Clippers Steal Some of O’Neal’s Thunder, 122-104 : Pro basketball: Orlando rookie gets 26 points and a season-low nine rebounds. Norman’s 33 points lead Los Angeles victory.

Tour de Shaq, the maiden voyage, landed at the Sports Arena, bringing with it the now-obligatory crowd that wants to see what all the commotion is about.

Thursday night, it was about a quiet 26 points and being upstaged by Ken Norman, who had 33 points, nine rebounds and a message to Clipper management in a 122-104 victory over Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic.

Norman, playing a day after his mother was admitted to a Chicago hospital because of chest pains, scored more points than any Clipper this season and came within five points of his personal best. Then, in another sign of his mounting frustration over stalled contract talks, he took aim at his own front office.

“I don’t think my hustle and determination is appreciated, so I was looking to my offense a little more,” he said of bettering his season high by 17 points.

Meaning he used this as his platform?

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” Norman said. “The last half of this season and the start of this season, I didn’t care about scoring. I was concentrating on passing, rebounds, setting screens. But I don’t think that’s what makes people happy around here.”

O’Neal’s 26 points led the Magic, but the bulk came in the first half, in which he had 16 points on five-of-11 shooting. He finished 10 of 22 with a season-low nine rebounds.

O’Neal ran into a surprising challenge from Stanley Roberts. The Clipper center had 16 points and six rebounds in only 20 minutes.

“You’ve got to give Stanley Roberts a lot of credit,” Magic Coach Matt Guokas said. “He came ready to play. Shaquille is a difficult matchup for any center in this league. I’ve seen a number of Clipper games this year (on tape), and this is the best I’ve seen Stanley play.”

Said Roberts, who played for Orlando last season before being traded to the Clippers: “This game was important to me, to show the Magic I’m not done yet, to show they should not have traded me.”

Revenge against a former team is one thing. But Roberts had done his best to downplay the personal matchup with O’Neal, saying playing against him was no different than facing Hakeem Olajuwon or Patrick Ewing or David Robinson. Roberts was right. O’Neal was 12 games into his pro career coming into the night and already pushing to be included with the Big Three.

But Roberts, the power forward to O’Neal’s center the one season the two were together at Louisiana State, did much more than talk about his counterpart. He played him to a virtual standstill early, matching block for block and rebound for rebound.

Come halftime, with the Clippers holding a 61-52 lead, O’Neal had only four rebounds and lost his most spectacular play, a slam-dunk putback on Dennis Scott’s miss, to a loose-ball foul. Roberts, two of five from the field, also had four rebounds.

Norman had 16 points in the first quarter, three shy of the Los Angeles Clipper mark for scoring in one period, and 23 by halftime on 11-for-17 shooting. In a season in which he has concentrated on rebounding and his scoring had dropped to 10.7 points, this was a sudden jolt of offense.

The Clippers increased their lead to 83-64, seven minutes into the third quarter, and were ahead, 94-78, heading into the fourth. Norman added six more points in the period.

Clipper Notes

The Magic acquired Steve Kerr from Cleveland for a 1996 second-round pick Thursday and waived Chris Corchiani to clear a roster spot. Kerr, a Palisades High product, was in uniform against the Clippers. . . . The Clippers, moving to secure their starting backcourt for years to come, opened contract talks Thursday with Mark Jackson and his agent, Don Cronson, and hope to start the groundwork with Ron Harper by next week. Jackson, in the final season of a five-year contract that will pay him $1.79 million for 1992-93, will be a restricted free agent July 1. “My only feeling is that I want to be here,” he said. “I hope everything works out because this is a great situation with the Clippers.” Jackson, figuring he has five or six strong years left, said he would like this to be the final contract of his career. . . . Kiki Vandeweghe did not play because of a sprained left ankle, suffered at Thursday’s shootaround. . . . By going 7-6 in November, the Clippers had a winning opening month for the first time since 1977, when they were the Buffalo Braves. . . . Kansas product Danny Manning had his jersey No. 25 retired by the Jayhawks on Tuesday at halftime of the game at Lawrence, Kan., against Georgia.