NBA Finals Shaping Up as Prime Time for Shaq, Lakers.

When the National Basketball Association finals get underway at the Staples Center this week (June 6), both L.A. and the Lakers stand to profit from the exposure.

Heidi Ueberroth, executive vice president of NBA Entertainment, said the league has put together a three-pronged marketing effort specifically developed to play up the presence of the Lakers and L.A. in the finals.

The programs include an NBA promotion for candy bar Nestle Crunch featuring its pitchman, Lakers' center Shaquille O'Neal; a tie-in with NBC and Paramount Pictures for the upcoming film "Tomb Raider;" and a spot promoting the NBA featuring All-Star Kobe Bryant.

"The NBA is at its best during the playoffs, and there is a lot of excitement attached to it," said Ueberroth. "Our goal is to take the excitement generated by the NBA finals and the star-appeal of people like Shaq and Kobe and to tie it into our message and the messages of marketing partners like Nestle and Paramount."

Nestle will air a new 30-second commercial, produced by L.A.'s Daley & Associates, during Wednesday's game. It is expected to feature action footage of Lakers' center O'Neal and tout Nestle Crunch as the official candy bar of the NBA.

Also part of the promotion is an outdoor ad campaign using bus billboards of a Nestle Crunch wrapper and picture of O'Neal, with the words, "It's Crunch Time and the Diesel's Hungry." There also will be a Nestle-sponsored oversized billboard that will hang near Staples Center. It will spell SHAQ, with the S, H and Q looking like the lettering on Crunch bars and with the A being an image of O'Neal ready to dunk a ball. It will go up on June 11.

In addition, Nestle will wrap a recreational vehicle parked at Staples Center to resemble a Crunch bar, with three large images of O'Neal on its side. The top of the RV will read, "Out of the Way. It's Crunch Time." Also participating in the promotion is KLAC, the radio station that airs Lakers games.

The NBA declined to discuss the value of its promotional deal with Nestle.

In conjunction with its network broadcast partner, NBC, the league is allied with Paramount Pictures to promote the film "Tomb Raider," starring Angelina Jolie. During a game telecast, viewers are encouraged to log on to the NBA.com Web site when a commercial about the film is shown.

Once there, they can answer questions about the "Tomb Raider" previews shown during the commercial and qualify to win a sightseeing trip to L.A. that will include a private screening of "Tomb Raider" or a journey to Europe that will feature attendance at an overseas NBA game.

Finally, NBC will show a recently released NBA ad showing past greats such as Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan being "morphed" into current NBA stars like O'Neal and Bryant. The catch phrase of the ad is "It's All Good."