Knee Has Shaq Out of Joint

Stopped a few feet from the edge of the practice floor Monday afternoon and asked if he would play against the Houston Rockets tonight, Shaquille O’Neal said, “Probably not,” and this, as it turns out, is because he couldn’t keep up with Kevin Willis.

In the Lakers’ rolling brush fire of a season, there’s always an ember burning somewhere, and now it’s in O’Neal’s left knee. Or is it in Kobe Bryant’s right? The wind keeps shifting here.

With Yao Ming on the way and their playoff spot fleeing, and having lost two consecutive games, both at Staples Center, one with O’Neal having “old Kevin Willis killing me up the court” and the other with O’Neal not on the floor at all, the Lakers practiced with neither of their first-team All-NBA players.

His knee is “sore,” is as technical as the Lakers have gotten with O’Neal’s injury, though he said his medial collateral ligament was swollen. The club would not confirm that and, indeed, made it clear that no tests had been ordered. O’Neal also has some concerns with his surgically repaired toe and, in a new development, his shoulder, but those are less bothersome.

Coach Phil Jackson on Sunday night somewhat playfully suggested a bout with “Ming-itis,” one last stab at motivation that apparently did not register with O’Neal at all.

“I tried to suck it up and be out there with the guys, but when [San Antonio Spur center] Kevin Willis was dusting my ... up the court the other day, then I knew something was wrong,” he said. “[My knee] has always bothered me. But, the other day, I thought, ‘He’s 40 years old and he’s killing me up the court.’ I only get five rebounds. I’m slow to the ball. I just looked bad. Real bad.”

Even if the Lakers are better with him at less than full strength than not at all, O’Neal said, “That’s not acceptable to me, because I look bad, we look bad, you guys write bad. I want to win the whole thing and not just go out and win games. I want to get right before I come back.

“I’m very frustrated because it’s not supposed to be happening. Usually knick-knack injuries go away when I play through them, but it hasn’t gone away. It’s gotten worse.”

Meantime, the anti-inflammatory medication he fears will someday threaten the quality of his post-basketball life has taken none of the sting out of his injuries, and he said he would not increase the dosage. Asked how he felt Monday, he said, “Like Bill Walton,” and laughed, however ruefully.

Bryant, on the other hand, reported that his right knee, recently tightened by tendinitis, was better by Monday morning and that he intended to play against the Rockets, current holders of the last Western Conference playoff spot. The Lakers are a game back, that close in large part because Bryant has scored 35 or more points in nine consecutive games, and at least 40 in the last five.

The more pressing concern is O’Neal, without whom the Lakers are 3-10 and in danger of missing the playoffs after three consecutive championships. Nothing weeps and wobbles quite like a Laker championship season, of course, but this is undeniably different, given the sudden rush to old age and brittle joints and enough losing to bleed the life out of them.

“Every season for us is a jeopardy season,” Bryant said. “Now it seems like the odds are stacked against us. Now, we’re in jeopardy again. That’s what defending a title is.”

The only conclusion that can be drawn through 51 games is that there can be no conclusions drawn, other than that the dark clouds seem to gather faster than the Lakers can shoo them away.

The trading deadline is Thursday, in the middle of a week in which the Lakers are showing the effects of the effort required to close in on the Rockets, for their grind to .500 and beyond. They’ll play the Rockets tonight, the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, then at home against Portland on Friday and the Seattle SuperSonics on Sunday.

As the games pile up, there won’t be many days to heal, and this is supposed to be the light month, before a very demanding March. Jackson, optimistic in some of the worst of times, was in no mood Monday to blather on about O’Neal or their season, and considered his duty to the media completed after exactly 28 seconds.

“I don’t have anything to add or anything to say,” Jackson said, unsmiling. “I don’t know what you guys are doing here in the first place. I’m just going to make it short and brief. Shaq and Kobe did not practice with us today. They both were out with injuries, both of them knee related. And we look forward to the game tomorrow. It should be an exciting game. We don’t know if Shaq is going to play or not. We’ll figure that out in the morning as we go back to it. All right, thank you.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Shaq Factor

A look at how the Lakers have fared with and without Shaquille O’Neal this season:

*--* Category With Without Record 23-15 3-10 FG% 46.5 39.3 Opp. FG% 44.0 43.4 Rebounds 45.8 43.9 Opp. Rebounds 41.0 47.2 Points 101.6 90.8 Opp. Points 98.0 96.2 Kobe points 28.1 34.7

*--*