O'Neal Does What Needs to Be Done

O’Neal Does What Needs to Be Done

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Feb. 21, 2000 12 AM PT

PHILADELPHIA —

The shots weren’t falling, but Shaquille O’Neal still had one of his best all-around games of the season, grabbing every important rebound, coming within an assist of his first triple-double as a Laker and blocking the 76ers’ final shot with a thunderous swipe.

“Shaq didn’t have a great offensive game,” guard Ron Harper said. “But it shows the kind of player he is, he still had an impact on this team . . .

“He made solid defensive plays and got big defensive rebounds and that helped our team out a lot.”

Coach Phil Jackson said it looked as if O’Neal never had the energy to battle the swarming 76er shot-blockers on offense, and O’Neal made only nine of his 22 shot tries.

“He just didn’t have as much gas in the tank as we’d like him to have,” Jackson said. “And they just kept throwing bodies at him . . . We just had to find other people to score.

“But he did the things that we had to have done to win, and that’s block a couple shots and rebound when we needed it.”

O’Neal grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds, blocked four shots overall and had seven assists in the first half alone, repeatedly finding Glen Rice and Rick Fox for wide-open jump shots.

“A lot of guys missed a lot of shots they usually make, including myself,” O’Neal said. “But I tried to do other things, like rebound, get some assists and get a couple blocked shots . . .

“They were just funny kind of rims. They were just bouncing on the rim, in and out. I was just trying to draw and kick and get everybody else the ball and I was thinking I’ll probably get my shots later.”

Did he know he was so close to a triple-double?

“None of that really matters,” O’Neal said. “I’m just glad we got the win.”

Brian Shaw had a chance to make a jump shot in the final minute that would’ve nailed the triple-double for O’Neal, but missed the rim completely, and, with a shrug, displayed rake marks on his right wrist from his defender in the locker room.

The Lakers were crushed in the rebounding category, 51-39, and were rattled by Tyrone Hill (12 rebounds), Matt Geiger (10) and Theo Ratliff (20 points, 10 rebounds).

After O’Neal’s 16, the next-highest Laker rebounders were guards Shaw and Harper, who had five apiece.

“That was problematic,” Jackson said. “But that’s what I’ve warned them about . . . a [76er Coach] Larry Brown team, they’ll play hard and they’ll physically go to the board and scrap.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Triple Plays / The Big 3

O’Neal

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Sun. Season 22 Points 27.9 16 Rebounds 14.3 9 Assists 3.6

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Bryant

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Sun. Season 18 Points 22.1 3 Rebounds 6.0 5 Assists 4.4

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Rice

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