O’Neal Tries On Rockets for Size

So he was not loquacious.

He probably had figured he had said enough on a subject that only flares in the defeats and dies in the victories, as good a reason as any for the Lakers to spend some time in a defensive stance, on the court and away from it.

“Something like that,” Shaquille O’Neal said Friday night. “If I can’t say what I want to say, why say anything at all? I just won’t say anything. I’ll just play.”

More than a week after his last public word, O’Neal took the basketball and reminded everyone that he is the game’s most brutish player, with resounding dunks and light-footed spins. As a result, the Lakers defeated the undermanned Houston Rockets, 114-101, at Staples Center, where the defensive effort was less than perfect, but maybe a little closer.

O’Neal scored 41 points, his season-high, and took 11 rebounds in 31 minutes. He made 17 of 23 field goals on a variety of moves, most of the power ilk, all while peering over the heads of the game men sent to defend him.

“We were supposed to beat a team like that,” O’Neal said. “They were missing a lot of players. We just did what we’re supposed to do. We’re trying to get back on track.”

Consider the porch fortified, then.

The biggest canine, self-described, dominated the Rocket front line, which was without Hakeem Olajuwon and Kelvin Cato. As he did, the rest of the Lakers fed from the outside. Kobe Bryant scored 29 points. Isaiah Rider, still in his offensive mind-set, scored 13 in 24 minutes.

“We need to play together as a team,” O’Neal said. “We win as a team and lose as a team. Everybody needs to understand that, and everybody needs to play team ball.

“[Coach] Phil [Jackson] stressed that the guys get the ball inside tonight. We knew they didn’t have a lot of big bodies, so Phil stressed ‘get it in, get it in.’ The guys did a good job of getting it in.”

The Lakers gave up at least 100 points for the fifth time in seven games, an annoyance of Jackson’s, but they won with a big third quarter, another of Jackson’s issues. After a close first half, they outscored Houston, 32-23, in the third. In it, O’Neal and Bryant combined for 23 points.

The Rockets began the game with Kenny Thomas, giving away six inches, 65 pounds and handfuls of attitude, guarding O’Neal.

“I can tell you one thing, I’m not an NBA center,” Thomas said. “He’s just too big and an awesome player.”

Olajuwon has a bum knee. Cato, at 6-foot-11, has a bad shoulder. And Carlos Rogers, at 6-11, has been out five games while attending his grandfather’s funeral in Detroit.

That left Thomas, Matt Bullard and Jason Collier to defend O’Neal, and a very irritated Coach Rudy Tomjanovich to complain about the calls the Rockets weren’t getting. Tomjanovich bought a technical foul five minutes in, as his assistants held him away from the referees.

That didn’t stop O’Neal, or the Lakers from dumping the ball in to O’Neal, or O’Neal from calling for the Lakers to dump the ball in to him.

“This was us paying respect to the game plan and this was us knowing there was nobody out there to guard him,” forward Rick Fox said.

O’Neal played 10 minutes in the first quarter, took nine shots and made six of them. By the second quarter, when it became very obvious they had little hope of defending O’Neal conventionally, the Rockets simply hacked him.

So, O’Neal reached halftime with 25 points, despite making one of six free throws.

By the third quarter, he looked like one of those carnival rides, spinning in the lane, three Rockets hanging from him. Still, O’Neal raised his massive arms and hoisted shots at the rim, taking hard and tactless fouls like no other player in the NBA.

He made only seven of 18 free-throw attempts, but it didn’t matter.

It was suggested to O’Neal that while the Rockets were undermanned in the middle, so are most teams on most nights against him.

“All nights,” O’Neal said. “Not most nights. All nights. I’ve always been the unselfish-type player. If I get doubled or tripled, I’m looking for my guys. We just need to play like this every night. If we do, we’ll be fine.”

LAKER RECORD

OVERALL

26-12

BY DIVISION

Pacific: 7-6

Midwest: 12-5

Atlantic: 2-0

Central: 5-1

BY MONTH

October: 1-0

November: 10-5

December: 11-5

January: 4-2

*

PROTEST

The Grizzlies claim that a malfunctioning clock led to the Lakers’ overtime victory Monday at Staples. D7

SPACED OUT

Positioning has been a big problem for the Clippers in their five-game losing streak. D6

ALLEN WHO?

Even with Iverson sitting out, 76ers improve NBA’s best record to 30-9. D7