Scoring Doesn’t Worry O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal trails the 76ers’ Allen Iverson by more than two points a game in the NBA scoring race (30.9 to 28.1) and says he isn’t much interested in the nationally televised head-to-head battle today.

“I’ve never really tried to be the leading scorer,” O’Neal said. “I’ve got that little trophy at the house [for winning the 1994-95 scoring title]. Now I just play team ball.

“[Iverson is] going to come out and play and whatever happens, happens.”

Iverson scored 41 against the Lakers (the most of any opponent) in the teams’ only meeting last season, and has flourished on national TV in the recent past.

“He’s very talented, he’s resilient, he’s determined, he’s dogged about scoring,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said of Iverson. “He’s unafraid. You know, there are a lot of things about his game I like.

“I don’t like the style of play particularly, but that’s what they have to do to make themselves a potent team and they do a good job of it.”

Kobe Bryant, in one of his first games as a pure guard, was repeatedly run off screens in last season’s game, but said he has no special motivation to clamp Iverson now.

“I don’t really care,” Bryant said. “I look forward to any challenge, whether it’s guarding Al or whoever. . . . Yeah, he’s a tough challenge, because he’s so little, and he’s quick.”

TODAY

at Philadelphia

2:30 p.m. PST, Ch. 4

* Site--First Union Center.

* Radio--KLAC (570).

* Records--Lakers 40-11, 76ers 28-23.

* Record vs. 76ers (1999)--0-1.

* Update--Jackson for days has pointed to the Lakers’ troubles in Philadelphia (losses in their last two trips, 2-4 since 1993-94) and suggested that this was the key game of the six-game trip. This is the Lakers’ second look at Toni Kukoc, traded from Chicago last week, this trip.