Basketball: It's looking good for O'Neal and the Lakers

A revelation came to Shaquille O'Neal as he watched the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics on a locker-room television after being ejected early in the game.

"I kind of realised this is a good team without me," he said.

So what does that make the Lakers with O'Neal, the National Basketball Association's most dominant player?

Perhaps the best team in league history, one capable of challenging the 72-10 record of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1995-96.

"There aren't that many teams that can beat us," O'Neal said. "It's all about us. We still haven't played our best basketball."

With the classy pair of O'Neal and Kobe Bryant settled comfortably into their roles in the triangle offence, and with a stronger supporting cast, the two-time defending NBA champions look better than ever.

Despite coach Phil Jackson's prediction they would struggle early, the Lakers are off to a franchise-best 16-win, one-loss start.

Even more impressive, they are 39-2 dating to the final eight games of the last regular season and their 15-1 waltz through the playoffs against the best of the rest.

In the past week, they easily beat two teams most likely bound for the playoffs: the Milwaukee Bucks, by 19 points, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, by 26.

And despite losing O'Neal because of two technical fouls, they won by 15 over Seattle, who beat Los Angeles four times last season.

For the season, the Lakers have outscored opponents by an average of almost 12 points a game.

O'Neal and Bryant are the obvious reasons. No opponent has a centre who can match up with the 2.14m, 142kg O'Neal. If he's double or triple-teamed, he quickly fires the ball back out to Bryant - who has nailed most of his medium-range jump shots this season - or to another open team-mate.

If the Lakers keep it up, they will break that Bulls' record of six years ago.

The Lakers, whose lone loss was a 83-95 defeat at Phoenix on November 16, won their 10th straight game yesterday when they beat the Dallas Mavericks 98-94.

Jackson, who has added two NBA rings with the Lakers to the six he earned as coach of the Bulls, considers it too soon to talk about how good this team really are, or even how successful they will be this season.

He does think the Lakers - who added Samaki Walker, Lindsey Hunter and Mitch Richmond in the off-season - have more good players than the teams he coached in Chicago.

"This is a deeper team, with more people with the ability to play well," he said.

"You can see that when Shaq and Kobe are on the bench."

Shaq and Kobe have been on the bench a lot in the fourth quarter recently, laughing and cheering as the Lakers' reserves mopped up. And when they're not on the bench, they're virtually unstoppable.

"It's the same old story, with those two guys. They're two of the best players in the world," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said after a recent loss to Los Angeles.

"You have to be perfect to beat them."

Bryant, at 23 already in his sixth NBA season, likes the team's chemistry. He was happy with the Lakers' off-season moves and points out that he, O'Neal and Derek Fisher have been a unit since 1996.

The good vibes are helped by the fact that Bryant and O'Neal, who feuded in the past, have become friends, with O'Neal even touting Bryant for this year's most valuable player award.

"Kobe's been doing a good job of keeping everybody involved in the game," O'Neal said. "We have a lot of unselfish guys."

Los Angeles assistant coach Kurt Rambis, who played in four NBA championship teams during the Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era, said the Lakers "have an air about them."

"Winning the two titles has given them a real confidence," Rambis said. "They know what they can do, they know how to win, and they're very comfortable."

* Michael Jordan said at the start of his comeback campaign that he aimed to play in all 82 regular-season games for the Washington Wizards, but he may be looking at more time off after missing yesterday's game with an ailing right knee.

Wizards coach Doug Collins said Jordan, who returned to the NBA hard courts after being retired for three years, may have to sit out some games because his troublesome knee will not heal without prolonged rest.

The 38-year-old Jordan had an MRI exam on his knee this week and no structural damage was found, but the 10-time NBA scoring champion had fluid drained from it for the second time this season and did not play in Wednesday's 88-103 loss to the Spurs.

It was the first time Jordan had missed a game because of illness or injury since 1993, when he was with the Chicago Bulls.

Collins said he did not think the player would quit unless ordered to do so by doctors.

"Michael has made a commitment to see this out," Collins said. "I don't see him all of a sudden saying 'I don't want to do this anymore.' I can see him cutting back his minutes. He was darn set to play 82 games."

Jordan's status for the Wizards' next game, on the road against Houston today, is not yet known.

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