Harris Left O’Neal in to Make Point

While many members of the New Jersey Nets were still somewhere between seething and planning to remember the events of Thursday night next season, Laker Coach Del Harris defended his decision to keep his starters in with a 17-point lead and two minutes remaining.

Harris admitted what had been obvious, that the Lakers were going out of their way to get Shaquille O’Neal to the 50-point plateau for the second time in his career. But he added that there was no attempt to run up the score in what his players considered a payback game after the Nets had made some derogatory comments in January, and that there was no need to explain his actions to New Jersey Coach John Calipari.

“There is a situation [when that might be done],” Harris said Friday. “But not that one. They [the Nets] were making a legitimate run at us as the game ended.

“He [Calipari] came by. He and I are friends. . . . He said, ‘Hey, at the three-minute mark, I thought we still had a chance.’ I said, ‘So did I.’ ”

What the Lakers insisted was the lone extraordinary concession for O’Neal to become the eighth player in franchise history to score at least 50 points was him shooting the technical-foul free throw with 2:21 remaining. And O’Neal began the game with a 51.4% success rate. But to O’Neal, that moment was worth far more than the 49th point it became, leaving one more make from the line with 1:20 left to get 50 and tie him with Washington’s Tracy Murray for the NBA high this season.

“He had confidence in me,” O’Neal said of Harris. “I just went up there and did what he asked me to. Knocked it down.”

Harris concurred: “That was part of it. I really felt he was going to make it.”