Other Lakers Create a Buzz

Shaquille O’Neal had just been saying that the Lakers were the Lakers and not him, and not Kobe Bryant, but the rest of them, and all of them.

He’s beginning to assume his toe will never be quite right, that he’s going to have to drag it through April and May and, he hopes, June, and then have the surgery and be done with it.

He can’t be sure, because he’d have to get up on his tiptoes to see that far ahead, and he hasn’t been able to do that for months. Anyway, as if to prove his point, O’Neal went out, had a uniquely human game against the usually game Charlotte Hornets, and watched his teammates carry the rout.

They were 107-66 winners Tuesday night at Staples Center, where a combination of Laker activity and Hornet ineptitude set a Laker record for fewest points allowed. Twenty points back after the third quarter, the Hornets distinguished themselves with a lifeless 12 points in the final 12 minutes.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson called his defense “good, though maybe not as good as it appears on the stat sheet.”

Kobe Bryant scored 23 points and six players scored as many or more than O’Neal’s nine points, including Rick Fox and Lindsey Hunter, who had 12 each. O’Neal had been their leading scorer for nine consecutive games.

“He was struggling a little bit before the game,” Jackson said, “said he wasn’t feeling good.”

O’Neal was three for nine from the field in 26 minutes, but had 10 rebounds. Bryant was poked in the eye in the third quarter, was examined after the game and no damage was found. He, like O’Neal, left without addressing reporters.

The lack of drama in the game brought unusual attention to Fox’s hairdo, which lacked the hair part.

After months of tying it, bundling it, curling it, balling it and dressing it up to make it manageable and presentable, Fox finally cut it all off and saved himself the aggravation.

“Celebrity couples in Hollywood have broken up for less,” Fox said.

Anyway, shiny suited him for a night.

Barely 24 hours before, a full-maned Fox sat beneath a basket at the Laker practice facility and wondered where his game had been. He believed his puffy and stiff knees explained some of it, but not all. His shooting percentage (40.2) and three-point percentage (31.4) are well below his career numbers (45.7 and 35.3, respectively) and his expectations, and the second part is what mattered most.

So, off came the hair before Tuesday’s shoot-around, and on came his game.

“I’m more aerodynamic,” he said.

He played 11 minutes in the first quarter, made four of five field-goal attempts for eight points, had two assists and stuck to Jamal Mashburn with a familiar determination. He made six of eight attempts overall for his 12 points, and had a coolness about him.

“It more or less signifies the time of year,” said Fox, who suffered a gash on his head, courtesy of Charlotte’s Jamal Magloire. “I look at myself in the mirror, it’s definitely not a friendly look.”

It all helped to drive the Lakers in the early minutes, when the Hornets pushed the rout by missing a lot of open shots. These things happen on the road in the NBA, but not often to the Hornets. They were 18-14 away from the Hive, where they are dreadful and, often, alone.

Fox’s fourth field goal of the first quarter, with 1:02 remaining, gave the Lakers a 24-14 lead. He drew his second personal foul 15 seconds later and watched Devean George play the entire second quarter.

Back in Los Angeles, where he played in his high school and college, Baron Davis was not exempt from the shooting woes of the Hornets. He missed four of five field-goal attempts in the first half, and they missed 25 of 39. He missed all three of his three-point attempts, and they missed all five.

Davis finished with four points on one-of-10 shooting.

The Hornets took the Lakers to the final shot--Bryant’s--nearly three weeks ago in Charlotte, and the Lakers figured to have their problems with the Hornet guards and sizable front line. This is no dinky Eastern team, starting 7-footer Elden Campbell and 6-11 P.J. Brown, and subbing 6-11 Magloire, a matchup issue in the last game.

Ultimately that amounted to little more than over-analysis. The Lakers were too polished and too tight.