Friday Remains Target for O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal did not make the trip here, affording him another day-and-a-half off his ailing feet, even as he moved closer to returning to the floor.

The wide assumption is that O’Neal will play Friday against the Phoenix Suns, though the final decision will be left to him.

“There’s nothing to be gained by keeping him out any longer,” Phil Jackson said. “The only thing I’m worried about, they’re going to run screen-and-roll all night and he’s going to be on the exterior part of the court playing defense on the screen-and-roll. They’ll have him be real active.

“I think Shaq still moves well. He just isn’t as explosive as he was before.”

The Lakers have played 11 road games in two months, fewer than any team in basketball other than the Clippers, who played their ninth road game Wednesday night in Sacramento.

That means a lot of wake-up calls and unfriendly places for the next two months, which is OK with Kobe Bryant.

“We miss the challenge of looking each other in the eye,” Bryant said, “when everybody’s booing you and everybody thinks you’re going to lose the game, and somehow you manage to pull together and win it. That’s what we’re missing right now.”

In four games with O’Neal on the injured list, Devean George made 16 of 28 field-goal attempts, including four of seven three-pointers, and averaged 10.5 points. He is more aggressive, purposely.

“One of the things, when the star player’s out everyone tries to pick it up in the scoring department,” George said. “But we want to keep doing the same things we’re doing so once he comes back we’ll be better off.

“When he’s in there, he’s such a dominant player, we all tend to throw him the ball and take the easy way out instead of running the offense. That’s the easy way, throwing it to him and letting him do the work.”

On the verge of a terribly difficult part of their schedule, Jackson doesn’t care much about bringing his players’ psyches together.

“I think we’ve been doing fine as far as the group goes,” Jackson said. “But I think it’s the ... sporadic nature of the games we’ve had that have kept our timing and rhythm off as a team. You play a lot of games you find a rhythm.”

So, January and February, when the Lakers play 29 games, is a good thing?

“No,” he said. “Who wants to play five games in seven days?”

O’Neal and Bryant are Nos. 1 and 2 in Western Conference all-star balloting, and well ahead at their positions.

According to Wednesday’s tally, O’Neal leads Vlade Divac, the second-place center, by more than 500,000 votes. Bryant leads Steve Francis by nearly 350,000 votes.