Even Tempered

Shaquille O’Neal, who had come and gone for the better part of a week, stood 25 feet from the basket early Wednesday afternoon in El Segundo, seeming somehow less bleary than the rest of the Lakers, despite his schedule, a newborn at home, all of it.

“OK,” he shouted from the top of the key, a grin taking over his face, “if I hit one of three, I don’t have to talk. Deal?”

More than a dozen reporters nodded. He made his last three-pointer -- his only three-pointer -- eight years ago. He missed all three, coming closer to injuring embedded journalists than to anything resembling a three-pointer.

“All right,” he said, now at the corner, “if I make this ... “

This, apparently, won’t be the impenetrable postseason of two years ago, or even that of last year, when the Sacramento Kings provided the Lakers with their only real, prolonged fight. Vulnerable in the regular season, the Lakers are again in April, depending on which rout you’d consider the fluke -- Sunday’s by the Lakers or Tuesday’s by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

They’ll play Game 3 tonight at Staples Center, their second home game in two weeks. They’ll hope O’Neal is rested after a rigorous week in which his emotions lurched from distraught to jubilant, and still he showed up to work on time and put in his hours and carried on.

“Who knows if there’ll just be a collapse after all this tension flying around, an extreme amount of emotion?” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “But I anticipate he’s coming back to a situation where he can get some rest and come back and play a little bit. It’s obviously noticeable in the first half that he hadn’t played basketball in a couple of days and wasn’t handling the ball right, or quickly, with a sense of urgency. But he’s fine. He played the second half quite well.”

O’Neal had 32 points and 10 rebounds in a 19-point victory in Game 1, 27 and 14 in a 28-point loss in Game 2. In three days, the Lakers gained home-court advantage but perhaps no better understanding of what will bring their fourth consecutive championship. Other than, of course, the physical health of Kobe Bryant and the spiritual sturdiness of O’Neal, the two men on which the last three titles have turned.

O’Neal, whose grandfather has been gone for a week today, sat and lowered his head a little. A very public personality, O’Neal has grown private over the loss of Sirlester O’Neal. He spoke only briefly Sunday in Minneapolis, left the next day to attend the wake in South Carolina, returned Tuesday and left the arena late that night without speaking.

“It was difficult,” he said Wednesday in a whisper. “It was trying. But I had good friends, good family, good organization to help me get through it. Phil [Jackson] and Dr. [Jerry] Buss and Mitch [Kupchak] took care of me, and we took care of Game 1. Game 2, we made some mistakes. They just came out extra hard and shot the ball better than we did and had too many guys in double figures. We just have to slow one or two of their guys down. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

Several times in 10 minutes, O’Neal started answers by describing the emotions of the week and ended them with thoughts of basketball, and the Timberwolves, and the importance of defending Kevin Garnett and Troy Hudson, and getting their own games together.

“I just try to think about the positive things that are going on in my life,” he said. “But, yeah, basketball is good for me and helps me be who I am. It helps put a smile on people’s faces. So, we’re at home now. I get to sleep in my bed, do what I do to get ready for the game.

“Great people, great friends, great people in this city. I’m home.”

Jackson said he’d have to figure a way to get O’Neal the basketball in more advantageous places than at the top of the key, which is where the Timberwolf press often brought O’Neal in Game 2. So, the offense started very often from 20 feet out, which led to misses, which led to half of the Twin Cities’ population galloping out the other way, which made a mess of the Laker defense.

Meanwhile, Garnett had the Shaquille-ian numbers of 35 points and 20 rebounds, 19 of the rebounds on the defensive end, thanks to the 58 misses by the Lakers.

It only gets very complicated if the Timberwolves retake home-court advantage. They beat the Lakers here Dec. 1, but overall the Lakers have won 24 of 27 games in Los Angeles against the Timberwolves.

The Lakers missed their chance to remove the doubt from the series’ outcome and place it squarely in the middle of the Timberwolf locker room, along with the Timberwolf psyche. So, the Lakers’ first round won’t be as simple as one flight to Minnesota and one flight back, as Tuesday’s loss has brought a Game 5 at Target Center -- at least -- into the series.

Now, Jackson said, if he could get a call or two: The Timberwolves have shot 18 more free throws than the Lakers have.

“I’m sure they’re going to try to come out and duplicate what they did on their home court,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to go to the foul line the numbers of times they went to the foul line. At the end of the half, just reviewing the tape, I didn’t see the kind of fouls that were rewarded to them going in that direction if they’re on a visitor’s court.

“I think there were some really poor calls down the stretch of that first half, a three-seconds [violation] on Shaq that was a poor call by [referee] Jackie Nies. And some things like that that wouldn’t happen if you’re on your own court.”

The emphasis now is on doing something with Garnett and getting a hand or an arm or a shoe in the vicinity of Hudson’s jumper. Now simple maintenance is not enough. The Timberwolves hit back. Hard.

Bryant, ever cool, shrugged and said it merely let them all know they’re in it, much as a few minutes of “The Osbournes” lets you know you’re in the mainstream. Bryant, ever optimistic, ever grinding toward the next challenge, actually sounded perky about the fact the Timberwolves weren’t going to fall over dead after all.

“You don’t like the feeling of the other team taking the game to you,” he said, “but at the same time it kind of excites you because it says the playoffs are here. I’m upset about the loss, but excited about getting back to Staples Center and getting it on. I can’t wait.”

It seems he’ll have O’Neal along with him, or at least trying to keep up.

“I don’t know,” O’Neal said. “This is going to be one of the toughest weeks of my life. I won’t know how to deal with it until it’s over. Of course I can say what I’m going to do, but I don’t know.”