Frontcourt Gets Even Thinner

Shaquille O’Neal held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart on Sunday afternoon, indicating that much better and not how high he can jump, if reporters read the gesture accurately, so not yet ready to play on his strained calf with the Cleveland Cavaliers in town tonight.

What was going to be a big weekend for Karl Malone -- Coach Phil Jackson had hoped to have him on the practice floor and angling toward playing Wednesday, when he can be activated from the injured list -- didn’t materialize.

“He’s not ready,” Jackson said, adding later, “I don’t even want to talk about it until it’s a reality.”

Jackson also said that power forward Horace Grant had left the club to tend to his ailing father.

Grant notified the Lakers on Sunday morning that he’d left Los Angeles, according to Jackson. John Black, team spokesman, said he thought Grant had gone to Atlanta after receiving a telephone call from his sister that their father was taken to an Atlanta-area emergency room.

It is, then, fortuitous for the Lakers that 6-foot-11 Jamal Sampson, 6-8 Luke Walton and 6-9 Brian Cook have been getting playing time lately, because the Lakers’ starting frontcourt against the Cavaliers could be 6-8 Devean George at small forward, 6-10 Slava Medvedenko at power forward and Sampson at center. The Cavaliers start 6-9 Carlos Boozer, 6-8 Eric Williamsand 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskasacross the front.

Include Gary Payton’s sinus ailment -- he sat out Saturday and practiced Sunday, but Jackson did not believe he felt well -- and the Lakers could have only nine players tonight. The prospect has forced Jackson to consider a glance at the rosters of the National Basketball Development League, if only for 10-day reinforcements, though his expectations for that are low.

“We’re probably going to have to sit down and talk about that a little bit,” he said.

*

If it were up to Jackson, neither Cleveland rookie LeBron James, who turned 19 on Dec. 30, nor Kobe Bryant, who played his first NBA game as an 18-year-old, would have scored a point before their 20th or 21st birthdays.

“I don’t care who they are,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they can play or not. It’s life skills. It’s experience with dealing with whatever’s out there.... The NBA has to be able to wait. Our talent people have to be able to wait.

“The lifestyle is very difficult. We’ve ended up becoming a service for growth. The colleges were doing that for us in the NBA for years. Now, we’ll hire a chef, we’ll hire a launderer, we’ll hire a mom, we’ll hire somebody to come and live with them so they can perform. This young man [James] has a lot of maturity, but it doesn’t matter. We know from experience, having lived through it, what it means.”

Jackson did not mean Bryant, in particular, but included Bryant in his observations.

“There is now a track record of almost 10 years,” he said.

TONIGHT

vs. Cleveland, 7, TNT

Site: Staples Center.

Radio: KLAC-AM (570), KWKW-AM (1330).

Records: Lakers 22-11, Cavaliers 11-25.

Record vs. Cavaliers (2002-03): 1-1.

Update: LeBron James averages 19.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists. Jason Kapono, born in Long Beach and a product of Artesia High and UCLA, averages 4.3 points in about 11 minutes a game for the Cavaliers.