Shaq Awaits Sonics Get Their First Regular-Season Look At The New, Improved Los Angeles Lakers

The Seattle SuperSonics finally admitted it - they have been thinking almost constantly about the threat posed by the new and Shaq-improved Los Angeles Lakers.

“We can’t help but think about them because everybody keeps asking us about them,” said guard Hersey Hawkins.

Oh.

Well, the questions are natural in as much as the Lakers now seem to be the only team capable of beating the Sonics in the Pacific Division.

And even the Sonics will concede that their first regular-season game against the Lakers since Los Angeles signed Shaquille O’Neal last summer holds a little more intrigue than, say, a game at Toronto. The Sonics and Lakers meet at 7:30 tonight at The Great Western Forum.

It may even mean a little more, since the Sonics are coming off one of their worst outings of the season in a 96-90 loss to the Utah Jazz Sunday at KeyArena.

“It’s a message-type game for both teams,” said guard Nate McMillan, who went through a second full practice Monday but said he won’t be able to play tonight while trying to recover from a pulled groin.

“But we are mostly concerned about ourselves right now.”

That concern rests largely in trying to fire up a suddenly anemic offense that was held without a fast break point Sunday.

“Right now we are not working well offensively,” said center Jim McIlvaine. “We aren’t running the things we want to run and that’s hurting us.”

For the Sonics to be able to do that against the Lakers, it figures to take a big effort by McIlvaine on the defensive end against O’Neal. McIlvaine doesn’t like to dwell on it, but it is games against big centers like the 7-foot-1, 300-pound O’Neal that enticed Seattle management to sign him.

“This is what we brought Mac in here for is to be able to defend against the big centers like (Hakeem) Olajuwon, Shaquille and Patrick (Ewing),” McMillan said. “He’s held his own against those guys so far.”

McIlvaine turned in one of his best games of the season Nov. 24 in New York, helping hold Ewing to 2-of-15 shooting as the Sonics ran away to a 102-92 victory.

McIlvaine also impressed teammates in Seattle’s 99-94 exhibition win over the Lakers in October in Boise. O’Neal had 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and six rebounds in 30 minutes while McIlvaine had five points, six rebounds and three blocks in 28 minutes.

McIlvaine doesn’t put much stock in that preseason game. “Teams are trying different things, different rotations, different offenses (in pre-season games),” he said.

But he also said O’Neal’s game doesn’t change much, no matter what the situation.

“He’s a pretty straight-forward guy in his game,” McIlvaine said. “He’s a big power guy. He’ll get 30 looks a night, and he’ll look to try to dunk it or get as easy a shot as he can get.”

McIlvaine’s main goal is to turn 4-footers into 8-footers. Still, no matter what he does, O’Neal will likely get close to his averages of 24.9 points and 13.4 rebounds.

What has made the difference in most Lakers games this year is how the rest of the team does, players who mostly are still adjusting to suddenly having such a huge and dominating force in the middle. O’Neal, however, tied his career high with eight assists in the Lakers’ 104-96 win over Denver on Sunday, signifying the team might be learning how to play together.

Complicating matters early on was the loss of forward Cedric Ceballos for at least another month with a knee injury suffered Nov. 13.

The loss of Ceballos forced Eddie Jones to move to small forward. Jones has mostly played well, averaging 18.6 points, but point guard Nick Van Exel has struggled with his shot all season (37.9 percent) and forward Elden Campbell’s numbers (10.4 points, 6.9 rebounds) are down substantially from last season (13.9, 7.6).

Veteran Byron Scott had been starting at the other guard position, but Rumeal Robinson has started the last two games.

It will also be the Sonics’ first look at schoolboy Kobe Bryant.