Shaw Able to Maintain the Peace

Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson are buds again, or close enough, and maybe Brian Shaw gets the credit for keeping it that way.

It was the veteran Shaw who intercepted O’Neal when the center and his coach appeared headed for an Iversonian moment in Game 3, and Shaw who soothed O’Neal when the outcome of the game was in doubt.

In the second quarter, Malik Rose took two offensive rebounds over O’Neal, and Jackson was irked. When the team came off for a timeout, Jackson said as much to O’Neal, who smirked and waved Jackson away. Moments later, as Jackson tapped at his clipboard with a marker, O’Neal stood and half-turned away.

“Phil knows how to push Shaq’s buttons,” Shaw said. “I saw that Shaq was about to lash out. I wanted to be a calming influence.”

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At one point, Shaw, a teammate of O’Neal’s in Orlando and one of his closest friends, put out both hands and pressed his palms to the floor. O’Neal shook his head.

“Phil made his point and I think it was eating away at Shaq,” Shaw said. “But, he did show more activity after that.”

O’Neal is talking again, sort of. He gathered a few media outlets to the side of his trainers’ table Saturday afternoon, and was quite charming. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’ve taken a week off, because in this league, when you speak the truth, you get fined for it. So, I’d rather just hold my thoughts.”

When O’Neal says things like that, usually it means he’s angry with the referees, who call the game, and the league, which he believes does not protect him from cheap shots.

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After watching Kobe Bryant go five for five in the fourth quarter on Friday, when the Lakers left a close game behind, Spur forward Steve Smith said Bryant finishes games with the flair of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and others.

“He closed the game like one of the greats,” he said.

Often, it was at the expense of Antonio Daniels.

“He’s doing everything that’s humanly possible to do on the greatest perimeter player in the world,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “[Bryant] is an astounding player. You don’t see too many people finger roll lobs.”

Bryant took an alley-oop pass from Rick Fox in the fourth quarter. When he found himself too far from the rim, Bryant flipped the ball in for an 83-80 Laker lead.

“Kobe has the best in-between game in the league,” Popovich said. “He doesn’t live at the three-point line, he doesn’t live at the rim.”

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The Lakers did not have a turnover in the first half of Game 3 and committed nine in the game, only six of which Jackson considered unforced errors. That, he said, helped win the game, particularly one in which O’Neal was limping.

“That’s efficiency for us,” he said. “We have to feel good about that. The aspect that we didn’t give them as many second shots. We beat them at the second-opportunity chances and the fastbreak, and those statistics make a big difference.”