Lakers Still Have Some Tidying Up to Do at Home

This qualifies as a heady last few days, even for the Lakers: a season-saving, series-clinching victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday, a blowout win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, a coronation for Shaquille O’Neal on Tuesday.

“We’re all so excited, it’s hard to explain,” Executive Vice President Jerry West said Tuesday during a celebratory news conference introducing O’Neal as the NBA’s most valuable player. “ . . . This is a really, really happy day for us.”

O’Neal, beaming under the glare of the television lights, quoted Aristotle and described himself as “an NBA sex symbol.”

What could possibly spoil the Lakers’ festive mood?

Oh, right, Game 2 against the Suns tonight at Staples Center.

A letdown seems inevitable, even if the Lakers say they’re guarding against it.

“We’re focused on what we have to do,” backup center John Salley said Tuesday after practice. “We don’t plan on having any more letdowns like we did in Sacramento.

“Plus, we’re at home. We take care of our home court.

“No home invasions here.”

Kobe Bryant, whose defense on Jason Kidd was a key factor in the Lakers’ 105-77 victory in Game 1, repeated the theme.

“We don’t want to lose any games on our home floor,” he said. “It’s pretty simple: Defend our home court, we win the championship. It’s that serious.”

Of serious interest to Sun fans is the status of Kidd, who has not practiced for two days since aggravating his left ankle injury Sunday, and the strategy of Coach Scott Skiles, who chose not to double-team O’Neal in Game 1 and watched the MVP scorch the Suns for 37 points and 14 rebounds.

Kidd said he won’t decide if he’ll play until game time. Clearly, though, the all-star point guard still has a way to go before he’s fully healed after suffering a broken ankle six weeks ago.

While acknowledging Kidd’s obvious struggles Sunday, Bryant hinted at the Lakers’ resolve when he said Tuesday, “I’m not going to go to sleep on Jason Kidd until they tell me he’s out of the series. I’m going to play him like he’s 100%.”

As for Skiles, blistered in the Valley of the Sun by callers to radio talk shows after Game 1, he wouldn’t say how he plans to defend O’Neal tonight.

“We’ll see,” the coach said in Phoenix before the Suns flew to Los Angeles on Tuesday night. “We feel like we’ve done a pretty good job on him. He’s just had great games against us.”

O’Neal, Skiles added, made a league-leading 57.4% of his shots during the regular season, almost always against double coverage.

On Sunday, he made 53.6%.

Of course, he also made 14 of 21 after a one-for-seven start.

Glen Rice, for one, believes the Suns will try a new tack.

“They can’t afford to play Shaq in the paint one-on-one,” said Rice, who scored seven points on two-for-nine shooting in the series opener. “I think they’ll probably start trying to double-team him, and that’s where the rest of us fall in.

“We’ll get easier shots on the perimeter and we’ll have to step up and hit those shots.”

Salley said the Suns may have misread the situation Sunday.

“Knowing Scott Skiles,” he said, “I think they thought Shaq would be tired from all the energy [he expended] from the last game [against Sacramento].”

So, they’ll double him tonight?

“We hope so,” Salley said, “because he led all the centers in the league in assists. We hope they double him because that means everybody else will get 20.

“Then they’ll have to go back and think of something else.”

Either way, Salley said, O’Neal will be ready to meet the challenge.

Speaking of the hardware O’Neal was about to receive, Salley said, “He knows that trophy is only a paperweight if we don’t win the championship.”

Amid the hoopla, it was easy to forget that Tuesday, but Coach Phil Jackson will be all too happy to remind the Lakers.

“In the regular season, he tends to be more laid-back,” Laker guard Ron Harper, a veteran of three championship seasons under Jackson in Chicago, said of the coach. “Now he’s more on the edge, as I would say.

“He’s more, ‘If you make a mistake, you’re coming out.’ It ain’t no, ‘Ha-ha, ho-ho.’ [It’s] ‘Let’s get down to it. This is what we have to do as a basketball team. I don’t want you to excuse me to death.’ It’s right down to the job at hand.”

And their job, Jackson pointed out, will be a little easier if they take care of business tonight.

“We’d better be wary and careful in this game so that our home-court advantage doesn’t get away from us,” he said. “ . . . This is the next step toward [putting the Suns’] backs against the wall. . . .

“I don’t know if it’s any more difficult because of the things that are going on today, but it will be difficult regardless.”

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Staff writer Paul Gutierrez contributed to this story.