Lakers Are Diesel Powered

Shaquille O’Neal did not come back strong, as he had promised five days earlier.

He came back Charles Atlas. Double espresso.

The bad taste from Sunday’s regular-season finale at Portland, a loss that came partly as a result of O’Neal’s missing a clutch free throw and one that forced this unenviable matchup, was gone by the end of an impressive first quarter Friday night. He dispatched the Trail Blazers next, setting a playoff career high with 46 points and adding 11 rebounds to power the Lakers to a 95-77 victory in Game 1 of the playoffs Friday night before 17,505 at the Forum.

Try finding a better opening to a moment he had been looking forward to for almost a week--and almost a year.

O’Neal, his right palm still taped to protect a once-deep cut that has all but healed, not merely dominating, but also going 12 of 18 from the free-throw line to go with 17 of 27 from the field.

“I was [ticked] off,” he said. “I sit around the house, I’m sort of a dreamer. I say to myself, ‘Shaq at the line, finals, one-point-two seconds left, they fouled him, they don’t think he’s going to make his free throws.’

“I dream about being in that situation.”

For the time being, he has to settle for the first round, but he did get the next best thing.

The Trail Blazers again.

“He told me all night--in warmups, in the locker room--’Get me the ball, Nick, get me the ball,’ ” said Nick Van Exel, the Laker point guard. “And when he’s talking like that, you’d better get him the ball.”

A smart man even on a night like this, when he was hyped for the start of the playoffs to the point that “I didn’t have a clue,” Van Exel, and all the Lakers, did just that.

Van Exel made only four of 12 shots, after going one of seven in the first half, but also had eight assists against only two turnovers, setting the trend. His teammates combined for only six more turnovers, with the total of eight two shy of the team playoff record.

The Lakers also shot 49.3%. Good thing too, because Elden Campbell, with 20 points, was the only other player complementing O’Neal. Van Exel’s 10 made him the third and final Laker to reach double digits.

O’Neal didn’t merely look more excited than usual at the start. It’s because he actually was, shouting his pleasure after a couple of early baskets and doing little to hide the fact that he was “very fired up.”

That was more than getting another crack at the Trail Blazers, it was his carryover from the 1996 playoffs. He admitted he wasn’t in top shape for what turned out to be the end of his four-year run with the Orlando Magic.

“I wasn’t into it,” he said. “I just didn’t feel it.”

The Magic made it to the Eastern Conference finals, losing four in a row to the Chicago Bulls there, but what he viewed as the underlying atmosphere that prompted his decision to leave Orlando had already started to accumulate. Most notable was the public fallout from his brief absence that followed the death of a grandmother.

“I’m glad I was a free agent after that,” O’Neal now says.

So he had no intention of wasting the start to his new beginning. Taking advantage of his superior quickness against Arvydas Sabonis, O’Neal often would get the ball away from the post and work his way toward the basket.

It’s how he got his first points, going into the lane, getting fouled and making two free throws. On the next possession, he began on the left side, spun into the lane against one-on-one defense, and scored. It was the same thing about two minutes later, again resulting in a foul, again resulting in two made free throws.

By halftime, O’Neal was seven of eight from the line and had already scored 21 points, nearly half the Lakers’ total in a 43-40 lead. He got 11 more in the third quarter, when the Lakers built some breathing room with an eight-point lead late. Their lead was 68-62 at the start of the fourth, and it was 91-77 with 1:26 left after an 11-2 spurt blew the game open.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LAKERS-PORTLAND

MARK HEISLER

Off-season moves left Trail Blazers with a talented, if somewhat spirited, bunch. C8

LIKE OLD TIMES

Byron Scott was happy to be back in the playoffs, especially with this team. C8

GAME REPORT

Breakdown of the four quarters and the box score, C8

THE SERIES

* Game 1: Lakers, 95-77

* Game 2: Sun. at Forum, noon

* Game 3: Wed. at Portland, 7:30

* Game 4: Fri. at Portland, TBA*

* Game 5: May 4 at Forum, TBA*

* if necessary