O’Neal Start Didn’t Go A-Fowl

Near as anyone could tell, three All-Stars played Sunday night in Los Angeles and missed their teams’ practices Monday.

Allen Iverson, who had to fly to Denver to rejoin the Philadelphia 76ers, was late for Monday’s practice. Interim Coach Chris Ford benched him for most of the first quarter, the fourth time in Iverson’s career he had failed to start a game.

Ron Artest said he could not get a flight out of LAX and did not attend Monday night’s Pacer practice in Indianapolis. Coach Rick Carlisle benched him, citing a hard rule that a missed practice means a missed start.

Shaquille O’Neal also missed Monday’s practice, which was held about 20 miles from his house. Phil Jackson joked about calling off the ambulances. O’Neal joked about overturned chicken trucks, “buck-bucks everywhere,” and maybe was fined. Then he started against Portland.

“I don’t get benched,” O’Neal said Wednesday. “Besides, I couldn’t help the hot-sauce truck on the highway.”

The fact is, Jackson said, he understood O’Neal was tired. He was going to suggest O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers’ other All-Star, take Monday off anyway. Bryant insisted on practicing. O’Neal said he needed a break.

“To send a disciplinary note to a team, coaches feel it’s a philosophy they’ve got to uphold,” Jackson said. “There are other ways to be disciplined. There are ideas you can instill in your players about discipline, sacrifice, things you have to do for the team. But, some of it is unnecessary. It’s overkill. And some of it is self-serving. [As a coach], there are times when you feel like you’re the one on the string and you’re being dangled like a puppet, by the game or the process. The players definitely feel that way at times.

“When Rasheed [Wallace] went through his tirade, he used the wrong language, but he had the right inclination, what it feels like to be a player sometimes in this game. A coach has to step up and protect his players from that onslaught.... We have all these things they have to go through, they feel almost like it’s a slavery to the game.”

On Monday, Jackson played along with O’Neal. He called his home in Beverly Hills and asked, “Do you need to go to the doctor? Or can we call off the ambulance corps and say you probably need some rest and you’ll be fine?”

O’Neal, Jackson said, responded, “I’ll be fine.”

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Today’s trading deadline -- noon in Los Angeles -- probably will pass without a Laker deal, General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. Their area of need is the frontcourt and will be filled when Karl Malone comes off the injured list in the next month or so.

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Guard Maurice Carter’s second, and last, 10-day contract expired. The Lakers might choose to maintain flexibility with a 14-man roster.... The Lakers could have interest in Vin Baker, though Baker’s situation remains unclear. Baker’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, will first protect the money he says Baker is owed by the Boston Celtics -- about $36 million -- before embracing free agency.