Shaq Gets Jackson High Rate of Return

No banner will be raised to honor the acts of basketball performed Tuesday.

No title was won. No confetti was dumped. No cigars lit. No tears were shed, at least in public. Not many shots were made, either.

Phil Jackson returned. The crowd roared. The Lakers wobbled. The undermanned Chicago Bulls tried mightily to take advantage.

But Shaquille O’Neal made 11 of 12 free throws, Rick Fox made three crucial three-point shots in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers pulled out a struggling game, 88-76, before 23,208 at the United Center.

In his first appearance in Chicago as the coach of the Lakers, Jackson strolled onto the United Center floor about 10 minutes before tipoff.

He grinned, and, as the cameras swarmed around him, was greeted with loud and prolonged applause.

“Well, thank God for all the photographers,” Jackson said after the game. “I couldn’t see any of the people. There were a lot of them out there.

“It was a warm welcome, a very friendly welcome. And the pregame ceremony . . . I thanked the Bulls for not doing anything extraordinary. I might’ve broken down and cried.”

There was no pregame ceremony, except for all the media frenzy this town could muster (which is a lot) and all the attention that was turned to him throughout these past few days in Chicago.

The Bulls had a day in Jackson’s honor last May, when they raised a banner honoring the six championships and 545 games he won as Bull coach, which hangs alongside banners honoring the six titles and for Michael Jordan, Bob Love and Jerry Sloan.

After saying that the scattershot quality of play was due to last weekend’s all-star break, Jackson conceded that he definitely did not want to lose this one.

“It was special for me,” Jackson said. “It was special for Shaq. He was really glad to help contribute to that win.”

O’Neal, who has had his own raucous returns to Orlando after leaving the Magic as a free agent in 1996, scored 29 points, grabbed 20 rebounds, sealed off the middle on defense and afterward said he did it for Jackson.

“I know how it feels,” O’Neal said, “to leave and come back to a place that you really liked. You always want to get that first one.

“We just wanted to get it for him.”

The victory raised the Lakers’ record to 38-11 and kicked off a pivotal six-game trip that continues tonight in Charlotte.

With 8:40 left in the game, however, there was a great deal of doubt about this game. At that point, after sloppy Laker play, horrendous Laker shooting and a 10-0 Chicago run, the Bulls had a 67-62 lead, their largest of the night.

But Kobe Bryant, who scored 21 points and had five rebounds, five steals and five assists, said the team was not concerned about losing to the team with the worst record in the league.

“Naw, we just gutted it out,” Bryant said. “I mean, we’ve been in worse situations. We’ve been down 15, 20, in those type of situations.”

Fox, who had not scored to that point, made a two-pointer, a steal and a three-pointer in succession to tie the score, and then O’Neal was flagrantly fouled by Will Perdue with 7:08 to play.

Instead of retaliating physically, O’Neal made both free throws, and, with the Lakers retaining possession, made a quick jump hook to put the Lakers up, 73-69.

With Glen Rice on the bench for most of the fourth quarter for the third consecutive game, from there, Fox put it out of reach with two more three-pointers and another steal.

“It’s not going to be any pattern,” Jackson said of playing Fox over Rice to end games. “If Glen’s going great tomorrow night, I’ll be more than happy to play him.

“Rick just got going. . . . He was playing well, had played Kukoc well in the first half. His defense was strong.”

Overall, the Lakers held Chicago to 37.7% shooting, and only 37 points in the second half (after the Lakers scored only 36 in the first, tying a season low).

“Our defense held us together,” Jackson said. “We kept saying that defense wins championships, and it does.”

*

MIAMI: 107

CLIPPERS: 88

Mashburn scores 26 and short-handed L.A. loses seventh in a row, fifth under Todd.

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