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Center of attention Blazers need big men to stand tall in Game 2
Posted: Sunday May 21, 2000 11:18 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- If the Portland Trail Blazers hope to win Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Monday night, Arvydas Sabonis needs to show up and Rasheed Wallace can't blow up. Shaquille O'Neal outscored Sabonis 41-0 and outrebounded him 11-1 in the Los Angeles Lakers' 109-94 victory in Game 1 Saturday. It's hard for a 7-foot-3, 282-pound Lithuanian to disappear, but Sabonis was virtually invisible in his 33 minutes on the court -- 0-for-4 from the field, zero points, one rebound. Is Shaq the toughest player Sabonis has ever faced? Sabonis acted Sunday as if it was the most ridiculous question he'd ever heard. "What do you think?" he said in English, one of the four languages he speaks. "Of course. It's difficult, you know." Sabonis said it was coach Mike Dunleavy's decision to limit his involvement in the offense Saturday after the game plan changed when the Blazers fell behind by 24 points in the second quarter. "Everything happened in the second quarter," Sabonis said. "It changed how we decided to play." At least Sabonis talked on Sunday. As often happens, Wallace wouldn't speak to reporters, except to say, "Excuse me gentlemen," after tying his shoes and getting up to walk on the court. When someone asked if he was going to talk, Wallace just stared at the questioner. A similar stare led to Wallace's ejection in the third quarter of Game 1. Referee Ron Garretson already had hit Wallace with a technical in the first half. As he explained to the Blazers' Steve Smith, in a conversation replayed for the NBA television audience because the referee was wearing a microphone, Garretson said he had warned Wallace twice not to stare at him and that he would not be intimidated. When the stare came after Wallace drew his fourth foul, Garretson threw him out. It was further evidence that Wallace is haunted by his reputation. He was the runaway leader in technical fouls with 38 in the regular season. He has six in the playoffs. "It was Ronnie's opinion that by Rasheed staring at him that he was trying to intimidate him," Dunleavy said. "I didn't know referees got intimidated." Wallace's reputation seems to make him more closely watched by the referees than other players are. "It's human nature, maybe," Dunleavy said, "and maybe that's the way it works. Shaq's probably not going to get thrown out of the game for staring, and he's much more intimidating than Rasheed Wallace, in my mind." Whatever the officials think, it's up to Wallace, the one player who gives the Lakers serious matchup problems, to adjust in order to stay in the game, Dunleavy said. "The bottom line is we're not going to win the series if he's not on the floor," Dunleavy said. Dunleavy was unrepentant about the "Hack-a-Shaq" tactic his team used to the extreme in an attempt to catch the Lakers in the final 5 1/2 minutes. O'Neal went to the foul line 25 times in the fourth quarter, shattering the playoff record of 14. He made 12 of them and was 12-for-24 in the final 5 1/2 minutes. "It was a good strategy. It worked well for us. It was the right thing to do," Dunleavy said. "When you have a guy under 50 percent from the free-throw line, it has a positive effect. We didn't take advantage at the other end by scoring the way we needed to score." Lakers coach Phil Jackson said the strategy is nothing new. He said when he was a player, it was a common tactic against Wilt Chamberlain, even in the days when players shot three free throws with a chance to make two. Jackson expressed confidence that O'Neal will handle the situation if it continues to occur. O'Neal seemed more upset that the Blazers weren't allowing Sabonis to play him one-on-one. "It's kind of sad that their 7-footer doesn't want to take the challenge of playing me one-on-one," O'Neal said. "It's a shame." If the Blazers persist in collapsing two or three defenders on him, O'Neal will continue to pass the ball outside for open jumpers by his teammates. A 3-point barrage from the likes of Robert Horry, Glen Rice, Rick Fox and Brian Shaw buried Portland in the second quarter of Game 1. "They were doubling and tripling me very fast," O'Neal said. "Hopefully, we can get the same execution and same play from my teammates. If we do that, we're going to be hard to beat." As for the hacks, O'Neal said he takes them as a complement because opponents know that he can't be stopped in the low post in those late-game situations. "It's a homage to my game," he said, obviously enjoying the word. "That's what you can call me -- the Big Homage."
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