Shaq--Wilt Too?--Is Not Impressed

So maybe George Karl looks manly after all, Shaq?

Critical of Shaquille O’Neal’s style before the start of the Western Conference semifinals, the SuperSonic coach was, in the end, overwhelming in his support of O’Neal.

“We were talking in the coaches’ room and we brought up Wilt, and [Seattle assistant] Bobby Weiss played with Wilt,” Karl said. “He said it’s not even close. This guy’s more dominating and better than Wilt Chamberlain.”

So instead of O’Neal, Karl may be in trouble with Chamberlain.

“He was great,” SuperSonic guard Gary Payton said of O’Neal. “I mean, when you’ve got a center like that, you take him off this [Laker] team and, probably, we win easily. But he’s there.”

And he’s unimpressed by a nine-game playoff run that has reached 29.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.33 blocks per contest and 64.1% shooting.

“I played against Portland, I played against Seattle, but I see myself having three good games,” O’Neal said. “Three solid games.”

Two, actually, when he tried to get specific: the 39 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five blocks in Game 4 against the SuperSonics and the 31 points, nine rebounds and eight blocks two nights later in the Western Conference semifinal clincher. Otherwise, a stretch that appears as nothing less than dominating has been underwhelming to O’Neal himself.

“Great,” Laker teammate Rick Fox said, sounding pleased at the news. “If he’s still looking for another level, I’m loving it.”

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Picking through the wreckage that is the SuperSonics:

* Eddie Jones averaged 22 points and 4.6 rebounds and shot 54.4% overall and 59.1% from three-point range.

* Robert Horry finished at 12.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 62.2%.

* O’Neal had 30.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and shot 63%. The real bonus for the Lakers was that he also contributed four assists a game, third most on the team behind only the two point guards, Nick Van Exel and Derek Fisher, and Fox.

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Kobe Bryant, after getting one more day off and two more days of practice, indicated the effects of flu that sidelined him for two games and all but three minutes of another against Seattle are gone.

“The wind’s good, the stamina’s good,” he said. “I feel fine.”