Lakers Retain Their Magic Touch, 97-91 : Pro basketball: L.A. improves to 3-1 against Orlando as Threatt scores 30 points. O’Neal has 29 points.

The Lakers leaned into the wind of a Shaq Attack again Sunday night and lived to tell, going far beyond survival in the process.

This is nothing new, of course, only the latest installment. Shaquille O’Neal gets his big night and the Lakers get the victory, this time by 97-91 before 17,505 at the Forum to improve to 3-1 against his Orlando Magic.

O’Neal scored 29 points, making 12 of 19 shots and five of 10 free throws to go with 16 rebounds. He averages 29 points and 15.6 rebounds and shoots 69% against the Lakers, but has little to show for it in the standings.

“Every team that plays the Orlando Magic plays way above their head,” O’Neal said. “They were pumped up.”

O’Neal and the sellout crowd he pulled in, the first at the Forum since opening night, were the obvious factors. Then the Lakers took it from there, getting a game-high 30 points from Sedale Threatt, 20 points and 13 rebounds from Elden Campbell and 19 points and 10 rebounds from Nick Van Exel.

O’Neal had nine points and five rebounds in the fourth quarter, only to be undercut by Threatt, a 6-foot-2 guard. His three-point play gave the Lakers a 10-point lead with 4:25 remaining and his baseline jumper while falling over the end line with 2:55 left opened an eight-point cushion.

Ultimately, however, it came down to one shot.

The Magic had closed within 91-89 at that stage, prompting the Lakers to call a timeout with 51 seconds left. Standing in front of the Laker bench, George Lynch threw the ball in to Threatt along the baseline. Anfernee Hardaway, Orlando’s 6-7 guard, stood between Threatt and the basket.

“He gave me a step,” Threatt said. “I guess he thought I was going to drive. That’s my game. I’ll take that shot any time.”

Including this one, launching the 16-footer over Hardaway’s outstretched arm. When it went in with 48 seconds to go, the Lakers had a 93-89 lead and what turned out to be the winning points.

“That was a read by Sedale,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “He had a couple of options. But we put the ball in Sedale’s hands and know there was a chance something good was going to happen.”

The Lakers readied for the arrival of O’Neal and his 31.1 points, 15.4 rebounds and 57.1% shooting in the 17 games after the All-Star break with the usual Shaq Rules. Keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible--that worked in the fourth quarter to key a December victory in Orlando--and don’t let him get position an arm’s length from the basket. And, if all else fails, foul rather than concede layups, because free throws are a glaring weak spot in the arsenal.

“Hopefully, you don’t get him mad,” Pfund said.

Or hope you win in spite of it--O’Neal averaged 29 points and 15.7 rebounds and shot 71.1% in his first three games against the Lakers. The time, he had six rebounds and 12 points, going six of 11 from the field and missing both attempts from the line in the first half, but Orlando trailed at intermission.

That pace never changed. O’Neal played on, but the Lakers played through.

Laker Notes

It still appears Shaquille O’Neal will fill one of the final two spots on the Dream Team II roster for this summer’s world championships, even though no agreement has been reached among sponsors. NBA officials met last week with representatives from Pepsi, which has an exclusive soft drink contract for O’Neal’s services, in an attempt to resolve the deadlock created because Coca-Cola is one of the sponsors for the world championships and one of the clauses in the Pepsi deal is that he can not appear in Coke ads. An announcement by USA Basketball on the final two spots--with Danny Manning and Jeff Hornacek also possibilities--is expected a week from today. . . . James Edwards rejoined the Lakers after skipping the last five games to be with his sick mother in Seattle. . . . With 11 assists Wednesday against Washington and 10 on Friday against New Jersey, Nick Van Exel became the first Laker to reach double figures in that category in a year.