O’Neal Is Still the Big Difference

Big. That’s it. Just big.

No nickname. No Big Aristotle or Big Felon or any addition to the growing list of pseudonyms, by now almost as long as the list of victims. Almost.

It will stand for a description this time.

Big numbers. Thirty-six points and 21 rebounds, both game highs, despite fouling out with 2:33 remaining in overtime. Six personals. Even that was a team high.

Big words.

“The big man in the middle,” Pacer Coach Larry Bird said. “That’s the big difference.”

Shaquille O’Neal was on the bench for the most critical moments of the most critical game of the Laker season, watching two guards, Kobe Bryant and Brian Shaw, get the offensive rebounds for the baskets that provided the 120-118 victory. And he was the difference.

Again.

“I was just doing the same thing,” O’Neal said.

Dominating on offense, like when he scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers went from five down to five up in four minutes. Or that stretch before halftime, with the Lakers stuck on 38 points midway through the second period and Bryant not yet looking combustible, when he got four baskets in a row, a span interrupted only by two free throws by Glen Rice.

“You jump on the back and go for a ride,” said teammate Robert Horry. “That’s the best you can do.”

Dominating inside, with seven of O’Neal’s rebounds coming on the offensive end, in itself more boards than all but two players in the Game 4.

“I thought he kind of wore our defense down,” Pacer forward Dale Davis said. “We didn’t get crisp double-teams.”

Dominating . . . at the line?

Relatively speaking. O’Neal made 10 of 17 free throws.

“I said to myself, ‘You’ve been making them all playoffs. Just step up and make them tonight,’ ” he said.

OK, so reality. Maybe not all playoffs. Not even all week. This showing came after he made three of 13 in the loss Sunday, after coming in at 37.9% in the first three games of the series and 46.4% for the entire playoffs. After briefly getting the Hack-a-Shaq treatment again from Davis on Wednesday.

So what happened?

He was six for 11 from the line in the fourth quarter, a clutch showing by his standards, helping get the Lakers as far as overtime. He doesn’t make Jerry Buss pay as much.

He lasted the first 2:27 of the extra period, barely past the halfway mark, after playing with five fouls since 7:32 remained in regulation, without coming out. Then when he did, it was for good.

The Lakers led, 112-109. John Salley, the man who played four minutes in the series before Wednesday, came in--an exchange all the more profound given O’Neal’s success this night.

O’Neal went through the final 2:23 as a spectator and a cheerleader. The big observer.

But when I fouled out,” he said later, “Kobe said, ‘Don’t worry. I got it.’ ”

Bryant was right, of course. He led the Lakers to the finish line, making jumpers and a two-handed, reverse follow.

While the guy tabbed by the defeated coach as the difference in the outcome sat.

Talk about your strange endings, business as usual, with another great performance, melting into not-your-everyday occurrence. The part about going to the interview room to talk about the game, the part he played in it and the part he had to sit through, that was the norm.

The part after that? Different.

O’Neal had just exited through a side door of the interview room, bound for the elevator that would take him to the street and transportation. A crew from Telecinco, a TV network in Spain, met him with a special request.

Take this pair of sunglasses.

Seriously. And could you even put them on for a second?

It’s a badge of honor for the show. Arturo Valls Molla and the other hosts who have traveled the world have, he said, also given them to President Clinton. Of course, Fidel Castro also accepted a pair. Khomeini too. Although there was no proof.

O’Neal, never needing an excuse to trigger his playful side, obliged. The camera rolled. He took the shades, gave them a look, then gave them a try, just steps from the elevator. The host went nuts.

“Uno mas!” Valls Molla proudly screamed into the lens, jumping up and down, one hand on the microphone, the other flailing into the air.

One more successful delivery.

Fitting. It came after one more grand showing by O’Neal, putting the Lakers in position to need just one more win for the championship. Uno mas.