Shaq’s Game Starting to Come Around Now

His campaign for sixth man of the year will have to stand on the strength of two games, impressive as they were. Shaquille O’Neal is a starter now, returned to his rightful spot Tuesday night in a move that put the intended starting lineup back together for the first time since Nov. 16.

Then the Lakers celebrated the occasion as only they can. They struggled against a lesser opponent--again--finding themselves in a game against the Vancouver Grizzlies early in the fourth quarter. They finally pulled away to a 100-87 victory at General Motors Place as O’Neal finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds.

As Laker showings against like opponents go, this was pretty typical. As O’Neal showings go, it was far beyond basic. Exact is more like it.

He clearly isn’t in top basketball shape, still getting winded and having to come out, and often lacks rhythm on his shot. But this is how it has been all season, not only in the previous two outings that included 48 points and 27 rebounds in 55 minutes off the bench.

He fools around and destroys people.

“I don’t think Shaq is back completely,” said Vancouver Coach Brian Hill, who knows O’Neal’s game as well as anyone, having coached him for three seasons in Orlando. “I think he’s playing a bit cautiously. But Shaq at 50% is as good as most players in the league at 100%.”

Shaq is probably closer to 80-85%, a number that both he and Laker Coach Del Harris agree as accurate. Otherwise, Hill seems to have the right idea.

“His rhythm and timing and conditioning,” Harris said. “He asked to come out a couple times.

“But 85% of Shaquille is still 285 pounds. It’s still pretty good.”

Pretty good in this case was O’Neal playing 36 minutes, his most since Nov. 18, as the time restrictions that had been in place the previous two games were eased considerably. That became a critical factor because he was able to go 10 minutes in the fourth quarter and help the Lakers turn a three-point cushion at the outset to a 12-point lead with 8:07 remaining. The Grizzlies never threatened again, getting only as close as eight the rest of the way.

“Look at his foul shooting tonight,” said Eddie Jones, who contributed 22 points and four steals, after O’Neal went seven of 12 from the line. “His shots--turnarounds, fade-away ‘Js’. It’s falling for him. You can tell he’s getting better.

“He’s not his old self yet. But you can see signs of it. I give him another week. Another week and he’ll be fine.”

Said O’Neal: “I just need to get my wind back up a little bit. A couple more games and I’ll be OK. However, I’m still good enough to get 25 and 10.”

As if he knew his body or something.

Sure enough, O’Neal had 22 and nine Friday against the Atlanta Hawks, some while facing Dikembe Mutombo, the asterisk being that he was limited to 24 minutes. Two nights later, in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, he was good enough to get 26 and 16 in 31 minutes.

That brought him to Tuesday. That brought him back to the starting lineup.

“He’s played two great games,” Harris said. “There’s no reason to hold him back.”

It was either that or start printing the bumper stickers for sixth man of the year.

That Laker campaign now turns back to Kobe Bryant, the league’s top-scoring reserve who had 16 against the Grizzlies, including nine while playing the entire fourth quarter, much at forward in the small lineup. Rick Fox also had 16 points, along with eight rebounds, but his best moment did not show on the stat sheet.

His halftime speech.

With the Lakers down by nine points at 47-38, and no longer concerned about fitting in with his new teammates, Fox offered a pep talk/rip job in the locker room. They responded by taking control early in the third quarter, briefly relinquishing the lead near the end of the period and finding a groove in the fourth. All the players, even the guy just promoted to the starting lineup.