lakers, too, so it's kind of hard but I think they'll improve."

Pau Gasol is looking forward to facing former teammate Kobe Bryant on Christmas Day. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

There will be another reunion Thursday, with Lakers power forward Carlos Boozer facing the Bulls for the first time since leaving Chicago.

The Bulls exercised their amnesty rights on the final year of Boozer's contract over the summer, paving the way for Gasol to come to Chicago. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and his players are hoping Boozer is received warmly by Chicago fans.

"When you look at what he did over his time here, he won a lot of games," Thibodeau said. "I've said this many times: He was a lightning rod for us. But he was very productive -- a double-double every night -- and we won, and that's the biggest thing. The guy's had a great career and we wish him well, but I think he should be received well."

Boozer, who was the consolation prize for the Bulls in the free-agency bonanza of 2010, was a frequent target of criticism for fans because of his struggles on defense and his performance during some crucial games in his four-year tenure.

Still, Thibodeau is hopeful fans won't boo Boozer.

"I have great respect for him because the situation we were in," Thibodeau said. "The first year I believe we had the best record and I believe we got to the Eastern Conference finals. The second year was the lockout year, same thing [best record in the East], and then we took the two injuries on in the playoffs [to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah]. Then we had to battle like crazy for two years just to keep it afloat, and he was in the middle of that and he wouldn't let it sink. So I've got great respect for what he did and what he meant to our team."

"Emotional, weird, hard to focus. But at the same time, I kind of look forward to it in a way. To see some of the people that I've been through a lot with."" Pau Gasol

Rose shared those sentiments as well.

"I hear a lot about [the criticism of Boozer]," Rose said. "But as far as myself and the relationship that we had, he's a great, great dude, great teammate, and the way that Chicago looked at him is that he didn't hustle hard and all that in the way that he played, but it's to each his own. He's somewhere else right now. He's trying to still keep his career going. I haven't even watched him as much as I wanted to but ... I don't know how [the fans] are going to accept him when he comes back. Who knows? But I just know that they're really excited about our team."

Noah also said he hoped Boozer would hear cheers but thought it might be tough to hear exactly what fans are saying.

"We won't really know because we won't know if it's 'Booooz' or if it's 'boo'," Noah said. "It's Booz to me."

As a group, the Bulls are happy to have the opportunity to play on Christmas again. This marks the fifth straight year they have done so.

"It's a great feeling; it's an honor, actually," Rose said. "To play on Christmas, but to not leave the town, like come on now, it's a huge change. It shows that the league ... has a lot of confidence in us to have the Lakers come to us. For Kobe to travel out of L.A. on Christmas Day, it just shows how far we came. I remember coming into the league, we wasn't able to play on Christmas. And we got the chance, and couple years after that, we have the Lakers coming to us. We appreciate it, we don't take it for granted and hopefully it will be a great game."