Shaq Says Keep It Simple

A few days earlier, sitting in the same spot, Shaquille O’Neal urged his teammates to forget about complicated offensive adjustments and newly installed screen patterns and just let him carry the load.

On Friday, in the wake of the previous night’s runaway victory over Portland and his 38-point outing, O’Neal relaxed at his locker and said he thought a new sense of Laker urgency--and simplicity--had taken hold.

“What we did last night that I think we haven’t done in a long time is I think the guys fed off of me,” O’Neal said after Friday’s practice at the Great Western Forum.

“After the Houston game [on Monday], I was kind of upset. They were just picking us apart [from the Rockets’ low-post offense]. My question was, ‘Why can’t we do that? They’re going to have to double me too.’

“I said, ‘Let’s just go back to what we were doing.’ ”

In the Lakers’ two long meetings Tuesday, the day after the Houston defeat, O’Neal said he spoke out about one particular issue: Instead of running an offense to set other players free, just let him get the ball first to either attack his man or kick it out if he is trapped.

“All I said is we just need to keep it simple,” O’Neal said. “You have to use what you’ve got to get what you want.

“An example is Utah, they use [John] Stockton and [Karl] Malone, bam-bam-bam, ‘Oh, you’re doubling Malone? I’ll kick it out to Bryon Russell for the three.’ Or to that No. 52, Todd Fuller, cutting to the basket.

“Those guys don’t get no plays. None. No plays. All the plays are for Stockton and Malone, and they just feed off of that. That’s all we have to do.

“That was my point. And a lot of guys said that. . . . We don’t need 500 plays.”

With the arrival of Glen Rice in a trade with Charlotte on March 10, Coach Kurt Rambis altered the Laker offense at Rice’s request, trying to fashion screens to create more movement and space for Rice, who did not feel comfortable standing around waiting for O’Neal to dump it out of double-coverage.

But with Rice shooting at a 42.2% clip, the Laker offense bogged down, became turnover-prone, the meetings took place and the offense was adjusted.

“I can’t run 30 plays for Glen Rice,” Rambis said Friday. “And he has to understand that. He can get his shots.”

Against Portland, O’Neal was the focus, there were few screens set for Rice (he shot only eight times, his lowest shot total as a Laker), and the Lakers beat Portland by 19.

Robert Horry, an accomplished spot-up shooter when he was with Houston, made six three-pointers Thursday, stepping into open spaces after the O’Neal double-teams.

“When I was in Orlando, that was our offense,” O’Neal said. “I was the first option. And then I either got tired or there was another mismatch that was definite that we could go with.

“We’ve got to do that. Mostly, the mismatches will be against me. But when Kurt sees a small guard on Kobe [Bryant], we have to recognize that as a team, and then if Kobe gets doubled, he’ll see a guy with bad knees on Glen, we can run his butt off screens.

“You know, we’ve got three deadly options here, and we should use those options to the fullest extent.”