Lakers Take Their Shots

Shaquille O’Neal was struck hard in the face at least twice, probably more. He was spun and hacked and held, and sometimes the referees saw and sometimes they did not.

“It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t hurt.”

He wiped his face, and tucked in his jersey, and dutifully trudged to the free-throw line on a night they weren’t falling from there. At the end of four losses in six games, of two weeks of indecipherable basketball, it was O’Neal who took the Lakers from dreadful to good enough, who allowed them to win while playing at something less than their best.

On Sunday night at Staples Center, with Karl Malone on the bench and O’Neal under the rim, the Lakers moved the basketball and found a win. They beat Boston, 105-82, the Celtics determined to take out the Lakers from the line, O’Neal seemingly as determined to play through it.

He scored 22 points and took 16 rebounds, leading the Lakers to a 55-35 rebounding edge. He got off only 10 shots, because the Celtics closed and swung hard, put the ball in his hand, and tried to hold on.

“It’s cool,” he said. “I just wish they called it by the rules a little more. I always thought when you get hit in the head it’s a flagrant [foul].”

The Lakers tried not to bother with the details.

On the verge of four more days between games, and having lost Thursday to the Houston Rockets and two days before that to the Golden State Warriors, it was enough to duck their eighth loss. Along came the Eastern Conference Celtics, long in range of shot and short in breadth of shoulder, just in time for the Lakers to press their advantage of O’Neal over a procession of lanky centers. He made only 10 of 20 free-throw attempts, but the Celtics’ preoccupation with fronting him and frantically helping from the weak side opened up Derek Fisher (15 points in 21 minutes), Horace Grant (10 points, 29 minutes) and Gary Payton, who had 13 points and six assists despite a sore thumb and heel.

“It hurts, but that’s the process of basketball,” Payton said. “I go through that. There’s going to be a period of time when I’m feeling kind of bad. I just gotta take my time and get well and go to treatment.... I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine in a couple weeks.”

The Lakers made eight three-pointers, as many as they’ve had in a win this season. They shot only 43%, some of that attributable to Kobe Bryant’s five-for-18, some of it due to their 23 three-point attempts. Bryant missed 12 of his last 13 shots, even as the Lakers pulled away.

The Celtics scored 33 points in the second half, which began with them down by eight, and concluded with their being hopelessly outdone.

“Slump? The Lakers?” Celtic Coach Jim O’Brien said, his eyebrows high on his forehead. “It didn’t look like a slump to us. Beat the livin’ [heck] out of us tonight.”

The Lakers had been acting old and distracted, a malady of December, perhaps, a result of Malone’s injury, for sure.

But, braced for the kind of game the East often brings, the Lakers nodded wearily at their 21 turnovers and their sometimes-fractured play. Paul Pierce scored 24 points and Vin Baker scored 13. But nothing really hurt. The Lakers fed O’Neal, sometimes without conscience or accuracy, and lived off his game. He scored his 21,000th career point in the third quarter, the announcement bringing polite applause. He’s passed Mitch Richmond, George Gervin, David Robinson, Bob Pettit and Walt Bellamy on the all-time scoring list since October, moving into 22nd place.

The last points came particularly hard; O’Brien’s intent was to foul O’Neal when he came within the shadow of the backboard, and so the Celtics had at him. His free throws were a bit flat and a touch hard, but he pushed when they shoved and only once lost his temper slightly, flinging Michael Stewart aside after Stewart was particularly rough and around the head.

“It was a tough grind, not a pretty game,” Phil Jackson said. “But there were a lot of open shots.”

In the third quarter, when the Lakers all but finished the Celtics with 11 second-chance points and 12 points in the paint, O’Neal had nine points and six rebounds.

“Yeah,” O’Brien said effusively of O’Neal. “He’s a good player.”