Buzz Gets Better for Lakers on Trip

By TIM BROWN

Feb. 17, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —

The dunks were loud, the Charlotte Hornets scattered, and the blocked shots pelted the ushers, all of which answered the lingering question: How long before Shaq is himself again?

And then the free throws fell, which begged the question: Shaq who?

Closer to his game than he’d been in weeks, Shaquille O’Neal had 38 points and 12 rebounds in his third game back from a strained arch, and Kobe Bryant had 25 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, his second career triple-double.

So the Lakers, who started Friday nearer to the Western Conference’s last playoff spot than to its first, defeated the Charlotte Hornets, 99-94, before the first sellout of the season at Charlotte Coliseum. They have won five of six games, and two of three on their six-game trip.

And while they are at the point where any old victory will do, regardless of just how frantic it gets and how uncool they look doing it, the Lakers have to restart somewhere. They’ve already had a handful of do-overs, none of which has taken, so maybe this trip will be it, despite that nasty loss in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

“I’m trying to get my game back day by day,” said O’Neal, who made 10 of 17 free-throw attempts and also blocked five shots. “I’ll still get my average, do what I’ve been doing, and take advantage of situations as they come.”

The team too.

“I think so,” he said. “We just have to keep up the intensity, keep playing like we’re playing. We’ll be fine.”

O’Neal has saved some room for one more tattoo, probably on his left forearm, where someday soon he will summon the words from above his Rolex.

“For those who know me,” it will read, “no apology is necessary. For those who don’t, none will do.”

He is not sure who said it. He is not sure why it struck him so. And it is anyone’s guess where Bryant will fall.

“We’re moving forward already,” Bryant said.

But, while Shaq did his Shaq thing--in the fourth quarter he was five for five from the floor and three for six from the line for 13 points--Bryant did something a little different, something that surely pleased O’Neal. Bryant was one for seven from the field in the second half, but he had six rebounds and seven assists. He took only 17 shots in all.

“I was just reading the defense,” Bryant said. “If they’re going to come to me and double-team me, I’m going to hit my teammates for open shots. I’m just going to keep on playing. Sometimes my teammates knock them down, sometimes they don’t. But if I get doubled, I’m going to give it up.”

O’Neal said that was good enough for him.

“Different nights he’s going to be the leading scorer,” O’Neal said. “Different nights I’m going to be the leading scorer. I’m not really worried about that, as long as we continue to move the ball and play team ball, that’s all that matters to me.”

The Lakers spotted the Hornets 24 shot attempts--102 to 78--because of Charlotte’s 21 offensive rebounds. But O’Neal made big shots, Bryant found teammates for open shots and the Hornets (36.3%) kept missing.

“He started feeling it,” Bryant said of O’Neal. “He had that one stretch where he knocked down two in a row, and then he started posting harder, his defensive intensity picked up more and he got into a groove.”

J.R. Rider started for the injured Ron Harper at guard, took 15 shots and made six. He missed all four of his three-pointers. Then Rider, who scored 12 points and had seven rebounds in 34 minutes, declined comment.

Rider’s start actually came two days late. He was Phil Jackson’s first choice to start Wednesday. Rider, however, was preoccupied in the team’s pregame meeting, causing Jackson to change his mind and start Brian Shaw instead.

Jackson, who applauded Rider’s energy, probably hoped the start would shake Rider out of the recent funk that claimed much of his game. In his last eight games, he is 23 for 74 from the floor.

Meantime, Horace Grant keeps stopping point guards with his face.

Tuesday in New Jersey, Stephon Marbury went to the rim, Grant stepped in and suffered a deep gash above his right eye. Trainers glued that cut closed.

In the second quarter against Charlotte, Baron Davis barreled into Grant, who required four stitches to close the laceration left by Davis’ elbow.

“I’m going to need sunglasses for these interviews,” said Grant, both eyes swollen and darkened.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LAKERS ON ROAD

The Lakers are halfway through six-game trip, having won two of three:

FEB. 13 (OT)

LAKERS: 113

NETS: 110

FEB.14

76ERS: 112

LAKERS: 97

FEB. 16