O’Neal Is Out; Others Dig In

Shaquille O’Neal sat out Sunday night, leaving the Memphis Grizzlies to Horace Grant and Slava Medvedenko and the rest of the Lakers, and they won by 32 points, going away, of course, in a season that almost never has been what it seemed.

“They looked good,” O’Neal said as he met his family near his car, him shuffling a bit on a bad calf muscle and none too happy about it.

The Lakers won, 121-89, at Staples Center despite O’Neal’s injury and absence and for dozens of little reasons, double-doubles for Karl Malone, Gary Payton and Slava Medvedenko among them, 26 consecutive successful free-throw attempts among them, a 59.2 field-goal percentage among them.

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points. Malone had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Payton 17 points and 10 assists and Medvedenko, in his first game of the season, rolled off the trainer’s table for 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Bryon Russell, his shot back, also scored 14 points.

Ten-point winners against the Lakers two weeks ago in Memphis, the Grizzlies looked like the different team, ahead, 46-45, 6 1/2 minutes into the second quarter and down 21 not 15 minutes later. Jerry West’s team made 15 of its first 22 field-goal attempts and 19 of its next 50, in part because the Lakers asserted themselves on defense, with 10 steals leading to 24 Grizzly turnovers leading to 29 Laker points.

“We got our dinner served to us tonight,” Grizzly guard Shane Battier said. “It was a funny thing; every time we were trying to make a pass, they got in the way.”

So, the Lakers won their 22nd consecutive regular-season home game and their 23rd in the regular season at Staples, with their biggest margin of the season, with everybody finding shots and taking charges and getting minutes. Four weeks into a season that already has had its moments of conflict and spin, resolution and spin, the Lakers have won 11 of 14 games and three in a row and six of seven.

They are early in a stretch during which they’ll play 12 of 16 games at home and they’ve already won the two games they’ve played without one of their Big Four, opening night against Dallas (Bryant) and Sunday against the Grizzlies (O’Neal). In the meantime, Payton and Malone are finding places to contribute, for now with passes and rebounds, occasionally with points.

While Grant, who had six points and three rebounds in the first quarter in place of O’Neal, said, “You can’t fill shoes like that,” someone on the team had promised Phil Jackson a victory. Jackson said so before the game, and afterward grinned and said, “I guess it was a guarantee and a lock on top of it, but we don’t want to take anything for granted like it’s a done deal.”

The men in the locker room were vague. Most of them.

“I didn’t hear anything about it. I don’t know,” Bryant said.

But, Jackson said ...

“Oh, he did? I didn’t hear anything about that,” Bryant said, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Phil likes to make that stuff up.”

Malone, who played through the tenderness in his left hamstring, said, “We didn’t know he was going to say nothin’ to nobody about it.”

Turned out, it was Bryant, according to sources deep inside the locker room.

“That’s what Kobe said,” one player said, “that, ‘We’re going to win.’ When our big guy says something like that, we gotta back him up.”

Right up until the tip the Lakers called O’Neal’s participation “a game-time decision,” though Jackson had said, “We’ll be surprised if Shaq does play.” So, Grant and Malone showed up expecting to log time at center. Both of their workloads eased because of the blowout, Grant played 27 minutes, all of them at center, and Malone played 26, a few of them in the middle.

“Injuries come up,” Grant said. “You have to deal with it and go on.”

The Lakers were 5-10 without O’Neal last season and are 52-44 without him in eight-plus seasons. Rarely on those occasions had they played with the verve they did against the Grizzlies, but never before had they had Payton and Malone, and the Grizzlies weren’t hard to talk out of their game.

“We were playing as if Shaq was playing,” Grizzly forward Pau Gasol said.

By the end, with the floor filled with bench players, there was hardly anyone left in the arena to sing “I love L.A.,” but it was loud anyway.

“That,” Jackson said, “is what we want to see them play like.”