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Shaq, Kobe downplay 2nd Heat-Lakers game
Here's a surprise: Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant actually agree on something. Asked at different times, in different ways and in different cities, the former teammates offered exactly the same assessment of Thursday night's contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat — the second time they will meet as opponents this season.
And from Bryant: "It's just another game."
On a simplistic level, they're right. The result of the game in Miami will matter in the standings as much as any other game.
Yet whenever Shaq and Kobe face off, there's sure to be more intrigue than what surrounds typical regular-season matchups of teams from differing conferences.
"After the way Game 1 went," Heat guard Damon Jones said, "it's going to be a circus around here."
One team looks ready for the big time. The other may be in big trouble.
Miami (50-16) has won 10 straight games, should clinch the Southeast Division championship in the next week and appears locked into the top seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Lakers (32-31) have lost seven of their last 11 games, are 11-19 on the road and entered Wednesday a half-game behind Denver for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
"He has a great team down there," said Bryant, the league's second-leading scorer, averaging 28.2 points per game. "And we're trying to get to that point."
The hubbub for Shaq-Kobe II isn't coming close to matching the monthlong mania built around the Christmas Day showdown in Los Angeles, a game that marked O'Neal's first trip back to Tinseltown since the trade sending him to Miami last summer in exchange for Caron Butler, Brian Grant and Lamar Odom.
The national television audience Thursday probably won't hear much about that trio's first post-trade appearance in Miami, where they were key parts of last year's surprising run to the East semifinals.
Instead — whether O'Neal and Bryant like it or not — all eyes will be on them.
"I don't know what you guys expect from us," O'Neal said. "You probably expect us to get into a fight on the court, but that probably won't ever happen. But you guys will probably always talk about it."
In that first meeting, virtually every aspect was scrutinized. Would they hug like long-lost friends? Shake hands like cordial rivals? Rumble at center court? Simply ignore each other?
There was a quick handshake before tipoff, with O'Neal looking away and seemingly wanting no part of it. No fisticuffs, no stare-downs, no screaming. But by now, no new fuel needs to be added to the Shaq-Kobe fire.
"I really have other things to really concern myself with, you know, like making sure our spirits are up and making sure we believe in ourselves — trying to get to the playoffs," Bryant said.
Bryant had 11 points in the first 3:24 of the Christmas game, clearly reveling in the spotlight. He finished with 42 points on 12-for-30 shooting — and missed the potential winning shot in overtime. O'Neal fouled out late in regulation, yet his team pulled out a 104-102 win. "On the inside, it was just another game for us," Heat forward Udonis Haslem said. "Obviously we wanted to go out, play hard, play well and win the game. Same thing Thursday. We know what we have to do and if we don't do it, we could lose." Bryant and O'Neal were together for eight seasons in Los Angeles. They celebrated three championships together, often publicly praised one another — yet over time, a rift formed. The spotlight, even in L.A., wasn't big enough for them both. And even though a felony sexual assault charge loomed over Bryant last season, he and O'Neal still managed to get to the NBA Finals for a fourth time. But when Bryant alleged O'Neal paid hush money to various women to keep them quiet about various sexual situations, the relationship was irrevocably harmed. "It really doesn't mean anything to me," Bryant said. "We had great years in the past and situations are what they are. We move on." Well, sort of. O'Neal never calls them out by name, but he's become masterful at taking ever-so-subtle shots at Bryant and the Lakers. "This is like the first time that I can say I've been on a good team where everybody was on the same page," O'Neal said. Earlier this week, O'Neal was relaxing in a hammock at his $18.8 million, eight-bedroom home on Miami's exclusive Star Island, smoking a cigar as a boat sailed past. His life, he says, is too good right now for him to get wrapped up in "nonsense" like another game against his former teammate. "I've got five beautiful children, a wife, living a great life," O'Neal said. "I live on the water. You should see the people I saw pass me on the boat. If you had that view ... nothing left to complain about."
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