Lakers Get a Lesson in Life With No Shaq

Superman showed up Saturday, but stayed in civilian clothes (a modest description, admittedly, of his electric-blue ensemble) and performed zero superheroic acts.

So this is how the other 97% lives.

Shaquille O’Neal, resting his sprained left ankle, watched quietly while his teammates crashed and thrashed against the San Antonio Twin Tower-tandem of Tim Duncan and David Robinson.

O’Neal, the prohibitive favorite to win the MVP and still listed as day-to-day, couldn’t slam-dance to the basket or reject a few key shot tries or even reverse the course of time.

Instead, he saw Duncan and Robinson throttle the Lakers, 98-80, before 18,997 at Staples Center, ending the Lakers’ 11-game winning streak and holding them to their lowest point total this season.

You could measure the Lack of Shaq in just about every second of action, every statistical nugget (the Lakers shot a season-low 31.6% from the field), and every sigh and shoulder sag of a Laker in uniform.

“You know, Shaq is more than just an offensive and defensive anchor,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “He also [provides] a lot of emotion for us, and a lot of adrenaline.

“We even missed him out in our huddle when we first started the game. We’re so used to having him start our huddle. It’s just strange--the game seemed like it was going slow motion.”

About an hour before the game, the Lakers announced that O’Neal would not play, and, with the NBA’s best record clinched, Coach Phil Jackson suggested that they might go ahead and hold O’Neal out for Monday’s game against Seattle too.

John Salley started in O’Neal’s place, Travis Knight played most of the minutes, and neither was expected to or possibly could outfight Duncan and Robinson, who, after all, won a championship last season.

Duncan scored 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked four shots; Robinson, in only 25 minutes, scored 15 and grabbed eight rebounds. Together, they contested nearly every Laker shot.

All of the Laker relative big men put together--Salley, Knight, Robert Horry and A.C. Green--combined to score 13 points, more than 16 below O’Neal’s league-leading average.

That left the Laker offense totally up to Glen Rice (17 points) and Kobe Bryant (26 points on 12-for-30 shooting), and without O’Neal as the ultimate option and defensive concern, there were few avenues for high-percentage scores.

“There’s going to be situations in the playoffs [when] Shaq’s going to have foul trouble or whatever and we’re going to have to execute without him,” Knight said.

“And that’s something we’re going to have to work on, because you never know what situation’s going to come up in the playoffs, so we have to be ready.”

Said Fox: “We’ve been on his back all year, and that’s the reason why he’s MVP. We faced the world champions tonight. And they played like the world champions. And we played like a team without Shaq.”

Jackson on Friday said he badly wanted to beat the Spurs, especially because their previous meeting was a 24-point Spur blowout in San Antonio.

But once O’Neal was ruled out, the journey to San Antonio’s seventh victory in the last eight meetings against the Lakers was inevitable.

“It’s a battle that’s not going to be the end of the war, for sure,” Jackson said. “We’ve had one skirmish here and there’ll still be plenty more before this is over.”

The Lakers close the regular season April 19 at San Antonio and could have a second-round matchup with the Spurs in the playoffs.

“It’s always a concern when you lose to a team that you’re going to have to face if you go anywhere--and a team that’s coming fresh off a championship, feeling like they’re going to get their rhythm down the stretch,” Fox said.

“But I like our chances with Shaquille.”

LONGEST WINNING STREAKS THIS SEASON

19 Feb. 4-March 13

16 Dec. 11-Jan. 12

11 March 17-April 8

7 Nov. 24-Dec. 7

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Fans overwhelm Staples Center box office, force Laker playoff ticket sales to be postponed for a week.

Page 13

MARK HEISLER

Orlando has done a great job this season with a bunch of no-names. How good could the Magic be if it gets Tim Duncan and Grant Hill?

Page 13