By Rich Myhre
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — As the whole world knows, center Shaquille O’Neal helps make the Los Angeles Lakers an excellent basketball team.
As the Seattle SuperSonics learned on Friday night, the Lakers are still pretty good without him.
With O’Neal in the locker room after a first quarter ejection, the visiting Lakers barely broke stride. Behind the 30 points of guard Kobe Bryant and help from a whole lot of other fellows, the two-time defending NBA champions snapped a string of four consecutive losses to Seattle with a one-sided 107-92 decision at KeyArena.
Los Angeles led by seven points at halftime, pushed the margin to 15 after three quarters, and sat atop a 22-point cushion midway through the final period. Only in the late minutes, with the outcome already settled, did the Sonics whittle the deficit back to 15 points.
"To get down by that many points, with them not having their best player, and then to lose the game is just mind-boggling," said Sonics forward Vin Baker. "We thought with him going out that we had an advantage. But they turned it up, feeling a sense of urgency, and we didn’t turn it up with a sense of urgency. They got the lead and it was an uphill battle."
The victory came before a sellout crowd of 17,072, the first of the season at KeyArena. Many of those fans came wanting to see O’Neal, an eight-time NBA All-Star and the league’s MVP in 1999-2000. Their glimpses were brief as O’Neal earned himself a rare ejection with 2:12 to play in the first quarter.
The 7-foot-1 center, who had already been to the free throw line for six attempts, felt he was fouled on a short, twisting shot over Baker. The ball came off the rim and was deflected out of bounds by O’Neal, prompting a timeout on the dead ball, and as O’Neal walked to the bench he barked at official Bob Delaney.
Delaney immediately whistled the first technical. Moments later, with O’Neal continuing to chirp from the bench, Delaney tagged O’Neal for No. 2 and an automatic ejection. Instantly livid, O’Neal stalked onto the court after Delaney, cursing loudly. It took several teammates and coaches to restrain O’Neal, who finally turned and headed to the locker room in disgust.
The officiating trio of Delaney, David Jones and Bennie Adams declined to comment. O’Neal wasn’t available to discuss the incident, but teammates spoke in his defense.
"I don’t think he deserved a technical," Bryant said. "Things happened to make him say what he said, and then he got a second T. I mean, it was two quick ones. Usually the ref might walk away and give you a little leeway the second time around, but those were pretty quick."
The Lakers, who led 17-16 at the time, seemed briefly staggered by O’Neal’s departure. Seattle eased to a 24-20 lead at the end of the quarter, but in the second period Bryant delivered 15 points and Los Angeles went on top to stay.
"When a team loses a big gun like we lost, a lot of times you pick up the intensity," Lakers forward Robert Horry said. "A lot of times the other team will get happy and lackadaisical, and I think we caught them. They didn’t expect us to do as much as we did."
Sonics coach Nate McMillan was plainly unhappy with his team’s performance, which follows a 24-point blowout loss at Utah on Wednesday night.
"I don’t care if Shaq is out on the floor or not," he said. "This is an NBA game, and the team that executes offensively and stops you defensively is the team that wins, regardless of who is out there playing.
"Even when Shaq was in the locker room and Kobe was on the bench, (the Lakers) were still executing. You play the game regardless of who is on the floor. You don’t look at the color of the uniforms, you don’t look at the players, you play the game the same way each and every night. And we didn’t do that."
Desmond Mason led the Sonics in scoring with 21 points. Gary Payton, Seattle’s leading scorer, had a disappointing night, scoring just 11 points on 5-for-15 shooting, though he did add nine assists. Also struggling was Baker, who missed his first four shots and never got into an offensive rhythm. He finished with 13 points, but 12 of those points were scored in the fourth quarter when the outcome was already decided.
Seattle played the second half without center Calvin Booth, who stayed in the locker room with soreness in his right ankle. It was not known if Booth, who finished the game with two points and two rebounds in 13 minutes, will be available for Sunday’s game against Milwaukee.
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