O'Neal Aching to Do Well in Playoffs Despite a Multitude of Injuries

By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

April 22, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PALM DESERT —

The interview was conducted in a trainer’s room. It was by coincidence, but also appropriate.

“Yeah,” Shaquille O’Neal says, “I know.”

No one has to remind him how the season has gone. How some got to experience it and he got to feel it.

How the strained abdominal muscle knocked him out the first day of training camp--at the same College of the Desert gym the Lakers are now using to prepare for their first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers--and then stayed with him the rest of the way.

How the sore left knee ached and the ingrown nail on the left big toe made it painful to run and jump.

How he finished the regular season with injuries to each thumb in unrelated incidents, using an ice pack on the right one at a practice and the next night taping the left one for a game, acknowledging that both hurt.

How his coach, Del Harris, briefly searched for an answer and finally had to settle on, “I can’t even remember, hardly, when he was healthy, to tell you the truth.”

Everything is broken but his spirit. A strain and a jam and a bad nail and a bruise, and a fractured season.

“I never really think about it like that,” O’Neal says. “Things happen.

“To me, an injury is just a blessing in disguise. Rest, miss 20 games. And I’m playing very, very well now. We’re still up there in the conference. The regular season counts, but the playoffs really, really count. So as long as I’m strong during the playoffs, then we have a shot at what we’re trying to accomplish.”

He has been Charles Atlas the last 10 games, if that counts, averaging 33.8 points and 10.6 rebounds and shooting 61.8%. But playoff strong is another thing, having to face the same opponents several times in a row as they make adjustments, which in the case of O’Neal can mean altering the way they hang on him.

That the postseason brings a different style of play doesn’t help, either. The sometimes-dramatic lean to a half-court game, as teams downshift from fastbreaks in deference to the importance of each possession, probably increases the frequency of the poundings. Maybe it will be of some assistance, at least in this regard, that his Trail Blazer counterpart, Arvydas Sabonis, is comfortable shooting three-pointers, though that also means O’Neal’s rebounding numbers may decrease.

“I’m ready,” he says. “Gotta be ready. If not, we’re going home early. And I don’t want to go home early.”

In the last week or so, O’Neal has had massage and acupuncture, mostly for the knee, and that’s in addition to the normal routine with Jim Cotta, the Lakers’ strength and conditioning coach, designed to concentrate on building the stomach muscles. Cotta keeps score to make sure O’Neal stays interested--a point for Shaq if he catches the medicine ball while doing a sit-up, sometimes while twisting to one side, and one for Cotta if he doesn’t--and everyone notices the improvement.

It is the abdominal strain, after all, that has been the biggest concern all along, so tenuous is the injury. Even now, after countless hours of extra work, after physical therapist Alex McKechnie has made several trips from his home in Vancouver, Canada, to give individual attention, after Harris has noted that “What he’s giving us now is fantastic,” O’Neal says he’s still only at about 80% strength there. He has known for months it can’t completely heal until the off-season allows the necessary rest.

In the meantime, there’s always the O’Neal version of getting by.

“If he plays like he has been the last six weeks, that’s fine with me,” Harris says.

Said reserve center Sean Rooks, who regularly plays against O’Neal in scrimmages: “Shaq is so big that you can’t really tell when he’s favoring something or not. Healthy or not, he can still back you down and shoot a hook or a turn-around J over you. But just from watching him play, you can tell he’s more confident.”

O’Neal is reminded of the injury “every now and then, like when I make my Black Tornado [spin] move,” but that’s nothing compared to early in the rehab process when he strained to lift his legs while on his back. The toe, meanwhile, hasn’t bothered him for about two weeks, so he has been able to ditch the padding and the third pair of socks he had been wearing on the left foot. The left knee, also good.

The thumbs? Not so good.

O’Neal hurt the left one March 31 at Toronto and jammed the right one last Thursday in a collision with Robert Horry at practice, and neither has much chance of being pain-free considering the way his hands and arms are routinely Hack-a-Shaq’d inside to stop dunks. John Stockton, in particular, reminded him of as much in the most recent game, Sunday against the Jazz.

“I’ll be all right,” O’Neal says.

Even though he knows some defenders may target the thumbs when they hack.

“If they do that,” he says, “I’ll just have to do this.”

O’Neal raises the tree-trunk arms and sticks out the elbows.

“If they want to chop at the hand, I’ll flare up,” he replies. “If some of their facial structures get in the way. . . .”

He shrugs.

Having put the opposition on notice, O’Neal returns to the business at hand, so to speak. The playoffs are upon him again, complete with the chance for redemption after underachieving in the ’97 conference semifinals against the Jazz.

“Has it been a tough year?” he says. “I don’t even think about it like that. I’m just glad I did get the opportunity to come back and play those 60 games I did play. I showed what I can do in those 60 games, especially in the last couple weeks. Instead of having the 80,000 miles in my car, I’ve got 60,000 miles. That means I’ve got 20,000 more miles to go.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WHAT AILS SHAQ

STRAINED ABDOMINAL MUSCLE

Knocked him out the first day of training camp, sidelined him for start of season. Condition still requires treatment.

SORE LEFT KNEE, INGROWN TOENAIL ON LEFT BIG TOE

Made it painful to run and jump, but not as bad the last two weeks.

THE THUMBS

Hurt the left one on March 31 and the right one Thursday in a collision at practice. Susceptible to playoff pounding by opponents.

NBA PLAYOFFS

LAKERS vs. TRAIL BLAZERS

(Best of five)

* Friday: at Lakers, 7:30