A CASE OF DOUBLE JEOPARDY DEFENSIVE PLAN DIDN'T FLY VS. SHAQ. NOW WHAT?Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer EL SEGUNDO El Segundo (ĕl sēgŭn`dō), industrial city (1990 pop. 15,223), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1917. Its products include navigation and computer systems, aircraft parts, office machines, telephone apparatus, and - The swarm attacked with such aggression, such quickness, such persistence, there was nowhere to go and no room to operate. A double-team ... a triple-team ... a sextuple-team. Rick Adelman Richard Leonard Adelman (born June 16 1946 in Lynwood, California, United States) is a former basketball player, assistant coach and head coach in the National Basketball Association. felt a brand of pressure Monday afternoon that his Sacramento Kings never did apply to Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). on Sunday. If the Kings had sent extra bodies at O'Neal the way reporters pelted Adelman with queries about his decision not to double-team, Game 1 might have looked a lot different. Instead, the Lakers exploited the one-on-one coverage and rode O'Neal's 44-point, 21-rebound demolition job to a 108-105 victory, taking the 1-0 lead in their conference semifinal series. And Adelman spent a lot of time trying to explain his decision. And the Lakers simply smiled in appreciation. ``You know,'' Horace Grant Horace Junior Grant (born July 4 1965 in Augusta, Georgia) is a retired American basketball player. He attended and played college basketball at Clemson University, before playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a 4-time NBA champion. said, ``one of the best players in the league and you don't double-team him down there, that's a strange strategy. I'm pretty sure they're going to make some adjustments to that.'' In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , expect the Kings to throw every available arm, leg and anvil anvil Iron block on which metal is placed for shaping, originally by hand with a hammer. The blacksmith's anvil is usually of wrought iron (sometimes of cast iron), with a smooth working surface of hardened steel. in O'Neal's path for Game 2 tonight at Staples Center This article has multiple issues: * Its neutrality is disputed. * It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. * It does not cite any references or sources. . For the record, Adelman said that was the plan all along. ``There's no way we wanted to play him one-on-one,'' the Kings' coach said. ``It looks like it because he got such great position that you couldn't come down on him. He got 11 offensive rebounds. He was such a force, it made it look like (there was no double-team), but it certainly wasn't anyone's intent. I'm just a little bit smarter than that.'' Only four other players have logged a 40-20 game in the playoffs since 1980. O'Neal has two of them, the first one coming in Game 2 of the Finals against Indiana last June. Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (born Akeem Abdul Olajuwon on January 21, 1963) is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). did it twice, and Moses Malone Moses Eugene Malone (born March 23, 1955 in Petersburg, Virginia) is an American former National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player who also played in the American Basketball Association (ABA), as well as on the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, , Charles Barkley This article is about the basketball player. For the politican, see Charles E. Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. and David Robinson David Robinson or Dave Robinson is a name shared by the following individuals:
No one expects O'Neal to repeat that effort tonight. The Lakers hope it's unnecessary. Coach Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. would prefer that O'Neal and Kobe Bryant (29 points) don't dominate the scoring to such an extent. Derek Fisher (11 points) was the only other Laker in double figures Sunday. O'Neal and Bryant combined for all but two points in a 31-point third quarter. ``Shaq has had success against Sacramento,'' Jackson said. ``I know that there's going to be games that aren't going to be as easy scoring-wise from him as this game, but we know that other people are going to have to score. ``I was pleased that Kobe got in the game in the third quarter, but I wasn't pleased that there was only one other person that scored. Horace got a turnaround shot in the post and that was it. So we need to get more people involved in the course of a game.'' The Lakers figure Grant, Fisher and Rick Fox will get better opportunities tonight if the Kings do indeed turn the focus to slowing down O'Neal. It was the perimeter scoring of that group that propelled the Lakers to a three-game sweep of Portland in the first round, when the Trail Blazers chose to send help against O'Neal. The Kings, apparently, preferred not to get burned by jump-shooters. ``They saw the Portland tapes,'' Jackson said. ``They saw Derek shooting 3s down, they saw guys with wide-open shots, Rick getting a lot of 3s. ... And you know, you pick your poison, you'll double-team Shaq and leave 3-point shooters open or you're going to make him have to make shots under duress.'' O'Neal also blocked seven shots, and statistically it was one of the most dominant games of his career. But he had his difficulties, missing several close-range shots in the first half and missing 5 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter, including four in a row when the Lakers were holding a tenuous 97-93 lead. He made up for the mistakes with ferocious offensive rebounding and second-effort points. Inspired? Yes, O'Neal said. By the Kings' decision not to double-team (``It's like they're disrespecting my game''), and by a Scot Pollard block that O'Neal said was a foul. ``I wasn't getting to (the foul) line like I wanted to,'' he said. ``But I don't complain. Just step it up. When I get mad, it's going to be all over. Yeah, I was mad yesterday.'' So there's one more reason for the Kings to double-team tonight - to placate O'Neal's ego, lest he feel dissed again. ``It really doesn't matter to us,'' O'Neal said. ``We're used to teams doubling and tripling me. So if that's what they decide to do, then other guys are going to have to step up and I'm sure they will.'' LAKERS vs. SACRAMENTO --What: Western Conference semifinal, Game 2 --Where: Staples Center --When: Today, 7:30 p.m. (FSN (Full-Service Network) A communications network that provides shopping, movies on demand and access to databases and a variety of interactive services. ) CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) Sacramento decided not to double-team Shaquille O'Neal, right, in Game 1 Sunday and paid a heavy price. He scored 44 points. John Lazar/Staff Photographer Box: LAKERS vs. SACRAMENTO (see text) |
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