A Mere Technicality

By TIM BROWN

Dec. 1, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEATTLE —

“Mess with Shaq Week” bled into “Mess with Shaq Month,” the people who remembered to hate the World Trade Organization marched with some dignity downtown, it was rainy and cold, and the Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics for the first time in five tries.

It was a busy day in the Pacific Northwest, where referee Bob Delaney came to work a little annoyed, and made life more difficult for everybody, if not quite impossible.

The Lakers played the last 38 minutes without Shaquille O’Neal on Friday night, and still were efficient enough to end one of the real oddities of the NBA. Swept by the SuperSonics in four games last season, the Lakers beat them, 107-92, before the first sellout of the season at KeyArena. The Laker run, dating to last season, is 37 wins in 39 games, and the languid November projected by Phil Jackson passed with a 14-1 record, the best in the history of the franchise.

“They didn’t want an excuse to lose,” Jackson said.

Arguing he was fouled near the basket, O’Neal received two technical fouls--and the automatic ejection--from Delaney with 2:12 left in the first quarter, leaving the Lakers without their center, but with more freedom to run with the fleet SuperSonics. O’Neal boarded the team bus without taking questions, and Delaney refused a request to explain his decision.

The Lakers especially liked this win. They liked that they won without O’Neal, that Kobe Bryant scored 30 points in 34 minutes, and didn’t look frantic doing it, that they won in a place that was loud and uncomfortable, and against a team that thought it had something on them.

“We wanted to stop that tonight,” Lindsey Hunter said.

They liked that Hunter scored 12 third-quarter points and Derek Fisher scored 10 fourth-quarter points, that Jackson’s point guard platoon is thriving. And, that Samaki Walker was capable at center, as was Slava Medvedenko at power forward.

“I’m shocked,” Seattle forward Vin Baker said afterward. “We thought with [O’Neal] going out, obviously we thought we had an advantage.” Instead, within 10 minutes of O’Neal’s ejection, the SuperSonics had gone from five up to 10 down.

Last season, when the Lakers didn’t come within seven points of the SuperSonics, O’Neal was about the only thing the Lakers had going for them. This time, his absence only started the rout.

“You know what? Not ever did we believe we couldn’t win that game,” Walker said. “Kobe, he loves a challenge. He’s licking his chops, like he’s ready to go into playoff mode.

“This might have been our best game, from the simple fact that we didn’t have our big fella. This is a team. We have what it takes.”

Despite early foul trouble himself--and a late, soft flagrant foul also called by Delaney--Bryant arrived at 30 points on only 19 field-goal attempts.

“My intensity picks up when the crowd gets into the game and the other team thinks they’re in control,” Bryant said.

In previous seasons, Bryant might have tried to carry the team by himself.

“Now,” he said, “I know how to bring my teammates along with me.”

O’Neal had eight points and three rebounds in the 9:48 he lasted, and so appeared to be on his way to a decent game against Baker, Calvin Booth and the rest of the Seattle big men.

Then he missed a short shot and believed he was fouled by Baker. On his way to the bench during the immediate timeout, O’Neal screamed at Delaney, “Foul, man, foul! Foul!” When Delaney shook his head, O’Neal shouted, “That’s a ... foul!”

That drew the first technical. O’Neal kept screaming, and Delaney weaved through the assembled Lakers to hand deliver O’Neal’s second technical.

Enraged, O’Neal charged Delaney, who stood across the court, his arms folded across his chest. Walker, Bryant, Brian Shaw and various assistant coaches caught O’Neal, who chose not to reach Delaney, because he didn’t.

O’Neal’s ejection almost certainly will cost him more. Bryant was ejected against Golden State on Nov. 20, lingered on the floor and was fined $7,500. O’Neal probably will get at least that, given his aggressive move to Delaney.

Bryant said he returned to the locker room to find O’Neal predictably unhappy.

“He was calm. Quiet,” he said. “You know how Shaq is when he’s mad. He’s going to be ready to play [tonight, against Minnesota], I’ll tell you that.”

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Sweet November

The Lakers, expected to start slowly, had an impressive month. Comparing some statistics in November to last season:

NOVEMBER 2000-2001

14 GAMES 82

13-1 RECORD 56-26

47.1 FIELD GOAL% 46.5

34.6 THREE-POINT% 34.4

68.9 FREE-THROW% 68.3

43.9 REBOUNDS PG 44.7