New Shaq Mood Is Far From Foul

Suddenly, the whole world seems a little different.

Suddenly, Shaquille O’Neal has a feathery touch from the free-throw line, a moderately in-tune singing voice and the mood to croon.

Late Wednesday, O’Neal celebrated the Lakers’ 92-85 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and his continued free-throw fiesta by serenading reporters for several festive minutes in the Laker locker room.

All this was the product of O’Neal calmly swishing two free throws with 22.7 seconds left after he was fouled intentionally, pushing the Laker lead from a three to five.

After floating in the second (his 32nd make in his last 41 tries--78%), O’Neal held his pose for several seconds, turned, grinned and galloped off the court when the Hornets called a timeout.

“You saw the way it left my hand out there,” O’Neal said, when asked if he had any doubt he would make the shots. “I ain’t missing no more.

“I’m at a point in my life where it’s time to concentrate now. So I’ve been concentrating these last couple games. I’ve developed more concentration, more confidence . . . “

And what about the pose?

“That’s a message,” O’Neal said. “To whoever. That . . . ‘hack-a-Shaq’ stuff will never ever work again. Period. . . . Print it.”

The Lakers’ fifth victory in a row was one of their more impressive, coming on a tough back-to-back travel situation and against a team that was 20-3 at home. It also kept them, at 39-11, half a game behind Portland for the NBA’s best record.

Interestingly, O’Neal, who played 43 minutes after playing 47 the night before, had one of his tougher field-goal shooting games, making only six of 17 shots against the huge and physical Hornet front line.

As a team, the Lakers made only 34 of 88 shots (38.6%), including two of 11 by A.C. Green and two of eight by Ron Harper.

The Lakers made up for that with sticky defense, holding Eddie Jones to six-for-20 shooting (and 18 point) in his first game against the Lakers since they traded him last year and Charlotte to only 17 points in the crucial fourth quarter, when the Lakers erased what had been a six-point deficit.

Glen Rice, in his first trip back to Charlotte since he was traded for Jones, broke out of a recent slump by making eight of 15 shots and scored 21 points.

Kobe Bryant, after a slow, foul-plagued start, scored eight fourth-quarter points, had six assists and seven rebounds and led all scorers with 26.

“He kept trying to get in the ballgame and kept getting rebuffed,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant. “Then he got hot, and he just kept going, and he was great.”

But the moment that had the Lakers giggling and high-fiving was O’Neal at the line, with 22.7 seconds left.

Jackson said he designed a play that would run down the clock and not put it in the hands of O’Neal, who started the day shooting 48.6% from the line.

But the inbound play broke down, O’Neal ended up with the ball, and, to Jackson’s exasperation, he was fouled immediately.

“It’s always a gripping moment when Shaq has to go to the foul line in the last minute,” Jackson said.

“They had a timeout, they called it and we came back to the bench, we said, ‘Don’t worry about it, just go out there and shoot it the way you’ve been shooting it.’ And he did.”

Overall, O’Neal was six for nine from the free-throw line in the game, following an 11-for-12 performance Tuesday in Chicago and a 15-for-20 outing against Minnesota in the game before the All-Star break.

“Lately, he’s just been shooting it great from the free-throw line,” said guard Brian Shaw, who gave the Lakers 17 potent minutes off the bench--including 10 points and five rebounds.

“If he can do that, he’s going to be unstoppable. Because you have to foul him or he’s going to score 50 or 60 points on you.”

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Kukoc to 76ers, Hughes to Warriors: In a three-way trade, Philadelphia gets versatile veteran player, Golden State gets young shooting guard and the Bulls wind up with Starks and a first-round draft pick. Page 3

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MAGIC 129, CLIPPERS 96

It only gets worse as L.A. loses its eighth in a row and remains winless in six games under interim Coach Jim Todd. Page 3