“Nothing Personal. Just Business.”

To the suggestion that Shaquille O’Neal will be facing his former teammates tonight for the first time comes a correction, in the form of the medical updates.

Penny Hardaway was activated from the injured list Thursday but is questionable.

Nick Anderson is questionable.

Dennis Scott remains on the injured list.

This isn’t O’Neal’s former team, not with a starting lineup of Gerald Wilkins, Brian Shaw, Rony Seikaly, Horace Grant and Derek Strong or Amal McCaskill. Not at 87.9 points a game, and 57 on Wednesday against Cleveland, after averaging 107 the last three seasons. The Artists Formerly Known as the Orlando Magic are at the Forum, and so is O’Neal, with the Lakers, but this is no collision course of emotions.

Or so O’Neal says.

Others, like most anyone who knows the depth of his negative feelings for some in the front office, his past frustrations with Anderson and Coach Brian Hill, say differently.

“You know he wants to do well,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “And they’ll want to do well against him.

“Hey, he’s human, and he’s a young human. It’s only natural. But it’s also professional of him to downplay it.”

Which is exactly what O’Neal has been doing all week.

“Just another game, that’s all,” is how he described it. “Just another game.”

So, outwardly at least, he will leave it to the Magic to turn it into something else.

“I’d rather not motivate anybody,” O’Neal said.

Maybe they will be motivated anyway?

“Probably.”

Except that half of the 14 players on the active roster and injured list--now home to close friend Scott and first-round pick Brian Evans after Hardaway’s return from torn cartilage in the left knee--weren’t even with the Magic last season, the last of four O’Neal spent there. Three of the five starters, whether Hill goes with former Laker Strong or second-round choice McCaskill, have no past ties.

It’s just that the ones that remain may still bind.

O’Neal once had harsh words for Anderson, and Anderson returned fire. O’Neal figured he would say hello tonight, but that’s it. Businesslike, because that’s what O’Neal says it was all along anyway.

The Magic organization, that’s another matter.

“Management? Who cares,” O’Neal said. “As long as Jerry West likes me, that’s fine.”

The Magic players and coaches? O’Neal has his friendship with Scott and a cordial relationship with Hardaway, despite constant rumors last season of tension. And he doesn’t like or respect Hill.

“I want to see this team do well,” O’Neal said of the Lakers, who lured him with the seven-year, $120-million contract. “But being a competitive player, I want to see everyone else do bad. . . . Nothing personal. Just business.

“I’m not really getting caught up in whatever, whatever,” he said. “I’m just going to have to come out and play.”

The task will be much easier in that O’Neal won’t have to wear a flak jacket this time. Not so for the next meeting with the Magic, March 23 in Orlando, his first visit there as a Laker. He’s already imagining looking into the stands, remembering the good times, seeing some familiar faces--spotting that ice cube coming at him before it’s too late. Wondering why no teammate will run next to him coming out of the tunnel. Getting booed lustily is a foregone conclusion.

So tonight, he would like Laker fans to do the same for him, just in case they’re taking requests. He would like the Magic to get booed.

But maybe not too much. It’s just another game, right?

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tale of the Tape

A look at how the Lakers and Orlando Magic match up heading into tonight’s game: Scoring Lakers 96.1 Magic 87.9 Opponent Scoring Lakers 94.91 Magic 89.2 FG Perc. Lakers .462 Magic .413 FT Perc. Lakers .645 Magic .718 Opp. FG Perc. Lakers .444 Magic .442 Opp. FT Perc. Lakers .732 Magic .750 Rebounds Lakers 41.4 Magic 43.4 Assists Lakers 23.0 Magic 20.3 Blocked Shots Lakers 6.05 Magic 4.92 Turnovers Lakers 17 Magic 18.1 Record Lakers 13-7 Magic 8-6