Lakers Need a Pecking Order to Rebound

Deepening shades of night are falling. It’s the twilight of the Laker demigods.

Eight seasons of Shaquille O’Neal and (or vs.) Kobe Bryant have led us wobbling into today and the most eagerly awaited NBA game since Michael Jordan left the Bulls, which will go a long way toward deciding these Finals, not to mention the Lakers’ future and the league’s balance of power.

Let’s just say that one week before Bryant becomes a free agent is sort of a bad time for O’Neal to start mewing about not getting the ball from you-know-whom.

Despite all the conjecture about what Bryant was feeling, it was clear nothing really counted -- not his rage last fall, winter’s isolation from teammates, or the spring thaw -- until the season ended, and would depend on the Last Thing That Happened.

So when the Detroit Pistons turned their world upside down and O’Neal started signaling his exasperation with Bryant, and Bryant began suggesting his indifference at O’Neal’s exasperation, it wasn’t great news for the Lakers.

With any other team so split at such a critical point, you’d just write them off.

The Lakers, on the other hand, have been putting aside petty differences, if briefly, and competing at a high level every step of the way, so anything remains possible.

Of course, first they’ll have to get the pecking order straight, which is hard for O’Neal, since he’s no longer atop it.

Only 32, but having missed 45 games in three seasons, his numbers are down across the board. For the first time, he’s being asked about his decline.

Not that this isn’t his idea of fun, but Saturday he interrupted his usual spring-charm offensive and refused to talk.

Not that this should have come as a surprise. O’Neal was easy enough to upset when everyone was prostrating themselves before him, and didn’t figure to be any happier in his sunset years.

“Of course I’m getting older,” he conceded Friday, “but I’m not slow and weak....

“I can still cause people to send three or four guys. I can still cause defenders to flop and beg for the call. Of course, I’m slower and weaker but I’m still me.

“I’m still Diesel and I look better than you, so it doesn’t matter.”

O’Neal also said they had to punish the Pistons inside but were “relying on jumpers too much.”

Unfortunately for the Lakers, this put him at odds with Bryant, who was asked what he could do to get O’Neal more touches.

“We’re not worried about getting him more touches,” Bryant said. “We’re worried about winning the game.”

Until this season, O’Neal was right, whether or not it was self-serving: The ball was supposed to go inside and Bryant often played backward, me-first and outside-in.

That was when O’Neal was the old Shaq, unstoppable in single coverage, which Eastern Conference coaches kept trying because they hadn’t seen him enough to understand how awesome he could be.

Now he’s more like “great” than “dominating,” the problem being the Lakers are used to the latter.

The ball is going inside -- Bryant has 16 assists, more than point guards Gary Payton and Derek Fisher combined -- but O’Neal can’t always do something with it.

Other times, especially late in games, O’Neal doesn’t look as if he really wants it.

He’s now being single-covered by Ben Wallace, who’s actually about 6-feet-7 1/2, 250 pounds; Rasheed Wallace, no monster at 6-11, 250; Elden Campbell, who’s becoming a folk hero for containing O’Neal; and sometimes even Corliss Williamson, who’s 6-6, 260.

Once, O’Neal was a front line all by himself, making up for power forwards as old as A.C. Green and Horace Grant, or as soft as Samaki Walker, or as willowy as Robert Horry.

Now cresting the hill, O’Neal isn’t far enough down the other side that there’s anyone better at the position, but it’s far enough that he fades as games go on and struggles on short rest.

In three previous Finals, O’Neal averaged 36 points, 15 rebounds and 2.9 blocks. In this one, he’s at 26, 8.7 and 0.7.

Not getting the ball could, in theory, explain the scoring drop-off, but not a 48% drop in rebounds and a 76% drop in blocks.

O’Neal has 26 rebounds in the Finals. Karl Malone has 24 in 30 fewer minutes, on one leg.

The difference is most dramatic late when O’Neal tires and the Pistons crash the boards in waves. In the second halves of Games 2 and 3, the Lakers were outrebounded, 45-27.

Happily for the Lakers, going into what could be O’Neal and Bryant’s next-to-last stand, they’ve had two days off, as opposed to one before Games 2 and 3.

O’Neal is stronger with an extra day (he has averaged 18 points on one day’s rest, 25 on two or more.)

The world has jumped off the Lakers’ bandwagon, but if they are being outhustled, they’re not exactly overmatched.

Playing against a better team would be one thing, but dialing up your effort to match that of your opponents and remembering to block them off the boards is doable.

Normally a team that has been humiliated is eager to play as soon as possible. The elderly Lakers would have been OK if they’d had to lay over here a week before Game 4.

“It’s been real good for us,” Bryant said Saturday. “We get a chance to get healthy and make our adjustments. So these couple of days have been very good for us.”

Of course, the Lakers would have one day’s rest for Game 5 here and Game 6 in Staples Center, if there is one, so they’d be well advised to get this one.

Just in case this is the end or the beginning of the end, it has been fun.

On the other hand, they’re still the Lakers, for the moment at least, so it’s never over till it’s over.

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What a Difference a Day Makes

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During the regular season, Shaquille O’Neal put up better numbers when the Lakers had three or more days rest before a game. Against the Pistons in the NBA Finals, O’Neal had his best performance in Game 1 (a game-high 34 points on 13-of-16 shooting) when the Lakers had five days off before the start of the series. O’Neal’s worst effort came in last Thursday’s loss (14 points on seven-of-14 shooting) when the team had only 48 hours between games 2 and 3.

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O’NEAL IN REGULAR SEASON

*--* REST G MPG FG% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG BPG PPG 0 Days 15 36.9 557 459 3.6 7.9 11.5 3.1 2.5 22.1 1 Day 35 37.7 583 510 4.0 7.6 11.6 2.7 2.5 22.3 2 Days 10 38.7 640 484 3.7 9.4 13.1 3.5 3.0 21.9 3 Days 3 41.0 674 368 4.3 8.7 13.0 3.3 5.0 24.0 4+ Days 4 43.7 612 568 6.0 9.3 15.3 3.0 2.3 27.0

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O’NEAL IN PLAYOFFS

*--* REST G MPG FG% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG BPG PPG 0 Days NONE 1 Day 12 41.4 53.5 39.2 3.9 8.9 12.8 2.3 2.8 18.3 2 Days 3 43.0 55.1 28.1 5.3 8.3 13.7 3.0 2.3 21.3 3 Days 3 41.0 68.1 37.8 4.3 8.7 13.0 3.3 5.0 24.0 4+ Days 2 43.0 68.8 74.3 5.0 9.5 14.5 3.0 2.5 30.5

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