Robinson, O'Neal Battle to Bitter End

By TIM KAWAKAMI

April 20, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN ANTONIO —

Meaningless?

Not for Shaquille O’Neal, who swatted one David Robinson shot halfway across the Rio Grande and spent most of the evening getting his right arm nearly tugged out of its socket by San Antonio Spur big men.

Inconsequential?

Not for Robinson, who was whacked in the stomach by an O’Neal elbow in overtime and collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain as his coach, Gregg Popovich, screamed for justice.

In a game that was supposed to be all about playing out the string and resting major players, the Lakers Wednesday instead closed the regular season by losing a big fourth-quarter lead and eventually an overtime melodrama to the Spurs, 103-98, before 29,447 at the Alamodome.

The stars, of course, were O’Neal and Robinson, whose off-and-on rivalry apparently is not ready to simmer down just yet.

“That’s what happens when you hold onto Shaq a little too long,” forward Rick Fox said of the incident with 1:39 left in overtime, when O’Neal turned his elbow into Robinson’s gut after a hard Robinson foul, drawing a technical.

“He’s had a personal grudge with some of the guys on their team for a while, and we got swept last year [by San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs].

“He’s not the only one who wants to see them again.”

The fact that the Spurs were without Tim Duncan (cartilage tear in his knee), and that several Spurs and Lakers played light minutes, including O’Neal and Robinson, hardly mattered when it was over.

Meanwhile, the Laker bench blew a 17-point lead, rookie Devean George made a three-pointer with 29 seconds left to force overtime, and San Antonio mauled the Lakers from there, with its bench outscoring the Laker bench in the game, 55-27.

The Spurs’ victory earned them home-court advantage over the Phoenix Suns in their first-round meeting.

The Lakers, who lost their last two regular-season games but still finished 67-15, the second-best record in franchise history, open against Sacramento at Staples Center on Sunday.

But, after Wednesday’s festivities--and the defending champion Spurs’ third victory in four meetings with the Lakers this season (and eighth in nine dating to last season)--most attention jumped ahead a bit, to a very possible and very lively second-round confrontation between these same teams.

And those two big men.

O’Neal, who scored 22 points and clinched his second NBA scoring title, left the locker room without speaking to reporters; Robinson just said he thought the elbow was “unnecessary,” and Popovich said he considered it all part of competition.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson, for his part, said he put O’Neal back in to start the overtime after sitting him all of the fourth quarter because he wanted to win the opening tip (Robinson ended up winning it).

And Jackson said he didn’t think the elbow amounted to much, or at least all the agony displayed by Robinson.

“I thought Robinson fouled him twice before they finally called the foul,” Jackson said. “It looked like he was trying to foul to get out of the game, and whatever ensued from there.

“It looked like David crumpled. I don’t know how hard Shaq elbowed him--it didn’t look like much of an elbow. But he crumpled underneath it and then Popovich just went wacky on the bench.”

Popovich immediately replaced Robinson with Felton Spencer, which was a signal to Jackson to get O’Neal out too.

“They put [Spencer] in--it was a retaliation thing,” Jackson said. “So I just eliminated any problems by taking Shaq out.”

And leaving everyone anticipating the potential rematch.

Do the Lakers worry that San Antonio has a mental edge on them?

“I hope they think so,” Fox said. “Do I think they do? I’m borderline arrogant when it comes to stuff like that.

“I know they don’t, but they may think they do.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FIRST ROUND

LAKERS

vs. SACRAMENTO

Best-of-five series

Sunday--at Staples, 2:15