Shaq, His Latest Return

Gut-check time for the Lakers comes in the 31st game of the season, five weeks before the All-Star break, nearly four months before the playoffs. And two days before the next real test, another lottery team.

They have been through this before, of course, welcoming back their centerpiece after an absence because of injury, and even twice before this season after shorter stints on the sideline because of Shaquille O’Neal’s lingering problem:

His gut.

O’Neal’s strained abdominal muscle has cost him two different parts of the preseason and 21 of the games that count, including the last 20, with one more lost to suspension. The Lakers have carried on in that time as they did last season when O’Neal sat out 28 games because of a knee problem, rising to meet the challenge against the elite and feet-up reclining against the downtrodden, which is the way things tend to go even when he is in uniform.

The area in the lower stomach, around the waist, has proved as delicate and problematic as feared when the injury struck on the first day of training camp. Now, finally, comes the latest attempt to put the issue in the past, the return tonight against the Atlanta Hawks at the Forum in what will be the first game action for O’Neal since Nov. 19. The Philadelphia 76ers come in on Sunday. O’Neal will be limited to 20 minutes.

The doctor-imposed time restrictions will be in place for at least a couple of games and maybe longer, depending on how the abdominal muscle reacts to the increased activity; the last time, the limits were dropped ahead of schedule as O’Neal insisted he felt fine. That was about five games before the injury returned to the extent that he had to miss the next six weeks.

And this time?

“I can go out and average 25-10 [points and rebounds] right now,” he said.

Even on tonight’s counterpart, Dikembe Mutombo, one of the game’s best defensive centers and one of its best rebounders?

“On whoever.”

The Lakers have the second-best record in the league despite playing without their cornerstone for 73% of the season. Of course, they’re also 8-0 with him and averaging about 11 more points per game, allowing one fewer and shooting much better.

That’s the most notable carryover from last season, when they succeeded not only while missing O’Neal for much of the second half, battling for the Pacific Division title until the final seconds of the final game, but also without Robert Horry. The difference is much more of a contrast: The return last season came five games before the playoffs started.

“We’ve gone through it then and this year a little bit,” Coach Del Harris said. “It should help us some.”

O’Neal should help even more.

“He’s a hungry individual right now,” forward Rick Fox said. “He’s going to want to come out and get his rhythm going. He has even said in practice, ‘Give me the ball, give me the ball.’ ”

Starting tonight, it won’t only be in practice. How long this new status lasts--another eight games, the rest of the season--remains to be seen. The answer will have to come from a gut feeling.