Magic’s No Real Mystery to Lakers

Now for the biggest Magic trick of all?

The little cast of nobodies representing Orlando arrived in Staples Center Sunday night, fresh off wins in Minneapolis and Denver, looking for bigger game. But this time, when they whisked their handkerchief away, the elephant was still there and it proceeded to step on them.

The Lakers turned the game into extended garbage time, running up a 22-point lead before halftime and coasting to a 117-100 victory, their sixth in a row.

“We’re such a young team,” Orlando Coach Doc Rivers said, “and they jumped on us so quick. . . .

“I like them a lot. I told Dave [Wohl, assistant coach] sitting on the bench, ‘Man, they’re better than I thought. They’re really good.’

“They’re good because their system is good and they believe in it. I think Shaquille [O’Neal] 100% believes in his coach for the first time in his career.”

O’Neal had his usual dominating game. This one added up to 39 minutes, 27 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots.

Thirty-nine minutes is a lot for a ‘90s player in a rout--no other Laker went more than 30--but Coach Phil Jackson, the designer of the new Laker system, said he “never” thought of resting O’Neal.

“I want to give him 40 minutes a night,” Jackson said. “I him want to be in the type of condition to play 40 minutes a night.

Said O’Neal: “I’m the Donna Summer of the NBA. I work hard for my money.”

The Magic started the night with a surprising 9-8 record, an even more surprising 6-4 road record and a new cast of characters, having traded four starters from last season in an attempt to create cap room for next season.

Of course, that leaves the little matter of this season, which figured to be a long one but has, instead, started quite upbeat.

“It does surprise me,” said Darrell Armstrong, the tyke point guard who leads the Magic in scoring--and is the only remaining holdover from the team O’Neal left three-plus seasons ago.

“With the talent they had down there. I never thought that Shaq would be gone, Penny [Hardaway] would be gone, Nick [Anderson] would be gone, Dennis Scott would be gone. I mean, they were supposed to be the future in the NBA.

“Now when you look at it, I mean, everybody’s gone. I’m the last person from the [’95 Eastern Conference] championship. It’s strange but sometimes change is going to happen in the NBA. You’ve just got to move on. Shaq’s moving on, all the rest of the guys are moving on and the Orlando Magic are moving on.”

The Magic started off well, leading 6-5, until Jackson called a timeout 3:52 into the game to tell his players to stop launching from the perimeter and throw the ball inside to what’s his name, the big guy.

When play resumed, Magic center Michael Doleac made a 20-footer to make the score 8-5. Then the Lakers started getting the ball inside and it was lights out.

For the rest of the first quarter, the Lakers outscored the Magic, 29-13. Derek Fisher scored 14 points in the quarter, and the rout was on. The Magic kept a respectful distance, never coming closer than 14 in the second half.

The crowd did the wave in the third quarter, presumably to wake itself up.

The game turned sloppy as routs do, and Jackson treated it as if it was only slightly better than a loss.

“These games never make me happy,” he said. ‘It’s nice to get the win but I don’t like to see 23 turnovers [22 actually] by a team I coach, regardless of the circumstances.

“You just say, ‘good game’ and come back and work on what you have to work on. I didn’t think Shaq got the ball enough. The jump shots were just too delicious, too irresistible for our players.”

Well, it will look OK in the standings, anyway.

Once again, Kobe Bryant came off the bench. This time he went 26 minutes, scored 15 points and shot 50% from the field (six of 12) for the first time since he came back.

In a coy mood, Jackson refused to say whether or not Kobe would start until he had to, to confuse the Magic.

“I thought that was cute,” Rivers said, laughing. “Unless they were going to activate Magic [Johnson], they can’t hide anybody. What, they weren’t going to put Kobe in?”

Unfortunately for the Magic, who were already overmatched, they were.