Big Two Cause Winces

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant took routine, uneventful falls Thursday as the Lakers returned to practice, but old Laker hands winced anyway.

For assistant coach Bill Bertka and trainer Gary Vitti, who were there, there is no forgetting 1989, when the Lakers went 11-0 in the first three playoff series. Then, the day before the finals started at Detroit, Byron Scott tore a hamstring in a rebounding drill, sidelining him for the duration.

Then in Game 2, Magic Johnson tore a hamstring. Without them, the Lakers were swept.

Nevertheless, Coach Phil Jackson, a believer in practice and in not changing things, says they’ll continue doing what they’re doing.

“We just have to play full out,” Jackson said. “We talked about playing the right way and not getting themselves in a hurry or a mess, of being in control as much as possible.

“Accidents are kind of misnamed sometimes, they’re not always accidents. You have control over them and that’s what we’re talking about in this regard.”

Jackson had given the Lakers two days off. Apparently, the high point of Thursday’s drill was that everyone made it.

“We attempted to go through practice today, which was not easy for us to do,” Jackson said. “. . . We were running into each other and shooting airballs, but at least they got some run and maybe we’ll get our rhythm back here in the next couple of days.”

On the other hand, Bryant said everyone had a good time seeing each other again and talking trash.

“[Ron] Harper will get into it,” Bryant said. “Brian Shaw will get into it. Diesel [O’Neal] will start talking a little bit. Tyronn Lue will get into it. It’s fun. Makes practice very competitive.”

Jackson says that with the Philadelphia 76ers holding a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, he has to prepare foremost for them.

Perhaps warming up verbally, he sided with Milwaukee Coach George Karl, who has criticized referees for letting the 76ers shoot 134 free throws to the Bucks’ 77.

“It just must have been very disheartening for Milwaukee to have to recover from that ballgame [Wednesday’s Game 5 loss in Philadelphia] but that’s understandable,” Jackson said. “When you lose, you see all those things magnified and you just have to play above that . . .

“When you get beat from the free-throw line every game, it’s pretty difficult. But they [Bucks] are a jump-shooting team. . . . When you have a jump-shooting team you’re not going to have as many fouls. . . .”

Also, noting that referees let players bend rules, Jackson said of Allen Iverson: “Our most valuable player in the league carries the ball maybe three, four times on every play. He’s capable of running at you [while holding] the basketball and then putting it down. Which makes it almost impossible to cover that little rascal.”

Rick Fox, admitting he’d rather play Milwaukee: “Strategically for us, the team with the weakest middle is the one we want to see. With Milwaukee, no disrespect to them, inside they’re not as dominant. Dikembe [Mutombo of Philadelphia] is a defensive player of the year. That poses a problem.”