Shaq’s Trouble at the Foul Line (and Houston’s Defensive Plan to Keep Sending Him There), and a Difficult Matchup With Charles Barkley Are Reasons for the Lakers to Have Some . . . : SECOND THOUGHTS

Super-size shock absorbers? Emergency retro-fitting, maybe?

J.R. Reid and Robert Horry needed something heavy, strong and impervious to Charles Barkley’s world-famous backward low-post assault of rump and elbows.

Air bags?

Left mostly alone to guard Barkley man to man in the Lakers’ Game 1 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday, the two power forwards had to play Barkley bumper-car style, and there is nobody in the league properly equipped to survive that without some damage.

“You know, what he’s doing is an offensive foul, if you really want to look at it,” Horry said with a crooked smile after Monday’s practice at L.A. Southwest College.

Does he expect the officials to make such a call in the playoffs when Barkley blasts his way to the basket?

“Heck no!” Horry said. “They won’t even call it in the regular season, because he’s Charles Barkley. You just have to keep playing. Hopefully, he’ll be off [in Game 2 tonight].”

In Game 1, the Lakers shied away from double teams, trying to keep the Rockets’ outside shooters covered, so Reid and Horry took turns getting shoved and bumped underneath the basket, as Barkley scored 25 points and took down 10 rebounds.

It wasn’t pretty to watch but Reid and Horry’s battling helped the Lakers stay sound defensively and avoid the confusion and wide-open shots that developed previously when they tried to double-team Barkley.

Coach Kurt Rambis said he has made some adjustments to the post defense for tonight, but Reid and Horry figure they’ll still see a lot of Barkley, without help.

“I don’t mind sacrificing like that for the team,” Reid said. “I mean, that’s what we needed to do. That’s what was going to help our defensive rotations and keep us out of scrambling. . . .

“I think Rob and I, we’re up for it.”

This, remember, is a team that was concerned enough about its power-forward defense to risk the signing of Dennis Rodman, and allowed him to pull about 100 strange stunts before deciding his weirdness wasn’t worth a sure-fire low-post defender.

Reid, meanwhile, was acquired only March 10, along with Glen Rice, and Horry, according to Rambis, is better suited to be a small forward, given his quickness and relative lack of bulk.

But, along with Travis Knight, those are the Laker options against Barkley, unless you count centers Shaquille O’Neal, who got some time against Barkley late in the game, and backup Sean Rooks, who has played Barkley at times.

“We’re going to be all right,” O’Neal said Monday. “We’re not worried. You know, we’ve got Sean. We’ve got a lot of big bodies. We’re just going to have to tire him out--just hack-a-Barkley.”

Said Reid, “What happens with Houston, they’re just such a quality team with three-point shooters, you’ve got to stay up with those three-point guys.

“You can’t leave them, give them open looks, and Barkley’s a great enough player that he can get the ball at the right spots and that’s when you get into trouble--when they starting hitting those threes.”

Houston, of course, is not the only Western team with a low-post presence and shooters spread across the floor.

Should the Lakers defeat Houston, they probably will face San Antonio and the potential most valuable player, power forward Tim Duncan.

If they maneuver past the Spurs, there is Utah, which features a tall, broad-shouldered player named Karl Malone, whom Laker fans and power forwards have come to know fairly well the last two playoffs.

Barkley, purposely or not, rubbed some salt in the Lakers’ wounds by saying that they had traded away one of the most effective defenders he faced, Elden Campbell, whose long arms and heavy body gave him trouble.

“The power forward position is a tough one,” Reid said. “Every night you’ve got your hands full. Every night is going to be somebody’s former All-American or all-pro, all-star, whatever. . . .

“That’s playoff basketball. I mean, you run things until teams find an answer for it. And they got a lot of success with Barkley last night. But our game plan was to do that, and in the long run it worked for us.”

Said Horry, “You know you’re going to hear the commentators talk about you so bad if he scores. . . . You know you’ve got this guy who’s going to get 60% of the plays or 50% of the plays. It makes you get focused.”

It might be easier for Reid and Horry, perhaps, if Barkley had to concentrate on playing defense a time or two, something that did not happen much Sunday.

Reid and Horry made only two of six shots, combining for five points, and barely touched the ball.

“That’s a thing you like to do with Barkley, put him in pick-and-rolls and make him play some defense and burn a little energy,” Reid said. “He had a lot of rest time down there on our end. That’s one of the adjustments we might make in the next game.”

Rambis says that there is no game plan that can completely control Barkley.

What you have to do is basically plan around him, Rambis said, and not open your defense so much that other Rockets start scoring from the open areas.

“He’s a freak,” Rambis said. “I mean, he’s a 6-6 guy that’s just basically unstoppable inside. It doesn’t really matter who you put on him, he’ll find a way to score.

“A few may be able to do it one game, but over a series, he’s going to find a way to beat anybody you put on him.”

And if Barkley mocks the twiggier Laker forwards after knocking them around on the post?

“He does that all the time,” Horry said. “Any time he can back somebody down, he laughs. He can laugh all day--as long as we keep winning.”

NBA PLAYOFFS

GAME 2

LAKERS vs. HOUSTON

WHEN: Tonight

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

TV: Fox Sports West, TNT

RADIO: KLAC (570)

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COVERAGE

RANDY HARVEY: All it took was one big victory over the Rockets for the Lakers to appear to have that elusive chemistry everyone has been talking about so much. Page 2

HE’LL BE BACK: Shaquille O’Neal, asked whether he planned to exercise a clause that would make him a free agent this summer, gave his most specific answer yet. Page 8

ROCKET BOOSTER: Houston Coach Rudy Tomjanovich knows his team played well for most of Game 1, except for the final minutes, when turnovers cost the Rockets a victory. Page 8

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ELSEWHERE

Sacramento 101

Utah 90

Chris Webber scored 20 points and Vlade Divac 18 as the Kings upset the Jazz and evened the series.

Miami 83

New York 73

Alonzo Mourning scored 26 points and Miami rediscovered its shooting touch and evened the series at 1-1.

Atlanta 89

Detroit 69

The Hawks grabbed a commanding lead over the Pistons with their second consecutive 20-point victory.

Portland 110

Phoenix 99

Brian Grant and Damon Stoudamire each had 22 points as the Trail Blazers took a 2-0 lead in the series.

COVERAGE, PAGE 8