Shaq Scores 50! Lakers Dunk Nets

It's not nice to irritate Shaquille O'Neal.

Miffed that the New Jersey Nets did a little too much talking after a win over Los Angeles in late January, O'Neal made them pay on Thursday night with his best game as a Laker.

O'Neal scored 50 points and the Lakers took advantage of the absence of injured New Jersey center Jayson Williams in beating the Nets 117-106.

"Luckily my shots were falling, my throws were falling," O'Neal said. "I just wanted to come out and have a complete game. They beat us pretty bad last time and they talked about what they did, so we just wanted to come in ready to play."

The Lakers did just that an O'Neal did even more.

His total tied the previous NBA high this year by Tracy Murray of Washington, and was three less than O'Neal's career best in 1994 with Orlando. It was his best game with the Lakers, however.

"It's rare when a player comes out and is on top of his game like that," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said. "Everything was coming toward Shaq, the ball was coming toward Shaq. Shaq had an excellent game, it was only right to cap it off at the speed limit."

The performance came on a night when everything was falling for the 7-foot-1 center, even his foul shots. He hit 18-of-26 shots from the field and 14-of-20 from the line, where he is usually a 50-percent shooter. He also had nine rebounds.

O'Neal scoffed at the idea that Williams, who is sidelined with broken thumb, would have slowed him.

"It wouldn't have mattered tonight who they had," O'Neal said.

O'Neal was more gracious on the floor in the closing moments, dribbling upcourt and dishing off to Bryant for a windmill slam dunk. With his career best within reach, Shaq lined a 3-pointer off the rim with nine seconds to go as the crowd groaned.

Ironically, the official scorer game him credit for what would have been his first 3-point attempt of the season even though the officials signaled one.

Bryant added 20 points as the Lakers won for the eighth time in nine games and 14th time in 16. The loss was the Nets' 12th in 16 games, and left them a half-game ahead of Orlando in the race for the eighth and final playoff berth in the East.

It was the second 50-point game of O'Neal's career and the 25th time he has scored 40 or more. It was also his eighth 30-plus game in the last 14 and his 20th this season. It was the first 50-point performance by a Laker since Cedric Ceballos had 50 against Minnesota on Dec. 20, 1994.

"He's about 7-foot-7 and he weighs about 800 pounds and he really had his game going tonight," Nets backup guard Lucious Harris said. "They just came in here and kicked our butts."

The Lakers scored 78 points inside against little opposition from Rony Seikaly, Michael Cage and Chris Galing.

"What was embarrassing was they were scoring all their points in the paint," Nets guard Sherman Douglas said. "You have to make them earn their points, you can't just give them away. I know we don't have any shot blockers but you can't keep giving up dunk after dunk and layup after layup."

Los Angeles never trailed as O'Neal hit 8-of-10 shots and scored 17 points in the first quarter to stake the Lakers to a 34-26 lead. He added nine in the second quarter to push the lead to 15, and had 14 in third when the margin reached 93-70.

The Nets closed the margin to 106-95 after a drive by Sam Cassell, but O'Neal drove and scored left-handed and was fouled. The Nets complained about the call, and got two technical fouls. After Bryant hit the first technical, O'Neal made the second and then his free throw.

Cassell led the Nets with 18 points, one more than Kerry Kittles. Sherman Douglas added 15 and Chris Gatling and Keith Van Horn had 14.

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