Pistons Are Downsized by O’Neal

Talk about your matchup for the ages, how about Shaquille O’Neal vs. . . . Terry Mills?

Mills, a paunchy Piston forward with a career average of 5.6 rebounds, got the blindfold, the cigarette and the assignment to play O’Neal on Sunday night, perhaps in the hope Shaq would take pity on him or collapse laughing.

Instead, O’Neal scored 22 points with 24 rebounds and four blocked shots as the Lakers ran up a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter and coasted to a 101-93 victory before 18,785 in Staples Center.

“It’s hard,” Piston Coach Alvin Gentry said. “It’s unfair really. We ask Terry Mills to guard Shaq. One time we asked [reserve forward] Jerome Williams to play Shaq. Shaq ate more for lunch than Jerome weighs. . . .

“You spend so much time and energy trying to figure out what you can do about Shaq. He breaks your heart. As a coach, he breaks your heart. . . . You try to block him off, you think you do a good job and he jumps up there and gets it back. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Someone told Laker Coach Phil Jackson what Gentry said Shaq could do to a coach’s heart.

“That’s probably why I’m coaching here now,” Jackson said.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 26 points. Rick Fox, coming off the bench, had a season-highs in points (20) and rebounds (eight).

The Pistons? Let’s just say their balance needs a little work too. Grant Hill had 25 points, Jerry Stackhouse 24. The rest of the team combined for 44.

For the Pistons, it was the start of a West Coast swing. For the Lakers, who played Saturday in Vancouver, it was the second night of a back-to-back.

“This is a game I’d like us to win,” Jackson said before the game. “I’d like us to win back-to-backs, particularly against a team like Detroit.

“It’s a type of team we’re going to have to face--small center, spaced court, penetrators who kick out to shooters. That’s the type of team we’re going to have to find a way to beat. This is a team that represents the kind of game that Toronto brought to us. It’s a challenge for us.”

The challenge lasted until the second period, anyway.

The Pistons came out, determined to let anybody but O’Neal beat them, conceding any outside shot while they stationed defenders in front of and behind Shaq. With Glen Rice home sick, and Ron Harper missing, they got away with it for a while, jumping out to a lead that grew as large as 18-10.

Then the Lakers caught on, and the ball started going into O’Neal. When it didn’t, he just waded through the Pistons’ smurfs and got it off the boards.

“We have a counter-action,” Jackson said. “It’s just a matter of patience and being able to read the defense and understand, sometimes you have to move the ball to one side of the floor before you come back to make an entry pass [to O’Neal].

“This is a process of learning we’re still going through. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Some days, it all works out well and you’ve got all the figures and facts in front of you. And sometimes, teams can put up smoke and mirrors and you have to go through this problem-solving on your own and it takes a little bit of time.”

The score was 25-25 after one quarter but was Lakers 58, Pistons 51 at the half.

Mills, whose forte is long-range shooting, knocked in three long jumpers in a row early in the third quarter, but Jackson brought Robert Horry in, put him on Mills and switched O’Neal to Christian Laettner. Horry silenced Mills after that and the Pistons slid away.

From then on, the Lakers moved further and further ahead until the score was 91-71 with 6:40 left. By then, O’Neal had left the game, for the first time and for good, joining Bryant, who was already done for the night as Jackson sent in his reserves to mop up. The Pistons staged a mini-rally to cut the final margin to eight but Jackson played it cool, with his stars sitting next to him.

An impressed Gentry later complimented his players for competing.

“I mean, if they were voting right now, Shaq’s the MVP of the league,” he said. “. . . Obviously, there is nobody in the universe that can stop Shaq, not even Lomas Brown and Reggie White [NFL linemen].”

He didn’t have to tell Jackson. He already knew.

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