O’Neal Forgot to Call Team

Shaquille O’Neal had “husbandly duties,” he said, on Monday that prevented him from attending practice, which might have been fine with Coach Phil Jackson had O’Neal been kind enough to notify him directly.

If there is a fine it will be light, probably no more than what O’Neal was ordered to pay more than a year ago, when he missed two practices -- instead of the sanctioned one -- to attend the birth of his daughter.

“I wasn’t planning on practicing him anyway,” Jackson said Tuesday. “But I didn’t talk to him. I wish he would have called me. Then I could have excused him from practice if he really had a good reason.”

After Sunday’s All-Star game in Atlanta, O’Neal told a Laker public relations employee there that he would miss Monday’s practice because of a medical appointment for his wife, Shaunie, and he asked that the message be passed along to Jackson and General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Asked before Tuesday’s game why he didn’t call Jackson or Kupchak himself, O’Neal said, “I don’t have to call. I’m Colin Powell.”

Told Powell probably calls President Bush when he has been delayed, O’Neal said, “Not all the time. Bush trusts him. They should trust me.”

*

Denver forward Nikoloz Tskitishvili was arrested while driving to the Denver airport for the team flight Monday afternoon, spent five hours in jail before being released, only to return to the scene to find his Lincoln Navigator had been stolen.

Tskitishvili was pulled over for having an expired temporary license plate. Officers discovered a month-old warrant for a moving violation, for which Tskitishvili said he forgot to pay the ticket. The SUV was left at the side of the road, where it was stolen and, before it could be located, stripped.

The rookie from the Republic of Georgia paid his own airfare for a flight to Los Angeles, where he arrived just before midnight.

*

TONIGHT

At Denver, 6 PST, Ch. 9

Site -- Pepsi Center.

Radio -- KLAC (570), KWKW (1330), KIRN (670).

Records -- Lakers 25-23, Nuggets 12-38.

Record vs. Nuggets -- 2-0.

Update -- The Lakers are 3-6 in the second of back-to-back games, but they have won their last three -- against Utah, Phoenix and Toronto.