Staples Center the home of pivotal performances By David Lassen November 25, 2002 LOS ANGELES -- Staples Center was never more appropriately named. Because Sunday's events put the focus on centers: Yao Ming, Michael Olowokandi, and Shaquille O'Neal. Consider it 96 minutes of updating the NBA's State of the Pivot, past, present and future. Future went first in the opening game of the NBA doubleheader, as the league's center of the future, Houston's Yao, faced the center of some other team's future, Clipper free-agent-to-be Olowokandi. After that, it was time for the dominant man of the present and recent past, O'Neal to provide another indication of just how quickly he'll be back to full form as the bull rampaging in the area that seems destined to become China's shop. The Clippers' 90-89 win over the Rockets was an inevitable reality check in the rise of Chairman Yao. After all, having moved in a week from uncertain prospect to dominant force -- from 20 points total in his first four games to a 19.25-point, nine-rebound average in the next four, including a move into the starting lineup -- the ascent of Yao, the 7-foot-5 (or 7-6, depending on if you ask the league or the Rockets) No. 1 draft pick, had to slow. Either that, or he'd be inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame by Christmas. But Yao's final line -- 28 minutes, 1 of 3 from the field, four points, seven rebounds, two blocks -- is more a reminder of the ongoing learning curve than a sudden indication of vulnerability. Certainly, the Clippers were impressed, even if they did a pretty good job of containing His Tallness. "I think right now Yao's impact is as a defensive presence," said Olowokandi. "It's tough in there. He's actually a better athlete than I thought. Being able to run and jump the way he does -- and he's pretty nimble -- are very good attributes for a guy 7-6. ... He's just way too skilled at that size to not be a very good basketball player." Olowokandi, meanwhile, is not exactly embarrassing the Clippers for their failure to sign him to a long-term deal, except perhaps with the occasional comment. His averages through 14 games -- 14.9 points, 9.7 rebounds -- are respectable but not earthshattering, and there have been more than a few that didn't even reach the standard of respectable. Like Sunday. A 10-point game might be understandable, given that he was trying to shoot over the Great Wall at least part of the time. But that a 7-foot man could only gather four rebounds in a game when 74 were there for the taking is not exactly a ringing endorsement of his ability to take charge. This is not stopping every beat writer in the NBA from doing a story on how nicely Olowokandi would look in the local franchise's uniform next season. The latest illustration was a Sunday piece in the Denver Post calling him the "most coveted unrestricted free agent next summer" and the NBA's best center after Shaq -- appearing just two days after Olowokandi managed all of 12 points and eight rebounds against a Nuggets team mostly untainted by talent. Meanwhile, the center who remains second to none is rounding back into form more quickly than could have been imagined, and not just because his numbers in the 111-99 win over Milwaukee (24 points, 11 rebounds, four assists in 28 minutes) were all improvements over Friday's season debut against Chicago. Equal, if not better, measures of the truly Shaq-like quality of his game were that the Lakers had season highs in points and shooting percentage (50.6 percent), and that Derek Fisher had a season-best 21 points. "He was important to us tonight," said Phil Jackson. "We got a lot of mileage out of his ability to hurt their defense, make their players collapse. Fish was a recipient of a lot of the things that kept them down there, double-covering Shaq." And, when Shaq manages to foul out two opposing centers, Dan Gadzuric and Ervin (Non-Magic) Johnson, in a 29-second span of the fourth quarter, you know he's once again becoming The Big Factor. Even if one very large observer doesn't think so. "I'm like an average big man right now," said Shaq, a generous overestimation of the opposition. "That's not good enough for me, but I'm good enough to be 20-some and 10. But that's not acceptable for me. ... I could be better, but I haven't played in two or three months." Still even a below-average Shaq reestablishes the Lakers as an above-average team. "Things are different when I'm in there," he said. "I get doubled a lot, I kick it out to guys, and guys can take their time with the shots. ... We're getting back into form. It make take a week, it make take a month, but we'll get there when it's all said and done." Which makes it oh so likely that the state of the center position, in the immediate future, will be much like the immediate past: belonging to Shaq, as long as he's present. -- When he's present in the office, you can reach Star columnist David Lassen at 496-8158. Otherwise, contact him at lassen@insidevc.com.
