O’Neal Says He’ll Adjust for Game 2

A day after the San Antonio defense sent everything but the Alamo at him to stop his power moves, Shaquille O’Neal assumed some responsibility for the Lakers’ Game 1 loss.

“Obviously, I was trying a little bit too hard,” O’Neal said before the Lakers’ practice Tuesday at the Alamodome. “I thought I’d get to the line, but it wasn’t going that way.”

O’Neal was fouled enough to get to the line 14 times, but was whacked just about every time down court by the Spurs’ mix-and-match big man set of David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Will Perdue and Malik Rose.

“I was looking to take it, take it, take it . . . But I wasn’t getting the whistle or anything,” O’Neal said. “I’ll probably just have to bait them [into coming on the double-team] a little more, and kick it out.

“I’m just going to have to play a little bit smarter myself.”

After Game 1, O’Neal spent about a minute chasing after and screaming at official Steve Javie, and had to be pulled away by Coach Kurt Rambis, Derek Fisher and bodyguard Jerome Crawford.

But O’Neal--who said he was going to relax at a water-themed amusement park after practice--was philosophical about the non-calls Tuesday.

“Is there contact when I touch the ball?” O’Neal said. “Yeah, there has to be contact . . . The only way to guard Shaq is to break the rules that the NBA is supposed to enforce, but they never enforce.

“Which is fine. I mean, I’ve been getting played like that [for] seven years. Nobody’s going to break me.”

Rambis said he has no worries that O’Neal, who followed up a wobbly shooting performance in the previous round against Houston with a monster 37-point effort, will be back, larger than ever.

“I know he’s going to play better,” Rambis said. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that . . .

“We’re going to be able to put the players in different scenarios where they’re not going to be . . . able to just lock in as easy. And he’s going to deliver for us.”

Rambis even said that he was pleased with the way O’Neal handled his simmering emotions during the Game 1 pounding, despite the postgame Javie-jibing.

“I thought he did a phenomenal job of not letting it get to him,” Rambis said. “If you look at the entire game and the beating that he took, I thought he did a phenomenal job.”

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Glen Rice, who played 45 minutes in Game 1 after sitting out Game 4 against Houston because of a sore right elbow, said Tuesday he felt no ill effects of the long stint.