Bulls in Town, but They Might Not See O’Neal

It seems a fair bet that Shaquille O’Neal will not play tonight, when the Lakers play the last-place Chicago Bulls for the first time since O’Neal took a swipe at Brad Miller and then paid three games and more than $700,000 for the pleasure.

The Lakers have left the decision to O’Neal, whose arthritic big toe has been his limp and their headache for several months, long enough for O’Neal to seek medical advice from outside the organization.

“We’re leaning toward not playing him,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said Tuesday morning. “There’s no doubt about it. [But] if Shaq said, ‘I want to play and that’s all there is to it,’ we’d be more than willing to be compliant.”

If it means anything, Miller expects O’Neal to play, then to abuse O’Neal with his blurry first step.

“He’s big and can push me around,” Miller said Tuesday, “but he can’t guard me, because I can step outside and use my quickness on him.”

The prevailing opinion among the Lakers is that O’Neal will rest for at least eight days and continue on a course devised recently by Dr. Robert Mohr, chief of podiatric surgery at UCLA Medical Center.

O’Neal has played a few games with new inserts in his shoes, and a newer set of orthotics is expected any day. Mohr said he has contacted Starter, the company that makes O’Neal’s shoes, regarding slight alterations he believes would also relieve the pain in the first joint of O’Neal’s toe, and the company has been agreeable.

O’Neal could eventually undergo postseason surgery, Mohr said, but in the meantime he would concentrate on taking the stress off the affected joint.

“There’s a whole sequence of events, depending on the severity of the condition,” Mohr said. “His is significant. The guy is in significant discomfort. This is not a little nagging injury. Plus, in his chosen sport, he jams on this thing constantly. And, living on pain medication is not a solution.”

Asked if O’Neal could expect to have the pain diminish by, say, the start of the playoffs, Mohr said, “I’m very confident we can do a lot to help him through this part of the season.”

O’Neal played eight games in 13 days after returning from the three-game suspension for almost hitting Miller, and dragged his big toe through most of them. He was, however, named the Western Conference player of the week for the period ending Sunday, at the height of his distress. He said Tuesday that he hadn’t decided if he would play.

“Not yet,” he said as he waded through reporters before practice.

He has not seemed particularly determined to play against the Bulls, a terrible team that nevertheless provides him two forms of motivation: The Bulls beat the Lakers in overtime in that Jan. 12 game, and Miller can’t seem to accept his good fortune and walk away.

Miller has a sore hand, but said he would play and expected O’Neal to, as well.

“I’m not going to chicken out,” he said. “If I weighed 350, I wouldn’t be missing the game. He’s going to play. I’m sure he’s just blowing this all up.”

Charles Oakley, who battered O’Neal as Miller did, has a sore wrist and might not play. He sat out the Bulls’ past two games. Without Oakley, a “has-been” in O’Neal’s estimation, or O’Neal, the game might simply turn on the basketball, which is what most predicted on its eve.

“I think Brad Miller saw the punch Shaq tried to throw at him,” Kobe Bryant said. “I don’t think he’ll put himself in that predicament again. What happened, happened. We have to be professionals.”

Jackson called it “part of basketball.”

“When you go out and play you have to be prepared to play through fouls and play in a rough game or a hard game,” he said. “One thing about Chicago, they may not be extremely talented, but they play very hard. They’re going to play hard.”

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Five days after later sitting out the Laker game, Horace Grant returned to the Orlando Magic, explaining that he missed the time because of food poisoning, not an intestinal virus.

Magic Coach Doc Rivers had wondered why Grant didn’t try to play against the Lakers, and Laker players suggested Grant had contracted “Shaq-arrhea.” There was speculation that Grant was furious. Not so, said Grant, a very popular Laker teammate last season.

“I don’t take it personally,” he said. “I laughed about it. I think it was Shaq who didn’t want to play me, so he contaminated the takeout food that caused the problem.”

In case anyone missed the suggestion that Jackson really didn’t want to go to the All-Star game in Philadelphia this weekend, he dropped this before Tuesday’s practice.

“I was really looking forward to Jam Time on Saturday afternoon,” he said. “That’s one of my favorite times. I like to get down and rap with the kids. That’s terrific stuff.”

Jackson is not a great admirer of rap music.

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TONIGHT

vs. Chicago, 7:30

Fox Sports Net

Site--Staples Center.

Radio--KLAC (570).

Records--Lakers 33-12, Bulls 10-36.

Record vs. Bulls--0-1.

Update--The Bulls start Brad Miller at center, Eddie Robinson and rookie Tyson Chandler at the forwards, and Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie at the guards.

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Tim Brown