Campbell Helps Pick Up the Slaq

The Lakers’ center remained at center stage Friday, with one minor twist.

It wasn’t Shaquille O’Neal.

Details, details. The honors before 17,505 at the Forum belonged to Elden Campbell, who was in charge while O’Neal was in street clothes nursing a sprained ankle. Campbell recorded season highs in points and rebounds as the Lakers ran their winning streak to five with a 100-93 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers beat the Kings by seven points for the second night in a row, but everything was different. Campbell started, and starred, at center, with 22 points and 15 rebounds, pushing his averages over the last eight games to 15.6 points and 11.6 rebounds.

“I felt I had to, if anything, hit the boards harder and give us some low-post scoring to look forward to,” he said.

Maybe everything was really different. Kobe Bryant, still looking for any playing time and acknowledging for the first time that there have been bouts of frustration, had his best performance as a pro.

He scored 21 points in 22 minutes. He made six of 10 shots. He dazzled.

He sealed the game for the Lakers.

Someone had to, because for the second night in a row, the Kings used a second-half rally and made the Lakers sweat out the victory, this one their ninth in a row at the Forum. It got the Kings to within 91-87 with 4:27 left, and then 93-89 with 1:58 remaining.

It took the most important of Bryant’s points to put them away for good, even if the most impressive was the breakaway that became a 360-degree dunk. This time, after Nick Van Exel was forced to shoot a high-arcing jumper to get the ball over 7-footer Duane Causwell with two seconds left on the shot clock, all Bryant did was take the ball out of the air with his back to the basket and use both hands to flip it in.

The offensive rebound was good for a 95-89 cushion with 1:34 to play.

“He was incredible,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “That tip-in he got was highlight reel. I know everybody will think his dunk was, but that was a much bigger play, at the buzzer.”

O’Neal, having spent much of the season boasting that only the officials could stop him, proved otherwise, finding someone else who could do the job. Himself.

Thursday night’s work was already done--25 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks--when he sprained the ankle with 53 seconds left at Sacramento. It happened as he fell out of bounds while trying to save a loose ball. No one knew at the time it would cost him a game.

Whether the price goes up remains to be seen--he will join the Lakers in traveling to Vancouver today for a Sunday game against the Grizzlies. The injury is not considered serious.

“It takes away 27 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks, and a presence,” Harris said. “You can’t put a statistic on that.”

The departure of O’Neal came with the return of starting small forward Jerome Kersey, out Thursday because of flu. That meant a decision for Harris: Put Sean Rooks in the opening lineup at center, move Campbell to center and give Travis Knight his first pro start, or go with Campbell and Corie Blount.

Knight had earned it most, what with the rookie from Connecticut now in firm control of the job as No. 1 big man off the bench, but Blount had earned it most recently. Starting in place of Kersey the night before, he had 11 rebounds.

That, and his defense, earned praise from Harris. Friday, it earned Blount another start.

“Everybody wants to play,” said Blount, who had played only 11 minutes in the three games before Thursday. “When you get an opportunity and take advantage of it, that’s a good feeling.”

Said Harris: “We say it an awful lot that guys have to be ready to come in and seize the moment. I thought Corie did a good job of that.”

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A Season of Expectations

The Lakers acquired nine new players this season, including Shaquille O’Neal and his $120-million contract. In turn, with big acquisitions come big expectations. Throughout the season, The Times will monitor O’Neal’s numbers along with how the team compares to some of the best Laker teams in history.

GAME 33 OF 82

* Record 24-9

* Standing 1st place

Pacific Division

1996-97 LAKERS VS. THE BEST LAKER TEAMS

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Year Gm. 3 Overall 1987-88 3-0 62-20 1986-87 2-1 65-17 1984-85 1-2 62-20 1979-80 2-1 60-22 1971-72 3-0 69-13

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Note: The five teams above all won NBA championships

THE SHAQ SCOREBOARD

Basketball Numbers

Friday’s Game:

DNP--Sprained ankle.

1996-97 Season Averages:

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Min FG% FT% Reb Blk Pts 39.5 .558 .497 13.1 2.9 26.1

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1995-96 Season Averages:

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Min FG% FT% Reb Blk Pts 36.0 .573 .487 11.0 2.1 26.6

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Money Numbers

Friday’s Salary: $130,658.53

Season Totals: $4,311,731.49

* FACTOID: In Game 33 of the 1987-88 season, the Lakers’ 15-game winning streak over the Clippers came to an end with a 110-109 overtime loss. “I’ll say one thing,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “I’m happy for [Clipper Coach] Gene Shue. If there is any one man I’d like to see beat us, it would be him.”