They’re Feeling Quite Spirited

Cranky and edgy the last time they faced the media after a practice, the Lakers were decidedly more upbeat Wednesday morning, Shaquille O’Neal’s going as far as to welcome the ever-growing throng by bellowing, “Hello, people and peoplettes.”

The Minnesota Timberwolves, plucky to the end, are done, and a new sense of vigor seems to be moving through the Lakers, four victories from a fourth championship in five seasons, a first in 19 seasons for Karl Malone.

Their opponent now decided, the Lakers began Wednesday by breaking down film of the Detroit Pistons, who consider it a banner day whenever they break 75 points and have made it to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1990 primarily because of an active, smothering defense.

The Lakers said the right things after their short practice, praising the Pistons’ defensive speed and acknowledging the need to control the boards.

Coach Phil Jackson even warned that the Lakers better not laugh too hard at the Pistons’ low-scoring series with Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals.

“Perhaps the biggest concern of mine is that the players, simply because the scores were in the 60s or mid-70s, don’t take for granted that this team’s not a good enough offensive team to stay with us,” he said.

Not without their bumps and bruises, the Lakers found their list of ailing continuing to multiply, with Malone, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Devean George experiencing injuries of various degrees.

None are expected to miss Game 1, but Malone’s injury appears to be the most serious, a right knee that swelled up after Monday’s Western Conference finale against the Timberwolves. He had fluid drained from it Tuesday.

George has a sore left knee and Fisher continues to recover from a tender right knee that he said limited him to 75% of his ability Monday. Fox, suffering from neck and shoulder pain, will visit a neurologist today.

Five full days between games has a way of healing those that need it, although Malone and Fisher could continue to be affected.

“Both Fish and Karl have injuries that are going to be debilitating somewhat,” Jackson said. “I think it’s going to be the wearing of the schedule that’s going to be the telltale. I think they’ll be able to push their way through these games early.”

The NBA regular-season schedule matched the Lakers against the Pistons twice in the first 11 games of the Laker season, on Nov. 14 and 18, the only two times they would play each other unless they met in the NBA Finals.

Each team took its separate path to get this far, the Lakers via armloads of discord and disharmony that finally seemed to recede in San Antonio with Fisher’s last-millisecond heave, the Pistons via a sound defensive scheme and a save-the-season deadline trade involving, of all people, Rasheed Wallace, who has taken the term “reinvented” to an entirely different plane.

It was Wallace who used to rack up technical fouls as if they were part of an incentive clause in his contract, few games passing consecutively without him annoying a referee enough to get whistled.

Since joining the Pistons after a one-game stay with the Atlanta Hawks, Wallace has been a model citizen, understanding his place in the offense -- Option No. 2B, behind Richard Hamilton and usually Chauncey Billups. He has even slapped on a set of headphones after games to give insightful TV interviews on occasion, a clear deviation from his anti-media days.

It’s enough to wonder if the Pistons are really as intimidating and irritable as the ones who swept the Lakers in the 1989 Finals.

“They’re pretty lightweight,” Jackson said with a wry smile. “They don’t have the [Rick] Mahorn, [Bill] Laimbeer, [John] Salley, etc., group, that were pretty vicious. Dennis Rodman, all those guys packed a real good punch.”

At the same time, Jackson said his assessment was less an indictment of the current-day crop of Pistons than the current NBA rules, rife with harsher penalties for flagrant fouls and the like.

“The rules were different in the game [in the late 1980s],” he said. “This was a [Detroit] team that if you went in there and took a shot, they were going to pound you a couple of times if the whistle was blown just to make sure you even thought about coming back. Those types of things don’t exist in today’s game.

“You can’t do those activities that Detroit was doing at that time any more in the game. That part of it has changed. The fact that they’re a very good defensive team ... the Pistons of the ‘80s were a very good defensive team.”

O’Neal, for his part, said the past Pistons were “hard-nosed and played hard, much like this Detroit team.” He boiled the series down to the “Fantastic Four against the Wallace guys,” elaborating on Ben and Rasheed Wallace’s importance by implying, once again, that he needs the ball to keep them at bay.

“We definitely have to get the ball inside, get those guys in foul trouble,” O’Neal said. “We just can’t let them roam around and block shots and get rebounds. Those two guys are determining factors in their game. They’re going to go at our big guys, we’ll have to go at their big guys too. They’re going to use their fouls and do whatever everybody else has been trying to do. But if we keep playing the way we’ve been playing, I like our chances.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Previous Encounters

The Lakers and Pistons split their two meetings this season -- held in a span of four days -- with each team winning on its home court. A closer look at the games:

LAKERS 94, PISTONS 89

NOV. 14, 2003

High scorers: Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton, 21; Pistons, Chauncey Billups, 29.

Recap: The Lakers extended their home winning streak to 19 games with the victory that was sealed when O’Neal made two free throws with 20.2 seconds left. O’Neal also had 15 rebounds and eight assists. Payton had a three-point basket late and Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone each scored 16 points. The Lakers, who outrebounded the Pistons, 57-41, held Richard Hamilton to six points.

PISTONS 106, LAKERS 96

NOV. 18, 2003

High scorers: Lakers, O’Neal, Malone, 20; Pistons, Billups, 24.

Recap: The Lakers gave up 33 points in the fourth quarter and went scoreless during a stretch of almost eight minutes. Bryant held Hamilton to 14 points and the Laker guard made all 11 of his free throws but only four of 14 shots. O’Neal picked up three fouls in the first 5:58, had his rhythm disrupted and played only 31 minutes. The Pistons shot 56.8% from the field.