Regardless of whether Shaquille O’Neal’s arthritic big right toe will allow him to play Wednesday in The Rematch–subtitle: “Brad Miller Got Game”–one thing is for sure: Miller won’t be scared.
“My uncle is 7-foot and about 330 pounds,” Miller said, “and he’ll bust your hand just shaking it.
“I’ve been around big people my whole life. Yeah, Shaq’s big and can push me around. But he can’t guard me because I can step outside and use my quickness on him.”
It has come to this: With images of United Center confetti still motivating Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest panting at the chance to guard Bryant and go Hollywood and Charles Oakley waxing philosophic in his typical contradictory ways, Miller is calling out O’Neal.
“I’m not going to chicken out,” Miller said. “If I weighed 350, I wouldn’t be missing the game.”
Sequels out here can either be scintillating or superfluous. And this game would have been nothing more than an appetizer for the All-Star break featuring the league’s worst against the league’s second best if Jan. 12 hadn’t happened.
That’s when the Bulls defeated the Lakers in overtime and fouled O’Neal hard enough and often enough that he took a swing at Miller, touching off a melee. O’Neal received a three-game suspension and a $15,000 fine. Miller was docked a game and $7,500. And Oakley sat for two games and paid a $10,000 fine.
Those events have brought this cast of characters to Tuesday, when all three skipped all or part of practice.
If O’Neal, Miller and Oakley all play, we’re talking “The Godfather, Part II.” If they don’t–Oakley has a sore right wrist and said he’s a game-time decision–we’re talking “The Return of Ishtar.”
“It’s not a fight, it’s a basketball game,” Oakley said. “We’re going to play the same way we played the last time. The league determined that Shaq threw the punch. We didn’t throw a punch.
“But it’s not like we’re scared of Shaq or the Lakers. The Lakers are a good team with good coaches and good players. When you win championships, you can talk mess.”
The Lakers, who maintain that O’Neal will be a game-time decision and that the opponent has nothing to do with it, didn’t do much of that Tuesday.
“One thing about Chicago,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said in his inimitably tweaking way, “they may not be extremely talented, but they play very hard.”
Said Bryant: “I think Brad Miller saw the punch Shaq tried to throw at him. I don’t think he’ll put himself in that predicament again.”
Artest harassed Bryant into 1-for-9 shooting down the stretch of the last meeting. Reminded that Bryant had derided the Bulls’ use of confetti to celebrate home victories and said that he’d be waiting for Wednesday’s rematch, Oakley smiled.
“We’ll have somebody waiting on Kobe, too,” he said. “Ron-Ron (Artest’s nickname) The Rottweiler.
“I like Kobe. He’s a first-class guy. But he’s got something to prove. And Ron’s a competitor. I’ve seen the kid work. I know how he watches film. He’s watched more film on this game than he probably has all year.”
Said Artest: “They can talk all that whatever, but we’re going to play real aggressive. And if they want to get dirty, we’ll get dirty.”
Miller said he’s playing for sure after sitting out the final portion of Tuesday’s practice at Los Angeles Southwest Junior College. Marcus Fizer smacked the sore left hand that has bothered Miller all season.
While he wouldn’t go as far as Artest, Miller did say O’Neal can expect another night like Jan. 12 if he suits up.
“We’re still not going to give him layups,” Miller said. “Coach [Bill] Cartwright is bringing in the 1987-88 [Detroit Pistons] Bad Boys and trying to not give up layups. That’s how we’ve been playing since he took over. Nothing was different for Shaq.”
Cartwright said he doesn’t expect Oakley to play and insisted his absence had nothing to do with local product Tyson Chandler’s increased role.
“When a guy says he’s hurt, in my mind he’s hurt, especially a guy like Oak who’s an everyday worker,” Cartwright said.
Chandler is expected to start. And no matter who plays, this should be fun.
“Any game against the world champions is a fun game,” Cartwright said. “We just want to play aggressively, like we did the last time.”
