Bertka Tries to Solve Shaq’s Woes at Line

Shaquille O’Neal, averaging 35 points but making only 14 of 34 from the foul line, worked on his free-throw mechanics this week with assistant coach Bill Bertka.

As usual, it is a work in progress, and not something that is freely discussed outside the Lakers’ inner circle. But Bertka’s involvement suggests O’Neal has asked to be coached on his free throws again.

“We don’t talk about that aspect of it, really,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “We don’t make that part of it public. Shaq really wants the least amount of attention on the free-throw jargon that goes on. I know it’s of interest to people because we get thousands of letters a year, and demonstrations and videos. Everybody’s got their own method.”

Jackson raised his eyebrows, smiled and added, “But it’s not method. It’s madness.”

O’Neal, who has promised to play looser in the wake of his first championship, has made 28 of 40 field-goal attempts (70%). In two games, he overpowered every player Portland and Utah ran at him (he leads the NBA in scoring), and today in Vancouver he gets Bryant Reeves, the 7-foot pylon.

“We have to get the ball to Shaq a lot more, I think,” guard Isaiah Rider said. “I know he touches it a lot, but we’ve got to get it to him when we’re not in trouble. When we’re up, we’ve got to keep giving it to him.”

*

Asked what might happen to the forward rotation “when Robert returned from Alabama,” Jackson playfully wrinkled his brow.

“Robert who?” he asked.

Uh, Horry.

“Oh,” he said. “That Robert.”

A week has passed without Horry, an occasional starter at small forward, a backup at power forward and a threat from the perimeter. In his absence, Horace Grant played 83 minutes and the Lakers made 33.3% of their three-point shots.

Horry, who went to Alabama because his grandmother died there, practiced Friday, before the Lakers boarded their charter to Vancouver. He said he was emotionally ready to play.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m straight.”

Jackson noted that Horry’s conditioning had slipped but that he intended to play him today.

“Whatever it takes,” Jackson said.

Horry said he is eager to help Grant and predicted that his time away from basketball would not hurt his shooting stroke.

“Sometimes, when I take time off, I shoot the ball better, because I don’t think about mechanics,” Horry said. “I just go up there and shoot it.”

*

Kobe Bryant is averaging 22.5 points, but he has had an uneven first week to his fifth season.

“In the youthful exuberance of a new season, sometimes I think you forget the hard-won things of the past that you have to do,” Jackson said. “It just takes the remembrance of that.”

TODAY

at Vancouver

12:30 p.m., Channel 9

* Site--General Motors Place

* Radio--KLAC (570)

* Records--Lakers 1-1, Grizzlies 2-0.

* Record vs. Grizzlies (1999-2000)--4-0.

* Update--The Lakers are 18-1 in five seasons against Vancouver, including 4-0 last season. The Grizzlies have never started 3-0.