School Days Leave O’Neal With a Fresh Outlook

A little groggy but no worse off than the teammates he actually beat into Toronto late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, Shaquille O’Neal said the previous three days refreshed him.

O’Neal’s chartered jet landed at Pearson International Airport at 11 p.m., an hour ahead of the Laker charter that was delayed two hours in Los Angeles because two members of the traveling party forgot their passports. We’re assuming they knew Toronto was in a foreign country.

“I got a lot of rest and a lot of peace of mind,” said O’Neal, who had left the team to receive his degree at Louisiana State. “I had a lot of time to reflect back.”

He had such a good time, O’Neal said, he might just start working toward his master’s degree.

Then he laughed.

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Were it not for early foul trouble, including two marginal calls in the lane, O’Neal might have had a much more splashy return.

At halftime he was five for five from the floor and three for three from the line, 13 points without a miss in only 10 minutes.

“My legs feel pretty light,” O’Neal said.

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The problem in the fourth quarter, when O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were outscored by the Raptors, 27-15, wasn’t that the Lakers’ big two took over the offense. Mike Penberthy missed four shots, three of them three-pointers, and Brian Shaw missed one.

The Lakers also were one for six from the free-throw line. Well, O’Neal was.

“It looked like we had tired legs or couldn’t make free throws, I couldn’t tell which,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “We had other guys shooting the ball. It was the scoring part that mattered.”

*

Despite three days away from basketball, O’Neal’s ankle and Achilles’ tendon were no better, he said. The area remained sore and required treatment.

Asked if he feared the injury would linger through the season, O’Neal shrugged.

“When the food is coming,” he said, “you feel nothing.”

Asked what, exactly, that meant, O’Neal said, “I don’t explain it.”

*

Isaiah Rider did not play after halftime after missing all four of his first-half attempts.

Before the game, Jackson seemed to be warming to Rider’s contribution.

“I’m right now allowing him to find a way in the offense and start to get comfortable,” Jackson said. “I thought he was up and down last week in the four games we played, but I kind of liked the flow he got into Friday night when he played.”

*

From the right corner on Friday night, from behind the arc, Mark Madsen let fly.

When the shot fell, perfectly, Madsen, the sturdy kid from Stanford, loped away, one forefinger in the air.

If it seemed an odd reaction, this we’re-No.-1 sign, Madsen clarified later.

He merely was keeping count of the three-point shots he’d made playing organized basketball.

After being 0 for San Ramon Valley High and 0 for Stanford University, Madsen is 1 for life.

Kidded that the Staples Center crowd goaded him into the attempt, Madsen laughed and said, “There are more threes where that came from. Especially in my dreams.”