O’Neal, Lakers Facing the Blahs on Defense

On an unremarkable afternoon in El Segundo, where champions, uh, train, Phil Jackson wore a cap bearing the commentary “BLAH BLAH BLAH,” and center Shaquille O’Neal wouldn’t communicate at all, other than to tap his head with his forefinger.

So stand the Lakers, somewhere between bemused and thoughtful, and to their credit not at all defensive, which explains all of the points they’ve been giving up for these two weeks. They are quite the curiosity this time of season, ever vulnerable, maybe weary, perhaps wondering, like everyone else, about that three-peat thing, what it’s going to take this time and whether they have it.

O’Neal is in pain and everyone else is in transition, and just last weekend their coach threw up his hands, mentioned something about not being capable of affecting their psyches anymore, and then they won a big game in a nasty place. It’s anyone’s guess now if the real O’Neal will show in mid-April, though most expect he will. Or if the defense will come around by then, and the Lakers say it will, though that depends an awful lot on O’Neal.

In the meantime, they’ve got the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at Staples Center and the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night, a stressful weekend followed by four games on the East Coast. They’ll try to put some emotional distance--and defensive effort--between themselves and the atrocious game they played Wednesday night in Phoenix, the 118-106 loss that made everyone forget Sunday’s victory in Sacramento.

“We’re very confident about what we can do as a ballclub,” said Jackson, whose BLAH BLAH BLAH cap blended nicely with his “Don’t Hate” T-shirt. “We feel we can move our game up a notch whenever called upon.”

After a hesitation, he added, “When that call comes, I’d like to know.”

This could simply be a matter of the Lakers being the Lakers. Ten of their 21 losses have been in the second of back-to-back games, of which there will be few or none when the regular season goes away. They also were no better off at this time last season, when their record was worse and Kobe Bryant’s ankles were dreadfully swollen, except that O’Neal was fit and giving indications he was becoming interested.

It was three days into April before their playoff momentum began, and later than that before anyone recognized it as such. A year later, on a gray day, the Lakers watched film for an hour, then belittled each other in a brisk game of half-court four on four.

O’Neal shot free throws--he was four for 15 against the Suns--and walked easily through questions that bounded off him. He, of course, is in one of those spiritual places where everyone who does not agree with him is a fool and every question put to him is idiotic. Sort of like being an NBA referee, the symmetry of which might amuse him.

Asked, as he waded, if he believed he could be dominant on both ends of the floor come playoff time, he nodded. Asked why he thought so, he poked himself in the head a few times, and grinned. And then he was gone.

“We feel like, with him being fresher game in and game out, he can be more active, more so on the defensive end,” guard Derek Fisher said. “Defensively, we’re going to need him to be more active. We’re supporting him now and we know he’ll be there when the game’s on the line.”

His offensive output has fallen only slightly because of the arthritic toe, but O’Neal has had difficulty defending the pick-and-roll and quicker centers, and controlling rebounds. But, again, he has a sore toe, and what excuse do the rest of them have?

“He’s showing up for the games, that’s for darn sure,” forward Rick Fox said. “His health is going to change, night to night, and we know that. Where he’ll be energy-wise for the playoffs, I’m not real concerned with. I don’t worry about Shaquille. I worry about all of us out in front of him getting beat.

“We’ve been spoiled. We’ve grown accustomed to gambling and making aggressive defensive plays. If we were beaten, he’d be back there to intimidate and block shots. As of late, it hasn’t been the case.”

Fox’s point: The Lakers should become more conservative, make teams beat them from the perimeter, and protect O’Neal from too many guards going too eagerly to the basket.

It’s the least they could do, considering how close they are to finding out how it all ends, and what it all means, and, oh, blah, blah, blah.