Laker Rally Says a Lot

ORLANDO, Fla. â€”  Shaquille O’Neal scored 30 points and the Lakers found their fourth-quarter sensibilities on Wednesday night, a combination that might eventually improve the mood of a certain dour center.

But, although O’Neal spoke to the masses for the first time in more than two weeks, and he smiled for the folks of his adopted hometown, he was not ready to love these Lakers after a choppy eight weeks.

“Not yet,� O’Neal said. “Not yet. But I’ll be able to tell around March and April. ... We lose to [bad] teams and all that stuff. But, around March or April, I’ll be able to tell.�

On the broad back of O’Neal, the Lakers defeated his former Orlando Magic, 111-93, at TD Waterhouse Centre, where he also had 14 rebounds. Despite playing two consecutive nights, the kind of thing that irritates his arthritic and sensitive big toe, O’Neal was powerful and accurate on offense; he made 13 of 19 attempts and had four assists.

The Lakers scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter and from late in the third to well into the fourth they outscored the Magic, 25-4. It was a disturbing way to lose for the Magic, which could not defend itself against O’Neal and still led by 11 points with nine minutes left in the third quarter. It did not go well after that.

“We had too many guys hanging their heads,� Magic Coach Doc Rivers said.

Kobe Bryant scored 15 of his 23 points in the final 18 minutes. The Magic shot 45% for three quarters, then missed its first eight shots of the fourth quarter, when it shot 29.2%, and lost its seventh consecutive game to the Lakers.

Orlando was seven for 15 from the three-point arc in the first half, four for 16 in the second.

So, the Lakers are 2-1 on a trip that still has Memphis and Dallas ahead, and O’Neal has come out of his shell, and Phil Jackson finally got his fourth quarter back.

“We made up for the fact that we were on our heels for much of the night,� Jackson allowed. “The contrasts in games and the contrasts in outside versus inside was very obvious. I called a couple of timeouts and yelled at the team for not going inside. But the Magic were really packing it in.�

He’d harped frequently lately on their recent careless fourth quarters, particularly in the midst of losses to Chicago, Miami, Denver and the Clippers in that dismal 11 days. They stood Wednesday two points behind the Magic at the start of the fourth, then rode Orlando from the defensive side. Devean George denied the ball to Tracy McGrady, and Brian Shaw had a key steal, and the Magic players became unsure of themselves.

“We picked up our defense a little bit,� O’Neal said. “In the first half, they shot the lights out, but we knew we had a chance. They weren’t shooting the same in the second half and we just got it inside and Kobe lit it up.�

Jackson sat O’Neal for the first three minutes of the final quarter, by which time the Lakers had scored the first eight points. Bryant, who missed a breakaway dunk in the first half, had two loud ones in the fourth quarter, sending Magic fans into the night.

Bryant missed 14 of 23 field-goal attempts, most of the kind that fell Tuesday in Atlanta. But, being Bryant, , he kept firing, and his offense pushed the Lakers.

“I was persistent,� he said. “Being persistent was the key.

“It’s weird. But you knew because you were hot for a week, you knew it can come back really quickly.�

George scored 13 points and Rick Fox scored 12.

Former Laker Horace Grant, the Magic’s best interior player, was said to be suffering from an intestinal virus and he stayed home, and the Lakers got a huge kick out of that.

A few had predicted at the afternoon shoot-around that Grant might come down with something, seeing that Patrick Ewing was on the injured list, leaving only Grant and Shaq and a national television audience. Veteran savvy, they called it, amused. They had figured back spasms.

On the greaseboard in the Laker locker room, “Where’s Horace?� was written in what looked very much to be Jackson’s hand. Beneath it, someone else wrote, “Shaq-arhea.�

It’s like Shaq-itis, but doesn’t travel as well.

“I don’t blame Horace,� Jackson had said. . “And I’ll miss him tonight.�

For a lot of the game, the Laker defensive strategy appeared to be to leave the Magic shooters open and hope they missed. Pat Garrity made a lot of shots that way. He scored 22 points, which held off the Lakers while McGrady worked up his offensive appetite. McGrady also scored 22, only three in the fourth quarter, when it all went wrong for him.