Shaq Says Scoring Title Not Important

It is not his intent to reel in Michael Jordan.

“I already have a scoring title under my belt,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “It’s not important.”

But as long as he happened to be in the neighborhood, laying waste to defenses in the name of the greater good, team victories, O’Neal has cut into Jordan’s lead for the top spot in scoring by about a point since the All-Star break. Averaging 30 points over the last 16 games, including 32.5 in the last six outings, will do that.

O’Neal, who won the crown in 1994-95 while with the Orlando Magic, has jumped from 26.8 to 27.8 with the 16-game run. Jordan is at 28.6, with seven games left, in the quest for his 10th such title.

“If I get it, I get it,” O’Neal said. “If I don’t, I don’t. I’ll always be honored to have my name next to MJ’s.”

Coach Del Harris agreed.

“We’re not going to manufacture that,” Harris said. “For me, [emphasizing] it is not important. If it happens, it happens. If we’re doing it right, we’re not going out there to look for individual stuff now. That’s self-defeating.”

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Sunday’s child isn’t such a trouble maker anymore.

Whereas the inability for the Lakers to win their made-for-TV matinees had once become an issue after consecutive losses to the New York Knicks, Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets--”I don’t want to be Sunday’s chumps any more,” Harris said a month ago--the Lakers now have four such wins in a row. Only two came before a national audience (another was an afternoon outing at Sacramento, the other at Vancouver for Canadian television), but the point is well taken.

“Hopefully,” Harris said of the hex, “we can put that to rest.”

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The next two for Seattle: Thursday at Dallas, Friday at San Antonio.

The next two for Utah: tonight at Golden State, Wednesday versus San Antonio.