Even With Shaq Back, There Is Much Work to Do

First came the big foul. Then the two big free throws. And the two big sweetly-flung net ticklers. Shaquille O’Neal did an exaggerated wipe of his brow and mouthed “Whew,” after the first. He gave the big smile after the second.

The big guy with the sore big toe is back on the basketball court. And, boy, does he have his work cut out for himself.

As the Boston Celtics kept pushing, pushing, pushing the game they had almost always been behind in, Shaq stood near the basket waving his arms and begging for the ball. Then he’d frown as Kobe Bryant or Robert Horry or Derek Fisher would insist on shooting badly-aimed jump shots.

With 58.6 seconds left, the Celtics tied the Lakers. With 11.9 seconds left, Bryant seemed to bail them out. With 1.2 seconds left, Antoine Walker seemed to have taught the Lakers a lesson. He banked in a three-pointer to give the Celtics a 109-108 victory.

With no time left, Bryant seemed to have saved the Lakers, swishing a faking, lunging jumper. The score was on the scoreboard, 110-109. Except the officials gathered to chat and to decide the shot was too late. Good call too, because the ball was on Bryant’s fingertips as zeroes came up.

This is what happens when you have 21 turnovers and lose interest in running any offense in the middle part of the game and when you don’t match the energy and enthusiasm of your achy big man.

Shaq came back to play against the Boston Celtics. He had 25 points. The Lakers did not turn into instant champions.

For the first time under Phil Jackson, the Lakers have lost three games in a row.

When the big guy is back, all the Lakers should seem a little larger.

Everybody should stand a little taller, with backs a little straighter, with struts a little friskier. Instead, the other Lakers seemed a little lazier. They moved a little slower, stood a little smaller, slumped their shoulders and walked away losers.

Shaq’s got some work to do. The way Jackson coaches, with veiled messages delivered through the media, with mystical memos and convoluted concepts, he needs Shaq. He needs Shaq’s big grin and big mouth. Jackson needs Shaq to interpret his words and thoughts and motives and ideas into winning basketball for the Lakers.

The Laker yellow seems yellower when Shaq is in the middle holding the ball with his one big hand over his big head while all the little people run around his legs trying to swat it away. The Laker purple seems darker when Shaq is swinging his big behind in a swaying sashay, clearing away the rubble of the opponent and shaking the place to its roots when he slams home his first dunk.

“Whoo,” Shaq said and the crowd wanted to “whoo” with him.

Everything the Lakers did seemed so little and wrong when Shaq sat out the last five games with his cranky big toe and everything teams such as Atlanta and Portland did seemed so big.

Then, in a period of 38 seconds in the first quarter Shaq had his first rim-rattling dunk, then he butted three defenders out of the lane and made a layup plus the additional free throw and then, on the run, he got another dunk.

His teammates didn’t respond, not for long enough. But it is clear. Shaq will be carrying championship hopes from now until June.

Shaq is back and the rest of the Lakers don’t seem to appreciate their blessing. They stood around or fooled around too much, heaving up jump shot after jump shot while the Celtics kept playing hard even when they were behind by 18 points in the second half.

Now the rest of the regular season is going to be an experiment for Jackson and Shaq.

Jackson has said it is possible Shaq might spend another five-game period on the injured list. Just a little toe break, a chance to give Shaq time away from the throbbing pain.

Here’s the thing. Shaq’s big, ugly, mangled, gnarly, bony toe supports a body of gargantuan strength and mass. There’s not a body like it anywhere nor the toe invented to support that. Who knows what the toe can take?

Sometimes you forget how massive Shaq is. His hands are so soft when they catch the basketball. He plays the game standing on his toes, a graceful ballerina who could knock over small buildings with a single grand jete.

So it’s going to be a four-month experiment in toe control. How much can Shaq play? When should he stop? How much should he rest in the regular season?

Because gaining homecourt advantage in the playoffs is much less important for the Lakers than making sure Shaq can manage the vagaries of his toe.

It won’t matter much whether the Shaq-filled Lakers get three or four home games per series. It also won’t matter if they turn into the Shaq-less Lakers in the playoffs because then they won’t be winning any championships.

It will be up to Jackson and Shaq to figure out how much Shaq must play to stay sharp and in shape without leaving him limping and useless.

And now that Shaq has rejoined the Lakers, it would be nice if the Lakers rejoined Shaq.

It would be nice if the Lakers recognized that just showing up is not going to win them a championship, a playoff series or a mid-February game against the Celtics. Shaq or no Shaq.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.