Some Holiday Cheer? At Least O’Neal Talks

Twelve Lakers gathered at their El Segundo gym Monday morning, five days before their next game, and Coach Phil Jackson put one hour on the scoreboard on the far wall.

He told them to do as they saw fit -- weights, basketball, whatever -- and when the buzzer sounded, well, he’d see them all on Thursday morning. Then he started the clock.

By noon, half the parking lot was empty and Shaquille O’Neal was standing before the opened door of his unmarked, souped-up, crime-fighting Ford Taurus, saying, “Gotta go. Some of us hafta work for a living.”

Port Authority business, apparently. As he left the lot, he gave the siren a little twist, thrilling the autograph seekers who gather at the gate every day, no matter the conditions. No signatures, but at least they got blared at.

Before he left, O’Neal had said he was feeling a bit more optimistic about the team, that his toe hurt but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, and that there would be no immediate honeymoon for him and bride Shaunie Nelson, because, “being with her is a honeymoon in itself.”

He grinned.

O’Neal said the short-term goal was to be back to .500 (for the first time since they were 2-2) by the All-Star break, a modification of Robert Horry’s prediction of .500 by the end of January.

“I’m just trying to get my guys on track,” he said. “The last two games, we’ve started to look better. Hopefully, this is the start of something.”

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In their longest break of the season, the Lakers don’t play until Saturday night in Phoenix. Jackson said he hoped the time would allow Horry and Brian Shaw to regain their legs, Samaki Walker to recover from tonsillitis and Devean George’s sore ankle to heal.

Walker was said to be improved Monday and there was hope he would practice Thursday.

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Meantime, rookie Kareem Rush has played 40 minutes at shooting guard in the last two games while Shaw has played 14, and Tracy Murray has played 24 minutes at small forward, some of them in place of George.

Jackson said he thought Shaw, at 36, needed the down time. George twice has sprained the same ankle, and Jackson fears old doubts are beginning to cloud his game.

“He knows that Tracy’s right on his back now,” Jackson said. “He’s got to behave [within the system]. If he’s going to have that posture and mind-set out there, he’s going to lose his place on the floor.”

George is important because he is young and athletic on a roster that often has looked slow en route to its 13-19 record.

Jackson said he would avoid lineups that make the Lakers vulnerable to high-energy, quick-tempo teams. Thus, the rush to Rush and the surge in minutes for power forward Mark Madsen, who plays frantically.

He said if his forwards could not provide that energy, he would look harder outside the organization.

“This is the time we’ve got to go,” Jackson said.