SHOOTOUT AT THE L.A. CORRAL

Superman, where are you?

Homage to Shaquille O’Neal’s red-tighted role model can be found on the side of his arm, on the windows of his house, on the license plates of his cars.

The only place it has not been indelibly stamped is his game.

Today, he has that chance.

When afternoon becomes night and seven glorious months are whittled to a few groping possessions, he must embrace that chance.

Because he may be not only the Lakers’ best chance, but their only chance.

Beginning shortly after 4:30 p.m. at Staples Center, Shaquille O’Neal must hoist the weight of Game 7 of the Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers upon his back.

This includes that sizable portion of the Pacific Northwest that comes with it.

He must carry the game with Arvydas Sabonis climbing on his shoulders, and Rasheed Wallace tugging his side, and Scottie Pippen in his face.

He must lift the spectacle even when other, fretting, insecure Lakers want to do it themselves.

He must pick up this game like you-know-who once hoisted cars off children.

Only, Shaq must hold it there for 48 minutes.

And make a dozen free throws while he’s at it.

It’s plenty to ask.

But he’s the only one the Lakers can ask.

Kobe Bryant can’t carry this team, in this offense, any more than he can carry a 300-pound triangle.

Kobe can score 35 points in a playoff game and the Lakers can still lose by eight. We know this, because it happened last month in Sacramento.

Glen Rice can’t carry this team either. As the Lakers have marched toward the Final Two, he has essentially excused himself--or been dismissed--from the Big Three.

Then there is Robert Horry, who has made a Big One out of his last 15 three-point attempts.

Phil Jackson? Last weekend’s adjustment-filled sweep in Portland was about him.

Now that it’s down to 48 minutes, it’s all about Shaq.

“He’s the right age . . . he’s played well all year . . . it’s the right time for him,” Jackson said Saturday.

Timing, indeed.

This is when MVPs need to be most valuable.

This is when a Karl Malone can become a Michael Jordan.

“In these games, you go with the strength of the character of the team,” Jackson said. “In these games, players who have carried you all year, those are the ones who emerge.”

Jackson noted that Reggie Miller scored 17 points in the fourth quarter of the Indiana Pacers’ Eastern Conference-clinching win Friday against the New York Knicks.

Shaq needs to match that grip, discover that greatness.

Shaq needs to climb under the offense’s hood again after spending too much time as the trophy atop it.

He needs to demand the ball, and if three defenders have cut off his air supply, he needs to find the open man, then demand the ball again. And again. And again.

It will work, and then maybe his teammates will remember the funny theory that helped them win all those regular-season games that gave them their ticket to Staples for this most important one of all.

Their entire motion offense starts with the ball in the hands of the immovable object. Period.

“In the fourth quarter, when we’re behind, we start to rush ourselves, take the quick jump shot,” Derek Fisher admitted. “We need to realize that we still have time to go to [Shaq]. It is our responsibility to allow him the opportunity to be a bigger factor.”

And if the Trail Blazers are illegally hindering Shaq in that quest, then it is his responsibility to remind the referees.

We know, we know, it’s not Shaq’s character to berate anyone in authority.

Yeah, yeah, for four years, about the only thing that has impressed us more than his skill is, well, his sweetness.

But, maybe, this once, for 48 minutes, he could be a bigger pain?

“Sometimes I feel like he is too compliant, he should be more demonstrative at what he’s going through,” Jackson said, referring to the constant hacks he absorbs. “You look at Scottie [Pippen], he’s in the referee’s ear the whole game. Shaq is so compliant, sometimes it takes away from the energy level of our team.”

That said, Jackson noted, “I appreciate that from him on the road, where he’s already a pariah.”

But at home? “Yeah, I’d like for him to be a more demonstrative leader,” Jackson said. “But I don’t want him to be something he’s not.”

OK, so he doesn’t have to shove a referee into the scorer’s table. He doesn’t even have to curse slowly and loudly on national television at Mike Dunleavy.

But maybe he could just remind the referees more often of things like--just guessing here--an illegal defense? Or a four-handed head slap?

As Greg Ostertag can attest, Shaq has always possessed that anger.

Meeting with reporters Saturday, he seemed as if he was ready to reveal it again.

He was terse when talking about teammates who haven’t thrown him the ball. He was surly about opponents who have involved him too much. At times, he even spoke above that stage whisper.

Is he frustrated that his teammates have abandoned him down the stretch--such as when he took only three shots combined in the fourth quarter of their last two losses?

“A little,” he said. “When we watch film, it’s frustrating to see us jacking up shots. But we win together and lose together.”

How difficult is it facing Sabonis?

“He hasn’t done anything, he’s had help,” O’Neal said. “I don’t give him no credit, none. It’s Sabonis, Pippen and Wallace who are playing me. Don’t ask dumb questions.”

And how, then, are they playing you?

“They’re illegal most of the time,” Shaq said.

Speaking of illegal, what about Pippen’s charges that the Lakers were hitting them with cheap fouls?

“I don’t have to cheap-shot Scottie. . . . He’s not that important to me,” Shaq said. “If I want to cheap-shot him, I’ll cheap-shot him in real life, not on the basketball court. You know, I’ll walk up to him man to man.”

He spent the rest of the interview scowling and shaking his head.

This is good.

A first-possession rumble to the baseline, followed by a spinning hook shot, would be better. Remember Game 5 against Sacramento?

Then a hop across the middle, a leap, and another hook would be nice. Remember Game 5 against Phoenix?

Finally, Shaq must find that free-throw groove if it means he spends this entire Sunday morning at the lonely El Segundo gym.

A town, and a legacy, awaits.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.