O’Neal Fouled Up Against Seattle

The thin line between the Lakers wanting Shaquille O’Neal to become a dominating defensive force inside and wanting him to know when to curb aggressive play became an issue in Saturday’s showdown loss at Seattle.

O’Neal picked up two fouls in the first quarter, was taken out in an attempt to nurse him through to halftime, and returned with 9:30 left in the second quarter, only to pick up his third personal 4 1/2 minutes later. Upon returning to the bench that time, he was greeted by a mini-lecture from Coach Del Harris about knowing when to play it safe.

When O’Neal went out, the Lakers were up by four. When halftime came, they were down five, never to lead again.

“I don’t want to put the burden of the game on Shaquille,� Harris said. “It might sound that way if I were to say him getting the third foul was the turning point. It didn’t cost us the game because we had various opportunities to win. What it cost us was the momentum. I felt like we were dominating at the five-minute mark in the second quarter.

“Great players have to keep themselves in the game. . . . We talked about it. He understands it.�

Said O’Neal: “That’s his job. Me being a disciplined player like I am, I have no ego. Del is the boss.

“Somebody has got to step up at least for four or five minutes. Maybe it was a dumb foul. It was a dumb foul.�

It was also his last one--O’Neal played 22 of 24 minutes in the second half without getting No. 4.

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And then there was the matter of the Lakers’ three-point shooting. Usually solid in that department, a little better than the league average at 35.3% before facing the SuperSonics, they were three of 24 (12.5%) in the 101-95 loss.

Two of the makes were by Nick Van Exel. In 12 tries.

“It was horrible,� he said. “When you get open looks like that, you’ve got to knock them down. I missed way too many.�

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The impact of Vin Baker’s first game against the Lakers as a member of the SuperSonics was obvious: 23 points and 10 rebounds while playing power forward and center. Along with Detlef Schrempf, the Seattle starting forwards outscored Rick Fox and Robert Horry, 42-1, and outrebounded them, 23-11. Baker called it one of the biggest games of his career. . . . The Lakers are off until Wednesday, when New Jersey comes to the Great Western Forum. That starts a stretch in which they will head into the all-star break with four games against teams that today have a combined winning percentage of .602.