LAKER NOTES

The NBA fined Shaquille O’Neal $7,500 Wednesday for “for failing to leave the court in a timely fashion and verbally abusing the officials” after Monday’s Game 1 loss.

In the moments after the defeat, O’Neal chased referee Steve Javie, and it took the combined efforts of Coach Kurt Rambis, point guard Derek Fisher and O’Neal bodyguard Jerome Crawford to pull O’Neal away.

O’Neal spent most of his time before Wednesday’s game singing pop songs with a huge smile and declining to comment on the fine, other than yelling out to teammate Glen Rice: “Glen, they fined me $7,500!”

At that point, O’Neal went around the Laker locker room, giving high-fives to the handful of players watching the Philadelphia-Indiana game.

“It doesn’t bother me, doesn’t surprise me, just part of life in the NBA,” Rambis said of the fine.

Early in the season, O’Neal was fined $10,000 for a postgame tirade against the officials after a loss in Seattle.

Following the first-round Game 3 loss in Houston, O’Neal chased after referee Ronnie Nunn for a few seconds.

“Does it bother me? No, it doesn’t bother me,” Rambis said of the O’Neal scream sessions. “Do I want him doing it? No.”

On Monday, Rambis made a quick, 50-foot beeline to get between O’Neal and Javie.

“Thanks,” Rambis said when asked about the speed of his protective move. “Quick? Make sure you put that in bold or italics. . . .

“He was someplace where he shouldn’t have been. We just didn’t want him there. We have to get off the court, I know that.”

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The San Antonio media got plenty of fodder out of the postgame smashing of a TV and VCR in the Laker locker room Monday, presumably by O’Neal, and investigated with Watergate-like intensity.

“Spurs find Shaq lacks tact,” read the banner headline in the San Antonio Express-News on Wednesday, over a story that compared O’Neal to O.J. Simpson and quoted Alamodome officials.

The Lakers said they will pay the $500 bill to replace the equipment, but had no official description of how it happened.

Rambis said he had no problems with the smashing, “As long as it’s not my TV,” he said with a smile.