Foul Play Doesn’t Bother the Big Guy

Shaquille O’Neal on Saturday said he was honored to be hacked into history by Indiana Coach Larry Bird.

O’Neal, who did not hide his contempt for Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy when he used the same strategy, said he had no ill feelings after being sent to the free-throw line 39 times by the Pacers in the Lakers’ Game 2 victory on Friday, the most ever attempted by a player in an NBA game.

O’Neal made 18 of the free throws.

“No, it doesn’t bother me at all,” O’Neal said. “I will never speak down on the legend, Larry Bird. He was one of the excellent players, he’s an excellent coach. You just have to react to how things are played.

“Yesterday, they were trying to play to the percentages. But it hasn’t worked all year.

“It worked one time in Dallas [when he missed 11 of 19 attempts, helping Don Nelson’s strategy succeed in the second-to-last game of the regular season], but we did something about it.”

In Game 1, O’Neal scored 43 points and grabbed 19 rebounds; in Game 2, which Bird said was even more impressive, O’Neal scored 40 and grabbed 24 rebounds.

Overall, O’Neal has made 32 of his 49 field-goal tries (65.3%) in the two games.

This is the third time this season that O’Neal has put together consecutive games of 40 points or more.

“I’m just on a mission,” O’Neal said. “I’ve been trying to get here. I’m just taking high-percentage shots.

“I’m not shooting jumpers, I’m not shooting fadeaways, I’m just trying to get deep and go to the high-percentage shot.”

Coach Phil Jackson, this time, did not shy from semi-comparisons to the playoff play of Michael Jordan, the last player to go 40-40 in the finals.

“Shaquille’s had a great two games,” Jackson said. “Michael could find his shots on his own because of his ability to find the open court and penetrate with the basketball. And Shaquille has to rely on his teammates to find him with the ball.

“But the fact that he’s done it a lot of different ways, rebounding, finding blocked shots and offensive rebounds and put-backs. . . . last night, to take 57 shots [combined, from the field and the free-throw line] in the course of the game, it’s an amazing amount of presence he has on the floor.”

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If Kobe Bryant misses today’s Game 3 or is severely limited, the Laker role players said they know that one or more of them will be placed into an even more important situation.

“I think this time of year it always becomes evident--it’s not necessarily one of your star players getting hurt, but something always happens, where a guy that maybe people didn’t expect to, gets a chance to come in and elevate his game,” Derek Fisher said.

“And for us, it’s been a different guy, it hasn’t been the same guy consistently throughout the playoffs.

“Tomorrow night and for the remainder of this series, depending on Kobe’s condition, there’ll have to be a different guy pretty much game to game figuring out a way to be effective for us.”

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The Lakers traveled to Indianapolis on Saturday morning and went directly to Conseco Fieldhouse for a short workout.

Do they now really feel like they’re in the finals?

“Just because of the media, really,” guard Brian Shaw said. “Because there’s so much media and you have to devote so much time to them. But other than that, to me, it feels like another game for me.”

Are the Lakers feeling tired, or excited, by the traveling and tension?

“A little bit of both,” Fisher said. “Just mentally and physically trying to recover from last night and then to travel and still coming in here, trying to get some work done, get some shots up, get used to this building.

“Then go and get some rest.”

With a nod toward the Lakers’ inclination at times to back off when they get ahead in a series, Fisher said that the team looks at today’s game as potentially the pivotal moment.

“If they win, basically they can say it’s a new series, it’s 2-1 and they have two more games here. But if we win, it’s a totally different thing.”