Old Act Flops With Jackson

Shaquille O’Neal was out of Sunday’s game inside of five minutes, having been called for two offensive fouls before the courtside Maloof brothers had led their first wave at Arco Arena.

While much of the postgame and day-after analysis of the 17-point loss to the Sacramento Kings centered on Kobe Bryant, O’Neal had one of the least productive 31 minutes of his career. Due in part but not entirely to foul trouble, he had 10 points, five rebounds and five turnovers.

In a critical eight-day stretch in which the Lakers played four games and won one, falling from first to fourth in the Western Conference, O’Neal reached his scoring average (21.4) once and his rebounding average (11.4) twice. By the end of the week he’d stopped wearing the sleeve on his sore right knee, said he felt fine and twice played more than 40 minutes, though at times the offense revolved around Bryant and not him.

On Monday, Coach Phil Jackson said one of the reasons he’d refused to take questions Sunday afternoon was to eliminate the urge to criticize the referees. His musings on the league and its referees this season cost him $100,000.

But, by Monday, having watched the first quarter again, Jackson still was frustrated by the officiating, particularly when it came to O’Neal in the post against King center Vlade Divac.

“Shaq got taken out of the ballgame,” Jackson said. “The NBA has been watching these games for how many years? We played them in the playoffs for four out of the five years? Every time at the beginning of the game, Vlade does all the same stuff, and the referees fall for the same Vlade flop stuff year in and year out. And if they don’t know enough -- and I went over to the referee [Tim Donaghy] and said, ‘If you don’t know enough to [let them] play through that stuff, you’re just eliminating Shaq from the game.’ You don’t want to take him out of the game. You don’t want to make this game different from what it should be. And players shouldn’t be rewarded for this kind of an act. You’re rewarding this guy for this act. That’s totally unfortunate.”

O’Neal would only say that Sunday’s game was “predetermined,” presumably by the referees.

“Obviously,” he said, “I’m not allowed to say what I want to say without being fined.”

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The league office is investigating O’Neal’s use of a vulgarity on live television after Sunday’s loss in Sacramento, though he is not expected to be fined or suspended. ... O’Neal sprained his left ankle during Monday’s practice, but thought he would be fine. ... Rick Fox, examined by hand specialist Norman Zemel on Monday, could require three weeks to recover from his dislocated right thumb. While Jackson expects Fox to be on the playoff roster, he might not be available to play until the second round. ... Kareem Rush practiced Monday despite a sprained right ankle. ... Horace Grant, told Friday he would not be on the playoff roster, said he intended to play again next season and hoped it would be for the Lakers, regardless of how the team is constructed.