Knicks Can’t Scare Lakers

Sometimes, it’s just the regular season, and there’s no dressing it up.

And, while there are still things that bring a thrill to Shaquille O’Neal, while there are still games to play and leads to build, heck, sometimes it’s just December, and that’s all it ever will be.

The Lakers beat the New York Knicks, 98-90, Tuesday night at Staples Center, where Jack Nicholson sat on one sideline, Spike Lee across from him on the other, and that would have to do in the spectacle department.

“It was an effective game for us,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “It’s one of those you have in the middle of the season and you look back on at some point, and don’t quite remember what happened on the given night.”

The Lakers had Karl Malone back, won their 10th consecutive game and pushed their NBA-best record to 18-3. Those would be the high points, if they perhaps won’t ever be memorable. The Lakers won their 27th consecutive regular-season home game, a streak that dates to the Knicks’ win here last February, which pretty much sums up all the Knicks have done for going on a decade.

Before the game, O’Neal’s eyes had lighted up.

“Kareem going to be here tonight?” he asked. “Somebody said Kareem’s going to be here tonight. Uh-oh, time to pull out my sky hook.”

He likes what Abdul-Jabbar represents. He likes 7-footers whose jerseys hang on walls, in particular.

While the Lakers are still waiting on a sky hook to fall, O’Neal put up numbers that have become his recent signature. With Abdul-Jabbar seated 10 feet behind the basket nearer the Laker bench, O’Neal had 18 points and 15 rebounds. He didn’t shoot well from the floor (five for 15) or the line (eight for 15), and still punished Dikembe Mutombo (zero points), a center he loves to thrash.

“I threw a couple hooks and let him know that he is still the man and I appreciate him coming and checking me out,” O’Neal said. “Let him know there’s still a dominant Laker big man, that we still live on.”

The Lakers casually dabbled in defense for long periods of time, played when they had do, clung to the four superstars among them, and won again.

If the Knicks have palm prints on their foreheads this morning, it would come from the Laker stiff-arms, the Lakers having played just well enough to walk away.

“You’re going to have games like that in a season,” Malone said. “As long as you realize you can do better, that’s what’s important. It could be a little dangerous. We expect to win. We expect to blow this team out. But, you’re going to have some games like that.”

In his return from the league-levied, one-game suspension for elbowing Steve Nash, Malone had 20 points, the last two at the end of a fastbreak that ended the game, Gary Payton to Kobe Bryant, over the shoulder to Malone. After his ninth assist, Bryant skipped down the floor and laughed, greeting Malone with a hug. Bryant scored 21 points. Payton had 17 points. Bryon Russell had 12 in 29 minutes, along with five rebounds and four steals.

“We’re stalling a little bit,” Bryant said, “as far as our improvement and our execution goes. But, it’s a long season. It feels good to win games as we learn on the fly.”

For the moment, Payton said, “We’re having fun. That’s the focus.”

Once a marquee game in the NBA, the Knicks and Lakers played early December and early-week on cable television, the whole thing largely forgotten in a Laker-tinged world. By virtue of the blue period for the Knicks, the series has lost its edge, despite two Knick wins here in three years.

Even with a couple of uncomely quarters by the Lakers, frozen, it appeared, by moments of apathy, the game lacked drama. The Knicks drew to within four early in the fourth quarter and were still within six with four minutes remaining, when the Lakers waved them away.