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Shaquille O'Neal defines LA Lakers' expectations

"Everyone wants to see us falter. I just think that sometimes they think that we're the Yankees of baseball."

Shaquille O'Neal, center for the Los Angeles Lakers

As long as Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant wear gold and purple uniforms, the Los Angeles Lakers will never be a serious underdog in a NBA playoff series.

Star power is one reason the Lakers are big favorites in the upcoming NBA Finals, where most expect the scrappy, defense-oriented Detroit Pistons to become the sixth straight Eastern Conference champion dismissed by the West's behemoths.

So the Pistons' mission is clear: They've got a rare chance to prove the basketball world wrong. But what will the Lakers use for inspiration while playing for their fourth championship in five years?

Leave that to O'Neal, whose outlandish personal motivational ploys often are as funny as they are effective. He has decided the Lakers are perceived as villains -- and that everyone is hoping their mini-dynasty will be ended by Detroit.

"Of course they are," O'Neal said. "Everyone wants to see us falter. I just think that sometimes they think that we're the Yankees of baseball. ... We know what it's going to take. We're not going to walk on this team by any means. We have to do what we're supposed to do. I'm always supposed to win."

For all their fame, wealth and international attention, there's a simple reason Shaq and Kobe always expect to win: Though every team plans to play its best basketball in the spring, the Lakers do.

They were a mess of conflicting skills and rampaging egos for most of their tumultuous season, but they've won 14 of their last 19 games to reach the finals. That momentum, even more than their eclectically talented roster, makes them the favorite over Detroit in Game 1 on Sunday.

"So far in the playoffs, they've been able to do what they want, whenever they want it, whenever they need it," Detroit center Elden Campbell said.

Late-season surges are a hallmark of coach Phil Jackson's teams, but the Lakers' veterans took it to an extreme this season. O'Neal and Bryant both recently admitted to being bored during long stretches of the regular season, while new arrivals Karl Malone and Gary Payton still aren't really comfortable in Jackson's system.

"We're getting close to playing our best basketball," Malone said. "We're not there yet, but we've been creeping up on it for a while now. Except for a couple of games in the second round [against San Antonio], we've been improving and finding our focus better.''

When the Lakers can smell a title, they perk up -- and that's exactly what happened after two key games this spring.

First, there was a late-season loss to Sacramento in which Bryant repeatedly passed up open chances to shoot. The baffling defeat actually spurred the Lakers to win their final two games of the regular season, capturing the division title when the Kings lost both of their games.

More recently, the Lakers made a wealth of adjustments on both ends of the court after losing Game 2 of their second-round series at San Antonio. Los Angeles finished off the series with four straight victories -- with a gigantic help from Derek Fisher's improbable buzzer-beater in Game 5 -- and followed with a six-game victory over Minnesota in the conference finals.

"No way did we think we were going to beat [the Spurs] four times in a row," Fisher said. "The success we've had in this postseason is by playing one game at a time. There hasn't been an air of desperation, a 9-1-1, `We have to win this game.'"

No Eastern team without Michael Jordan on its roster has won the finals since Detroit captured its second title in 1990. Though the Lakers are clear favorites for their momentum and talent, the Pistons' defense and Richard Hamilton's scoring should give them a better chance than other recent East finalists.

Jackson doesn't expect Detroit to be better on defense than San Antonio, but that was the strongest opinion voiced during Los Angeles' workout in El Segundo on Friday. The Lakers split their regular-season series with Detroit, but they typically play well against teams that don't have the offensive skill to keep up in a high-scoring game.

Earlier in the week, coach Larry Brown told his team that the only way to earn the Lakers' respect is to win a title -- and though the Lakers appear to be peaking, a couple of losses could cause their fragile chemistry to explode, just as it did several times during their crazy season.

"Yeah, we got our little scheme," Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace said. "But I ain't going to sit up here and give it out. But we got our little scheme. ... If I didn't have faith in it, I wouldn't be here."

Karl Malone and Derek Fisher returned to practice with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday after sitting out the previous two days with sore right knees.

Both said they felt much better and expect no problems on Sunday when the Lakers and Detroit Pistons meet in Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles.

"Today was a good day for me," Malone said after practice. "I wore a sleeve and got up and down."

Malone tore a ligament in his right knee on Dec. 21, causing him to miss 40 games. He said this injury had nothing to do with the previous one.

"It's just something that happened -- I know when I did it," said Malone, who had his knee drained on Tuesday -- a day after the Lakers eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.

Malone was injured in Game 2 of the conference finals, but continued to play.

Fisher was injured in Game 5 last Saturday, but played 27 minutes in Game 6. He also wore a sleeve on his sore knee on Friday.

"It's doing good, it's responding well," he said of his knee. "When I treat it and ice it, it feels good right then.

"Today's my first day back out there with the guys. I can't tell you how much I missed that. My timing is definitely off. [But] I feel like I'll be ready Sunday."

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Pistons coach Larry Brown and Phil Jackson, his Lakers counterpart, are known for dropping not-so-subtle messages to the officials during the playoffs.

Brown may have been the first to do so when asked about using Elden Campbell more than usual to guard the bigger Shaquille O'Neal.

"You've got to play a lot of people against them, especially big people," Brown said before the Pistons flew to Los Angeles on Friday. "But if four is the limit of fouls on them, I hope it's the limit on fouls on us."

When asked to clarify what he meant later, Brown declined to elaborate. He was fined last month US$7,500 by the NBA for saying referees tried to antagonize Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace.

Jackson hasn't said much about the officiating in the days leading up to the finals.

LONG DISTANCE

Karl Malone and former teammate John Stockton finally had a conversation this week after playing phone tag.

"I miss him -- it's different being here in the finals without him," Malone said.

Malone and Stockton were teammates with the Utah Jazz for 18 seasons. Stockton retired after last season as the NBA's career assist leader.

"There's a lot of people in Utah who are pulling for me," Malone said. "I'll say this now -- to the Karl Malone fans, thanks for pulling for me. To those who aren't Karl Malone fans, thanks for keeping me motivated."
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