O’Neal Has More Spin After Game

An hour after Game 4, Shaquille O’Neal was back on the floor, in street clothes, making his spin move and asking how it could be construed as an offensive foul.

After averaging 43.5 points and 20.5 rebounds in Games 1 and 2, O’Neal found the dynamics of the series changed at Arco Arena, where he faced harsher double-teams and more restrictive referees. In the final two games, he averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds, still plenty to dominate Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard.

“That’s life, man,” O’Neal said with a large smile. “I’m proud of my whole team. It was all part of my plan.”

O’Neal played 38 minutes Sunday, fouling out with more than three minutes remaining.

“At home they were looking for me and I was able to get into a rhythm and hit a lot of shots,” he said. “On the road, they tried to triple- and quadruple-team me and Kobe stepped up in both games.”

Next up, the series most predicted.

“I know it’s not going to be this easy against San Antonio,” O’Neal said. “All we’ve got to do is win one on the road. That’s all we’ve got to do.”

The Spurs have home-court advantage in the series, which could start Saturday.

“The next round is going to be very challenging for us,” he said.

O’Neal could not say for sure if Chris Webber played his last game for the Kings in Sacramento on Sunday, though all indications are that he did, but he did have advice for teams in the future:

“When you ask a guy where he’s going to be in the middle of the season and he says, ‘I don’t know,’ it doesn’t look good.”

The Sacramento Bee recently observed that the Kings had the first overall pick in 1992, the year O’Neal graduated from San Antonio’s Cole High. Had O’Neal come out then, rather than attending Louisiana State, the Kings could have drafted him over Pervis Ellison.

The conclusion was that O’Neal would have changed the course of the franchise. But not so fast. “I wouldn’t have been here,” he said, smiling. “I would have held out.”

It was suggested to Phil Jackson before the game that if Ron Harper were so confident about the Laker chances to finish off the Kings, perhaps he should play Harper more.

“I’m glad he is [so sure],” Jackson said. “I just saw the headline. Somebody showed it to me at breakfast, but I didn’t read the story. I imagine it was one of Harp’s, you know, comments he would make. But no, it doesn’t bother me.”

Harper played four minutes Sunday and contributed a key late steal that all but ended the Kings’ hopes.