Trying to Stop Shaq Will Be Monumental Task

On the bright side for the Indiana Pacers, at least they know what they’re up against now.

Their problem is 7-feet 1-inch tall, weighs 330 pounds and answers to the name of Shaquille O’Neal, or, to them, Mr. O’Neal. If they are to make a series of it, or win a game, Larry Bird is going to have to switch to what we might call the Hillary Rodham Clinton Defense:

It takes a village.

As he promised, Bird tried playing O’Neal straight-up--one-on-one--and it wasn’t what you’d call a spectacular success. O’Neal went for 43 to Rik Smits’ 12 and fouled the Non-Flying Dutchman out in 20 minutes.

Since Shaq outscored Smits by a combined 53-16, in their regular-season meetings, Bird may have begun to suspect this wasn’t a coincidence.

“He was powerful tonight,” Bird said of O’Neal. ‘He was overpowering. It was really a one-man show out there.”

In other words, O’Neal did what it looked like he would do, with Portland in his rearview mirror. The Pacers don’t have the Trail Blazers’ size, nor do they have big, rangy defenders like Scottie Pippen and Rasheed Wallace. Nor do the Indiana coaches like to double-team, because their players are too slow to get back to shooters.

What does that leave?

Prayer?

“Well, I mean, we doubled him,” said Bird, ticking off his failed options. “We played him a little bit straight-up and he was effective both ways. So we’ll talk about it and go over it. . . .

“He’s catching the ball with one foot in the lane. If he does that all series long, it’s only a little jump hook for him. It’s an easy score. Somehow, we’ve got to get him out of that paint area.”

Maybe they could leave a trail of cookie crumbs leading to the sideline?

Not that this took the Pacers by surprise. Assistant coach Dick Harter, a renowned defensive guru and a believer in straight-up man-to-man, said he’d happily double-team O’Neal--”I think he’s a pretty good test of the exception to that rule”--if they had the personnel.

“We have very mediocre foot speed,” Harter said before Game 1. “We don’t have a Scottie Pippen, who’s a natural team defender, who disrupts things in there. We just don’t have anyone like that. Reggie [Miller] is getting to be a very good defender but Reggie’s very frail, he’s not a Scottie Pippen.”

Pippen was on vacation. The Pacers were on their own.

They started out with a conventional strategy, Smits on O’Neal and trying to attack him at the other end. All in all, it was like the night in Hershey, Pa., when the Knicks said, “We’ll let Wilt Chamberlain get his 100 and hold the other guys down.”

O’Neal scored 15 points in the first quarter, which was three fewer than the entire Pacer team.

Midway through the second quarter, O’Neal was up to 19 and Bird started double-teaming. By halftime, Shaq had been played by Smits, Sam Perkins, Austin Croshere and Dale Davis, and double-teamed by Miller, Mark Jackson, and Derrick McKey, and he already had 21 points.

At least, Bird got Smits out of the first half with only two fouls.

Unfortunately, Smits picked up Nos. 3 and 4 in quick succession in the third period and No. 5 in quicker succession, 10 seconds later, Bird having neglected to get him off the floor.

Smits finally left. By the time he got back in, the Pacers had cut the lead from 15 all the way down to two . . . and the Lakers had built it back up to 15.

With 4:32 left, Smits reentered the game.

With 4:02 left, he fouled O’Neal again and left for good.

“Well, you’re going to get fouls against him, no matter what you do,” Smits said. “It’s the other ones I’ve got to be careful of. I picked up a couple of them jumping out on pick-and-rolls. . . .

“He was really shooting the ball tonight. He was really comfortable out there, really into a zone, almost. He got some good position down low. He really hurt us out there. . . .

“We didn’t want to play him straight-up. It might have looked like it . . . but that’s the difference that we’ve got to be making in Game 2. We’ve got to come out and double-team a little harder and let everybody else beat us.

“He’s going to get points. I mean, he’s such a force down there. He’s a great offensive rebounder also. But if we can limit his shot, limit his touches and try to have somebody else take the shots, maybe that will work.”

Maybe they could bribe Shaq to go away?

Of course, he has a $120-million contract and he’s sick of hearing those guys on “SportsCenter” dragging out that quote where he says he’s won at every level “except college and the pros.”

Bird has two days to think of something and if he does, he’ll be Larry Legend for real.