For O’Neal, Little Things Matter

He claims he is the top-ranked officer, calls himself the real general manager of the Lakers and Thursday night Shaquille O’Neal was playing the role of Times sports editor.

“Make sure you write that I was rebounding my [butt] off,” O’Neal said.

Got it.

At this point it’s not a news story but what we in the biz call a trend piece.

Shaquille has double-digit rebounds in 10 consecutive games. In the five games beginning with the finale of the second round he is averaging 17.8 rebounds, including the 19 he hauled in during the Lakers’ 92-85 victory over Minnesota in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

In the past Phil Jackson had to prod O’Neal to rebound and block shots, privately and in the media. No such prompts from the coach this year.

“He just stepped it up,” Jackson said.

If it’s strange to hear Karl Malone and Gary Payton, erstwhile franchise guys, referred to as role players this season, it’s been just as jarring to watch O’Neal make his mark on the boards and on defense. His point total matched his rebound total Thursday night.

“I’m just trying to do the little things at times,” O’Neal said. “A lot of guys on this team demand shots. I don’t really get the 20 to 25 shots I used to get. I block shots, get some rebounds.

“Just trying to do the little things.”

Little things mean a lot, especially in the playoffs. It isn’t just the swollen numbers in the boxscore, such as the three blocked shots Thursday. It’s sequences such as the one in Game 3, when Minnesota center Ervin Johnson quickly passed the ball when he saw O’Neal looming over him, then Latrell Sprewell drove the lane and passed out to Sam Cassell for a three-pointer.

That’s O’Neal turning layups into jump shots simply by his presence.

If you want to know why the Lakers had a 42-32 edge in points in the paint during Game 4, start with O’Neal.

“Shaq was terrific inside, rebounding, controlling the middle,” Jackson said.

One reason is that Johnson, Michael Olowokandi and Oliver Miller are about as dangerous as stuffed animals on offense, so O’Neal can roam. Against Houston in the first round, he had to stick tight with Yao Ming and averaged only 11.8 rebounds that series.

He’s averaging 15.7 since.

He averaged 15.4 rebounds a game in both of his first two championship runs. He’s also hauling out a word that he used a lot in 2000 and 2001, one that hasn’t been heard as much since: “mission.”

Back then he also went for 30 points a game. Now, with the ascension of Bryant and the addition of Payton and Malone, he doesn’t need to handle as much of the scoring duties. And it’s because of something else: the maturation of O’Neal.

He still can act like the Big Adolescent when it comes to money or attention or touches. But he is not solely concerned with scoring at the moment. When he gets the ball -- even when Mark Madsen is standing behind him, squatting and pushing like an Olympic weightlifter, offering a clear view to the basket -- O’Neal looks around for teammates cutting to the basket or standing open on the perimeter. He knows that a second defender will be heading his way as soon, so he’s ready to pass.

That doesn’t mean O’Neal has gone Dennis Rodman on us. When O’Neal does shoot he continues to do so at a high percentage. He made six of 10 from the field Thursday and has hit 58% of his shots in the playoffs.

He might be feeling a lack of respect, with mumbling that he’s slowing down, that he’s past his prime, that he’ll never be the old Shaq.

He had respect from the one group that mattered Thursday: the officials. He got the superstar benefit.

After pointing out the 43-14 free-throw disparity in Game 3, the Timberwolves tried to force the whistles by attacking the basket. Garnett, Fred Hoiberg and Latrell Sprewell each drew contact from O’Neal in the first half without a foul being called, as if the officials didn’t dare give him his third foul before halftime.

“You’ve got to put the officials into a position to call it,” Garnett said. “I felt like we did that, but they didn’t call it. At that point it’s like playing against eight people.”

If it’s any consolation, O’Neal was going one-on-six on the boards, if you count the friendly competition with Karl Malone.

O’Neal and Malone like to fight each other for rebounds, and there have been times this season when Malone was more active, when he was the one snatching balls away from the bigger man and talking trash as he did it.

That wasn’t happening Thursday.

“He came over and said, ‘I’m getting every rebound. I’ll leave you some scraps if you want ‘em,’ ” said Malone, who ate enough leftovers to get 11 rebounds himself.

“I went up one time and he said ‘Mine! Dammit, I said, mine!’

“I said, ‘All right, it’s yours.’ ”

“He was just a beast all night inside and stayed focused. His mind-set is kind of going to a different area right now.”

Straight to the editor’s desk.

He keeps rebounding this way, soon enough he’ll be assigning people to cover the championship parade.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.

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Center of Attention

Although Shaquille O’Neal has not shot well from the free-throw line, he has been a force in this series, especially on the boards:

*--* Average Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 MINUTES 41.25 41 40 44 40 FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 6.5-11.5 9-16 4-10 7-10 6-10 FREE THROWS-ATTEMPTS 7.5-15.5 9-11 6-14 8-22 7-15 POINTS 20.5 27 14 22 19 REBOUNDS 17.5 18 16 17 19 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS 5.5 5 6 7 4 ASSISTS 4.0 5 3 4 4 BLOCKS 3.25 4 2 4 3

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