Lakers Go to a Backup Plan

Karl Malone is on the injured list for the first time in his career and Shaquille O’Neal is in injury limbo again, forced to sit out Sunday night’s game against the Clippers because of a strained calf.

After delaying their decision for as long as they could on Malone, who sprained a knee ligament two weeks ago, the Lakers inhaled and committed to at least five more games without Malone, put O’Neal in civilian clothes and activated Jamal Sampson from the injured list.

“I hate it,” Malone said Sunday night. “But, in the long run, I think it’s the smart thing to do. I was putting pressure on me, on the training staff, on Phil Jackson maybe coaching a different way, all because I never wanted to be on the injured list.

“I hadn’t resigned myself to the injured list, but I didn’t want to hold another player back, Rick Fox or Jamal, either.... In hindsight, maybe we should have started the injured list at the Seattle game.”

If Malone serves the minimum five games on the injured list, he will be eligible to play Jan. 14. That will be his plan.

“Best scenario is me continuing to do what I’m doing,” Malone said of his rehabilitation schedule. “Then, I would have to have two or three really good practices before. But, I have to make sure I don’t push the issue.”

There was some consideration to putting O’Neal on the injured list. The last time he strained his calf, however, he sat out only two games, and the Lakers are hoping for that kind of a recovery. They play Tuesday night at Minnesota and the next night at Denver, and perhaps O’Neal would avoid the strain of the consecutive games. When Jackson asked O’Neal about his calf Sunday, O’Neal responded, “No better.”

The Lakers won the games O’Neal sat out in November, but Malone played in them.

So, rather than coming out of December healthy and happy, the Lakers head to Minnesota lacking much of their inside strength and depth, and without a notion of when it will return. Jackson said he had not spoken to General Manager Mitch Kupchak about bringing in a player for purposes of depth and agreed that the team would be in a mode of survival in the coming weeks.

“I’d like to ... win some of these ballgames,” he said. “We don’t anticipate we’re going to go through this stretch of games [losing]

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Once is OK. If the time comes when Malone can’t stay off the injured list -- a sore knee here, a tight back there -- that’s when he’ll know.

“I used to say that if I were on and off the injured list, I thought it would be time for me to retire,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to hold anybody else back.

“But, this was such a freak accident, I let it go.”

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O’Neal’s 20 points a game could not all come from Kobe Bryant. Could they?

“Kobe’s not the one I’m worried about,” Jackson said. “I think they have to get the ball inside to Slava [Medvedenko] more, is what they have to do.... It’s not that Kobe has to pick it up a notch somewhere else. He’s going to find a way to keep the game competitive because that’s the way he plays basketball. They have to include players on the floor that can help us -- Kareem [Rush], [Derek] Fisher and Slava, basically.”

And yet Bryant, who averaged about 16 field-goal attempts in 28 games before Sunday night, took 10 shots in the first quarter against the Clippers and 15 in the first half.