Without O’Neal, Lakers Are Pained

We don’t know the state of his left knee.

We cannot imagine the state of his right big toe.

But we now know his state of mind.

Shaquille O’Neal, unlike in earlier seasons, seems unwilling to play through the sort of pain that will be necessary for his team to win a fourth consecutive championship.

That’s scarier than any injury.

The pain might be unbearable, unfathomable, unbelievable.

But, so, too, is the idea that the Lakers will not win another title because their best player is not up for the fight.

This was the only reasonable conclusion that could be drawn Tuesday when the Lakers and their fans and the calendar begged for his appearance against the Houston Rockets.

All wanted O’Neal to say, “Yao!”

But, instead, he said, “Ow!”

Instead of arriving on the white horse that we have come to expect for such games, O’Neal rode in on a golf cart.

Instead of dominating the middle of the floor as he can do even at 50% strength, he watched from the middle of the locker room.

Instead of a pregame statement from a doctor, it came from a coach.

“There is no injury, there is no physical reason he couldn’t play, according to the doctor,” Phil Jackson said. “He just has to make the decision himself.”

It was about the pain. We cannot question the pain. It was so bad, he received a shot of cortisone in his right big toe before the game. There is nothing anyone can say about the pain.

But there is something that we know about playing in pain. It was something somebody has taught us over the last three springs. His name is Shaquille O’Neal.

We have seen O’Neal play with a toe so badly in need of surgical repair, he limped up the court.

We have seen him run off the floor with a sliced thumb in the first half, and return to dominate in the second half.

We have seen him win championships with bad ankles, and sore wrists, and a stomach badly inflamed by anti-inflammatory drugs.

But now, in the biggest game so far this season, to not see him at all?

O’Neal didn’t talk to reporters beforehand, but his behavior in recent weeks has raised another issue.

Maybe it’s not only the Laker role players who aged or slowed during the summer.

Maybe it’s also O’Neal’s once-extraordinary desire.

This space has repeatedly given him the benefit of the doubt about the late timing of his toe surgery, which led to the Lakers’ slow start.

He was confused, he was maybe a bit frightened, his career was at stake, he wanted to get it right. And after bringing this town three title rings, hadn’t he earned the opportunity to move slow?

That’s what this sucker thought.

Then, two weeks ago, O’Neal told the Chicago Sun-Times that the delay was about something else entirely.

“Since I suffered the injury on company time, why shouldn’t I also be able to get surgery and do recovery on company time?” he told a reporter. “If a regular worker gets injured and sick on his job, do they force him to use his vacation time to have an operation and to get well? I shouldn’t have to spend the whole year on the job. I deserve to enjoy some vacation, too.”

Company time? Regular worker?

Since when did this nine-month-a-year job become a stint in a coal mine?

Since when is it OK for athletes to compromise their relatively short work time because they want a vacation?

Judging from those comments, which O’Neal did not deny, he delayed the surgery because he didn’t feel a fourth championship was worth an extraordinary sacrifice.

What happened Tuesday confirms that.

The Lakers won, 106-99, in double overtime, tying the Rockets for the eighth and final playoff spot with 30 games left.

Kobe Bryant was wonderful, the defense was persistent, the effort was impressive.

But in the long run, without O’Neal, it’s all calisthenics.

No matter how many times Bryant scores more than 40 points or dunks on 7-foot-5 guys, it’s all whipped cream on a season whose depth and texture is supplied entirely by O’Neal.

Without O’Neal on the court and acting like his old self, the Lakers don’t have a chance at a fourth championship.

“We need him out there on the floor if we want to win,” Jackson said for the umpteenth time. “We are 30% of our club if he’s not there.

“We’re not even 50%, like we were last year, but 30%.”

During the three Laker playoff marches, O’Neal averaged 30 points and 14 rebounds.

This season, he’s averaging 26 points and 11 rebounds.

A small difference? Look at the standings, and what do you think?

They are 23-15 with O’Neal. They are 4-10 without him.

Maybe the biggest shame about Shaquille O’Neal’s absence Tuesday was that he couldn’t see what the rest of the crowd at Staples Center saw.

Kobe Bryant, going up and down the floor, scoring, diving, dealing.

Limping.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.