Shaq Has Message: Do Not Go There

For a player who a day earlier scored 41 points, rendered his bigger opponent almost invisible, and helped lead the Lakers to a Game 1 victory, Shaquille O’Neal had plenty of Portland Trail Blazer zaniness to ponder on Sunday.

Was Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy’s intentional-foul strategy perhaps a ploy to send O’Neal into a Western Conference final series-long free-throw chain-reaction of clanks?

“You can’t mess with my mind,” O’Neal said firmly on Sunday, after being intentionally fouled 12 times in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Laker victory, setting an NBA playoff record by shooting 25 free throws in the fourth quarter, and making 13 of 27 free throws overall.

“Impossible.”

Add the Trail Blazers’ super-aggressive double- and triple-teaming of the Laker center, plus their unique second-half decision to simultaneously double-team Kobe Bryant (and leave the other three Lakers semi-unguarded), what exactly is Dunleavy trying to accomplish here?

The Lakers won, 109-94, and trounced the Trail Blazers when Portland actually played basketball. With Game 2 tonight at Staples Center, why do the victors have all the strange questions to answer?

“Whatever strategic planning they want to do, we have to make sure that the strategic planning misfires,” O’Neal said.

“I remember the old days, when it was blood and blood, sweat for sweat. That’s the kind of basketball I like.

“All this strategic Internet planning, playing the odds and playing the lottery--that does not work.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson shrugged off the Dunleavy tactics, particularly the prolonged Hack-a-Shaq routine, and without much elaboration simply said that if O’Neal makes his free throws, the strategy will blow itself up.

But if O’Neal doesn’t . . . maybe Dunleavy has a point.

“I think it definitely messes around with a player’s mentality if he can’t make foul shots when he’s been intentionally fouled,” Jackson said.

Does he think Dunleavy is setting up O’Neal for shakier circumstances, perhaps a tight fourth quarter at the Rose Garden in Games 3 or 4?

“I don’t think so,” Jackson said. “Well, maybe on the road, it’ll be different. I think that [O’Neal’s] fully confident that at some level he’s going to step in and make some foul shots. He’ll string some together.”

Said O’Neal: “We’re not concerned. We just have to go out and play our game. And if that’s what they want to do, then I just have to step up like I did yesterday [when he made seven in a row after missing six consecutively, finishing by making 10 of his last 15].

“I think they’re just paying homage to my game, that’s all. Just call me ‘The Big Homage.’ ”

O’Neal was more interested in talking about his matchup with Trail Blazer center Arvydas Sabonis, who finished with no points (on 0-for-4 shooting) and one rebound in 33 mincing minutes and was the beneficiary of all those Portland sudden double-teams whenever O’Neal touched the ball.

“I just think it’s a shame that a 7-foot-3 guy can’t play a 7-foot-1 guy one-on-one,” O’Neal said, referring to Sabonis’ two-inch height advantage. “That’s a shame. It is: a shame.”

Did O’Neal feel he was intimidating Sabonis?

“I don’t even look at other players’ eyes. I’m not trying to figure out what they feel,” O’Neal said. “I just know what I come to do.

“And I’m one of the last big dominant big men left. I don’t shoot jumpers. I don’t come down and shoot threes. I’m in the middle. I bang. I like getting banged. I get fouled, I get flagrant fouled. That’s me, that’s what I want to do.

“And they’re probably not used to that.”

Meanwhile, the Lakers had to get used to seeing Bryant double-teamed hard after he began to exploit his matchup against the 5-foot-10 Damon Stoudamire by bringing the point guard to the post.

But instead of forcing his way against the double-teams, Bryant displayed restraint--letting the doubles come and passing out--and attempted only nine shots, and only three in the second half.

With all that extra attention, O’Neal had seven assists, Bryant six.

“I think that’s the first time I ever faced a double-team that aggressive on the post, consistently,” Bryant said.

“‘It was fun. I enjoyed it. Because it’s another aspect of the game that I want to master and I want to learn as far as double-teams, where the double-teams are coming from, where your teammates should be, that type of stuff. It’s fun.”

Bryant said he doesn’t figure that Portland will do much adjusting, because Stoudamire has stayed on him through the entire season--and because the Trail Blazers prefer to use Scottie Pippen as a team defender, not to lock down only one player.

“Their biggest strength is having Scottie roam the field,” Bryant said. “Especially with [Pippen’s knowledge of the triangle] offense and with this system, they like to have him disrupt things. So, either way, they’re going to be giving us something.”

Said O’Neal: “We had orders to get everybody else involved. Me and Kobe can’t do it by ourselves. We have to get everybody else involved. If everybody’s scoring and Kobe and I just get our average, we’ll be a hard team to beat.”

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

IT WOULDN’T BE HAPPY TRAILS

Laker Coach Phil Jackson has it figured out: a win over the Trail Blazers tonight would really put the pressure on Portland.

Page 10

HACK-A-SHAQ IS THEIR GAME

The Trail Blazers did not seem to care about the criticism they’ve received for the Hack-a-Shaq tactic they used in Game 1.

Page 10

ELSEWHERE

IT’S NOT IN THE CARDS, AGAIN

The Clippers had a 25% chance of getting the No. 1 draft pick in the lottery Sunday, but had to settle for the No. 3 selection.

Page 11

NEW YORK 83, MIAMI 82

The Knicks reached the East finals for the second consecutive season because of their doggedness and tough defense.

Page 11

UPDATE ON SEALY DEATH

The man blamed in the crash that killed NBA player Malik Sealy was convicted of drunk driving in Iowa in 1997.

Page 11