Lakers Hit a Rough Spot

SAN ANTONIO —  Where have all the softies gone, long time passing?

It had been a tough ‘90s for professional basketball in South Texas, what with the San Antonio Spurs disappointing annually, and David Robinson tanking every spring, and the community saying it was only going to build them one arena, even if was better suited to a football team.

Even when the Spurs’ fortunes began to change and they posted the league’s best record this season, their reputations followed them. When they lost a game in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the San Antonio Express-News’ Buck Harvey, a veteran who has covered many sad campaigns, wrote, “When the times get tough, the Spurs get tee times.”

Real tough times arrived Monday night in the 7-foot, 330-pound person of Shaquille O’Neal, just in from stomping Hakeem Olajuwon underfoot in Houston and being named king of the world by a consensus vote of Rocket players and coaches, only to find himself buried under a human wave assault.

The 7-2 Robinson started on O’Neal, to be relieved by the 7-0 Will Perdue, then the 6-6 Malik Rose, either for comedy relief or six more fouls.

Then came 6-11 Tim Duncan, Rose again, Robinson again and Perdue again. And that was only in the first half.

“We have four talented post players,” Rose said later, “and 3 1/2 of them have size. We’re going to go at him.”

The other three Spurs who defended O’Neal at least look like post players. Rose looks like a 6-6 fireplug, but he’s strong, combative and he can usually foul Shaq before he gets a shot off, so why not?

“Everybody had a little advice,” said Rose. “Buy life insurance. Get a mask.

“I’m pretty low to the ground. I have a low center of gravity but he’s nimble enough that he can spin off me. That’s when I have to drop the hammer on him.”

O’Neal usually accepts the hacking as part of the job, although once this season, he and Rose had words in the Forum.

“He accused me of trying to choke him,” Rose said. “I fouled him real hard and he went out of control into the basket support. I grabbed him by the shirt to try to catch him. He said I choked him. That’s old news.”

Not so old, because the Spurs made it clear they’ll do anything and everything necessary to keep O’Neal from beating them, alternating four defenders, helping, fouling and yes, going at him as hard and as physically as he goes at them.

O’Neal got off 19 shots into the thickets of defenders surrounding him, got three blocked and made six. That’s not very good for Shaq.

The Spurs put him on the line 14 times, and he made nine free throws. That’s pretty good for Shaq, but the Spurs can live with it.

The Lakers aren’t in Houston anymore. The Spurs are sort of anti-Rockets. They have lots of big men to throw against Shaq. They’re not old coots, but the Lakers’ own age. They can actually double-team someone and recover before someone else can shoot a wide-open shot, which would be a revelation to the Rockets (not to mention the Lakers).

“The thing he did to Hakeem, Hakeem has a relatively light body,” Jerome Kersey said. “Hakeem’s not quite a 7-footer. Shaq goes down there and bounced him around. Our guys are a little stronger and we’ve got a lot of them.

“We’ve got David, we’ve got Tim, we’ve got Will . . . “

Etc., etc. If it had been necessary, it seemed the Spurs might have let the fans come streaming out of the stands to sit on Shaq like Lilliputians on Gulliver.

Bottom line: The team everyone used to sneer at has bulked up to the point it can go toe to toe with the game’s ultimate terror weapon and survive, even if it takes a four-man tag team.

Whatever happened to those cotton-soft Spurs the Lakers used to love to terrorize?

“It’s getting better and better,” said Robinson, the first line of defense. “The key is to be able to be physical and stay focused on what you have to do. You don’t want to get crazy but you’ve got to protect your space.”

The Alamodome is their space and Monday night, they held it. Everyone gets a day off to get bandaged and then we’ll see how the rematch, er, second game goes.

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OUT OF THE BOX

AT THE LINE

Neither the Lakers (68%, rank 27th) or the Spurs (69%, rank 24th) shoot very well from the free-throw line. Here’s a breakdown of what could become a very crucial statistic.

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LAKERS SAN ANTONIO FIRST QUARTER 3 for 4 3 for 6 SECOND QUARTER 9 for 12 4 for 4 THIRD QUARTER 2 for 2 6 for 8 FOURTH QUARTER 5 for 8 9 for 16

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KEY MATCHUP

Shaq vs. Spurs’ big two

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Shaquille O’Neal Tim Duncan David Robinson Field goals 6-19 11-24 3-7 Free throws 9-14 3-4 9-14 Points 21 25 15 Rebounds 15 7 8

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