O’Neal Happy to Roll With the Changes

If the Sacramento Kings want to duplicate their Game 2 strategy of sending two or three defenders at him to force the ball out of his hands and make Shaquille O’Neal the biggest, baddest role player who ever lived, that’s just fine with the soon-to-be most valuable player.

In Game 1, O’Neal roasted the Kings for 46 points and took 33 shots.

So, in Game 2 on Thursday, under constant pressure, O’Neal took only 15 shots (but grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked three shots) as the Kings’ Shaq-obsessed defense freed up Kobe Bryant, who scored 32 points and led the Lakers to a 24-point victory and the brink of a 3-0 sweep.

“I don’t have to score 50 points every night,” O’Neal said after the Lakers’ practice on Friday. “Scoring 50 points every night is a job.

“I like being a role player. I like getting rebounds, blocking shots, scoring when I’ve got the opportunity.

“If my guys can play like that for the next some-odd games, then the sky’s the limit for this team.”

O’Neal said he felt fresh and energized after Game 2, and that he was more confident about his team heading into Game 3 on Sunday at Sacramento because he knows the Lakers aren’t wholly dependent on him scoring 40 or more every night.

“I’m happy for my teammates, because they’re playing well,” he said. “Of course, when they’re playing well, and I’m playing well, and the guys off the bench are playing well, we’re going to be a pretty hard team to beat.

“Last night, that was a pretty easy game for me. Usually, I’m used to getting beat up, I’m tired after the game. But last night, it was fun.”

O’Neal displayed his friskiness by grabbing a football and running a few deep pass patterns with Ron Harper after practice.

“When you’re up two games or three games to nothing, your confidence is very, very high,” O’Neal said. “You should be loosey-goosey; you should play loose.

“So we’re going to play loosey-goosey, but this [King] team’s not going to give us anything. So we have to go take it. . . .

“It’s all put down on paper [by the coaching staff] what each player needs to do. Nobody goes outside that, nobody tries to do more than they’re supposed to do.

“This is a close-knit team, probably one of the closest-knit teams I’ve ever been on in my whole career.”

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The Lakers, who got thumped in December at Sacramento and then beat the Kings in the final seconds there in March, emphasized that they were very aware that the Kings play at a different level in Arco Arena.

“We’ve had a ton of trouble every time we’ve gone up there and played them,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

What effect will the Lakers’ pushing the Kings to the brink of a sweep have on Game 3?

“It’s a natural human tendency, that when you’re a game from elimination, you think about the fact that you could be done playing basketball for the year, the next game could be your last game,” Jackson said.

“It could be a motivational thing or it can be a lingering doubt.”