NBA ROUNDUP : No Mere Backboard Breaker, O’Neal Brings Down the Housing

Shattering a backboard is one thing. What Shaquille O’Neal did Sunday in Phoenix on national television is quite another.

During the first quarter of the Orlando Magic’s 121-105 loss to the Suns, the 7-foot-1, 300-pound rookie grabbed a missed shot and threw in a dunk.

As O’Neal hung on the rim, his weight tipped the entire structure forward and raised the back end off the ground.

After he let go, the collapsible underpinning slowly began folding into a storage position. It was a surreal scene, like something out of a science-fiction movie.

At first, the teams milled about for about four minutes, then left the floor, although the Magic returned 10 minutes later for a shoot-around.

NBC eventually left the game, picking up a regionally televised game between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors until the structure was replaced.

The whole delay took about 35 minutes, with NBC cutting away for about 15 minutes.

Jerry Colangelo, the president of the Suns, said the breakdown occurred because O’Neal’s weight broke a piece of the support system. After maintenance crews realized the support would have to be welded, the structure was rolled into a maintenance area and another unit was brought out and set up.

O’Neal might be the king when it comes to destroying backboards, but Charles Barkley, the old master, taught him a few things in Sunday’s game.

O’Neal had 14 points in the first quarter, but later on Barkley coaxed him into four fouls. O’Neal, picking up his fifth foul 40 seconds into the fourth quarter, had to sit down, and the Suns pulled away.

O’Neal finished with 20 points and five rebounds in 29 minutes. He fouled out with 3:16 to play.

Barkley, who had 28 points and 19 rebounds, wasn’t all that impressed by O’Neal.

“It’s going to take some time for him to learn the game of basketball,” Barkley said. “He’s in that process right now. He’ll get better at it with time.”

The Suns’ Richard Dumas, who scored a career-high 31 points, mostly on a variety of dunks, was more in awe. “He’s everything they say he is,” Dumas said.

Boston 87, Golden State 82--The Warriors, playing a slowdown offense during the first half, had their lowest point total in nearly 13 years in losing to the Celtics at Boston.

The Warriors, playing without scoring leader Chris Mullin and using a starting lineup that averaged less than 6 feet 5, brought the game to a virtual standstill during the first half, but it didn’t keep them from losing their 10th consecutive road game.

The player with the ball simply stopped and stood motionless for several seconds on some plays, while the four other players watched from across the court.

“It was a magnified example of what our game is tending to become,” Celtic vice president Dave Gavitt said. “Ten of the best players in the world frozen in place because the coaches in the league have figured out how to circumvent the oudated, gimmicky illegal defensive rules.

“Maybe today’s farce, by its extremism, will force the NBA Competition Committee to act to put motion and team defense back into our game before a trend becomes a sickness,” Gavitt added.

Said Golden State Coach Don Nelson: “I’m not going to play this kind of basketball every night. I don’t like that type of basketball, but I felt the team needed a win so bad and they were looking to the coach to come up with something. I did it, but I’m not very proud of it.”

The overmatched Warriors, who trailed, 43-42, at halftime, went back into a normal offense in the second half but did not do much better, scoring only 40 points.

It was Golden State’s lowest output since losing, 108-82, at Seattle on March 28, 1980.

New Jersey 105, Milwaukee 102--Drazen Petrovic scored a game-high 27 points for the Nets at Milwaukee, although he missed three of six free throws in the final nine seconds.

“I made the game interesting,” Petrovic said with a smile. “I can’t explain it. It’s just one of those things that happens.”

Petrovic is an 87% free-throw shooter.

Seattle 103, Detroit 101--Shawn Kemp had 22 points and 13 rebounds and made a diving save of a loose ball late in the game to help preserve the victory for the SuperSonics at Detroit.

New York 104, Miami 82--Tony Campbell scored a season-high 21 points and Patrick Ewing also had 21 for the Knicks at New York.