At Full Steam, Shaq Blazes His Own Trail

With around 7 1/2 minutes remaining in Friday night’s opening game of the NBA playoffs, a runaway diesel took off at the Forum. Shaquille O’Neal, looking like a gigantic Magic Johnson, broke loose down the court, and Nick Van Exel threw the basketball to him, reversing their usual roles.

Shaq dunked, registering 6.6 on the scales at Caltech. And about all the Portland Trail Blazers could do at that point was call a timeout, because nothing else was going to slow this big locomotive down.

There are few sights in basketball like a motivated O’Neal. Playing against Portland, a team that keeps the Lakers’ littler men from scoring, Shaq scored nearly half of L.A.’s points in a 95-77 victory, a playoff personal-best 46.

Injured? Not any more, he’s not.

Giving an effort that was everything you would ever want from a $120-million basketball player, O’Neal overpowered a team that starts a center larger than he is, Arvydas Sabonis.

From the first minute, the Lakers lobbed him the ball, cleared out of his way and let O’Neal operate. Shaq got hacked the first time he touched the ball, sank both free throws and set the tone for the evening.

All week long, the big man kept saying that Portland’s 3-1 edge over the Lakers during the regular season would not be a factor, psychologically. He even promised to “light it up” at one point, and, sure enough, right from the beginning he looked determined to score half a hundred.

Second time the Lakers came downcourt, Shaq spun and scored.

Third time they came downcourt, Shaq stepped a little farther from the basket . . . and air-balled one over the hoop, landing somewhere between a Nikon camera and a Laker Girl.

Didn’t matter.

He was going to carry this team on his broad shoulders this night, one way or another. There is something about the way Portland’s Kenny Anderson and Isaiah Rider play defense that seems to negate the offensive output of their Laker backcourt counterparts, Van Exel and Eddie Jones, so it becomes incumbent upon Shaq and Elden Campbell to give a little extra.

Both did, Campbell contributing 20 points.

Laker coaches ordinarily wouldn’t care for two players accounting for 66 of the team’s 95 points, but different strategy works against different teams. If the Trail Blazers aren’t going to permit Van Exel and Jones to donate to the Laker offense, so be it. Shaq will raise his arm and ask for the ball.

He scored all of his points in only 35 minutes, Del Harris getting to rest the big guy whenever possible. Portland tried to give Sabonis plenty of help, putting Chris Dudley on him at times, and Dudley responded very well, matching O’Neal’s 11 rebounds.

But nobody could keep O’Neal from scoring, and together Sabonis and Dudley committed nine fouls, trying. That put Shaq at the free-throw line, which isn’t a bad place to put him, normally. Unfortunately for the Trail Blazers, a different O’Neal from the one who blew two big free throws last Sunday in Portland materialized for this game. This time, Shaq did light things up.

“He played a great game,” Dudley said of O’Neal. “They went to him often. He was throwing everything up and everything was going in.”

It was vital that O’Neal score this way, because Jones hasn’t been in double figures in either of the last two Portland games, and it took the Lakers well into the fourth quarter before they could make a three-point shot Friday. Furthermore, with starting forward Robert Horry going scoreless in 24 minutes, somebody has to do the scoring. Guess it better be Shaq.

After the runaway-diesel dunk, the game belonged to the Lakers. Sabonis air-balled a hook, with O’Neal draped all over him. Shaq made a hard bank shot. Shaq then accepted an alley-oop pass from Van Exel with 4:40 left and slammed it home. At that point, O’Neal had 39 of the 80 Laker points.

Even a loose ball came directly his way, and Shaq passed it to Campbell for a dunk.

With 3:13 to play, O’Neal was fouled again, aimed two free throws . . . and swished both of them. That’s the kind of night it was for him. It was the kind of night the Lakers dreamed about, the day they signed him.