LAttitude

For months, their huddles were silent.

Kobe Bryant was shooting and Shaquille O’Neal was brooding.

They weren’t talking, and the rest of the Lakers didn’t know what to say to make the situation better, to make it go away, so they could just play.

When the offense failed and a whistle blew and the Lakers marched to the bench and sat, they stared straight ahead and waited for Coach Phil Jackson to burst in with his clipboard, to break the uneasy quiet.

The measure of how far these Lakers have come arrived Sunday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, in a third quarter when Bryant’s jump shots were not falling. The Lakers were losing parts of their 10-point lead to Allen Iverson & Co., in part because the rebounds from Bryant’s misses were going long and leading to run-outs.

The offense failed. A whistle blew. And the Lakers marched to the bench and sat.

Only this time, guard Derek Fisher turned to Bryant and said, “Hey, let’s pass it around,” and Bryant nodded.

O’Neal said, “Yeah. Give it to me and I’ll give it back,” and Bryant nodded again.

Although the offense did not exactly diversify from there, others became involved and the Lakers did enough to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers, 96-91, for a 2-1 advantage in a best-of-seven series that resumes Wednesday night.

Early Monday afternoon, when Bryant and O’Neal passed each other in a narrow corridor of the Spectrum, where they practiced, they tapped hands. The enemy was someone else, somewhere else. The enemy was the 76ers. For O’Neal, in particular, it was Dikembe Mutombo, and that was good enough for the Lakers.

On the first of two days off between Games 3 and 4, the 76ers practiced early and the Lakers practiced afterward. So Mutombo first defended himself from O’Neal’s accusation Sunday night that the 76er center flops on the defensive end, which O’Neal views on the same moral plane as treason, panning his movies and getting on his idol, Bryant.

O’Neal arrived shortly thereafter, said he had said all he would say on the subject, then, of course, challenged Mutombo to live up to the code demanded by those defensive-player-of-the-year trophies.

It was a spirited day in the old arena, which hosted the practices because First Union Center, just across the parking lot, was being prepped for a U2 concert.

At the same time, the thrust of the series had changed. The series left Los Angeles seemingly headed for a Bryant-Iverson showdown. By Sunday night, O’Neal had called out Mutombo, and the focus shifted to the broad shoulders beneath the basket.

O’Neal sat behind a microphone, his black cap turned backward. Told that Mutombo had disputed his charges, O’Neal smiled playfully.

“Challenge me,” he said. “Treat me like a game of checkers and play me. That’s all I’m asking. Just play me. Just play.

“I’m playing hard. I’m allowed to pivot. I’m allowed to play strong. I’m allowed to be powerful. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole career and I’m not going to change that now. So, you know, just play me. Treat me like Sega and play me.”

He laughed. It is not a new subject. He accused the Portland Trail Blazers’ Arvydas Sabonis of the same thing. Then he said the Sacramento Kings’ Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard were floppers. The San Antonio Spurs’ David Robinson, O’Neal said, flopped too.

Mutombo is a four-time defensive player of the year. He has stitches in his mouth, thanks to O’Neal’s being allowed to pivot. He is proud of his defense. Up until recently, he believed O’Neal respected that. But O’Neal fouled out of Game 3. He incurred his final four fouls on the offensive end, two of them when Mutombo stumbled backward, one after slamming the basketball off Mutombo’s mouth.

“I’m not flopping,” Mutombo said. “I’ve never been called that way or looked at as someone who flops in the game. I think if I’d have been flopping, I would not be defensive player of the year or I would not win as many trophies as I’ve won in my career. So, flopping on what? Blocking shots or blocking somebody?

“How am I going to flop if I’ve got a couple of stitches in my mouth? Did I put that on myself? Or did I go to our team doctor and say, ‘Why don’t you cut me and put a couple of stitches in and I’ll tell the people I’ve got stitches in my mouth.’

“That sounds so stupid by him, coming and saying the things he’s saying. And I hope he doesn’t mean that. But if he does, let’s take it up on the court.

“This is a war and you have to understand that we’re in the middle of the war and so many things are going to be said and so much blood’s going to be shed. We have seen so much blood.”

Mutombo has surprised a few with his offensive game--the new drop step, the old Bob Cousy hook, the standby face-up jumper. He has averaged 17.3 points in the series, more than all but Iverson, O’Neal and Bryant.

He also has been unable to stop O’Neal from averaging 34 points and making 59.7% of his shots, simply because O’Neal is too strong and mobile for Mutombo when, O’Neal said, the referees allow it.

“Sometimes I have to change my game,” O’Neal said. “I think I’m the only player in this league that has to, you know, change his game day in and day out. I do enjoy punishing people, especially people that play me one on one. That’s a challenge to me, playing me one on one. I can’t even stop myself one on one.”

Before he left the room, O’Neal leaned into the microphone one more time. His voice breathy, and sounding a bit like the affable Mutombo’s, he said, “Play me!”

For expanded coverage of the NBA Finals, including live updates, photo galleries and postgame interviews, visit the Times’ Web site: latimes.com/nbaplayoffs.