Shaquille O’Neal’s post-game comments after yesterday’s win against the Los Angeles Lakers reminded me of the opening lyrics to LL Cool J’s most well known song “Mama Said Knock You Out”. For those of you who don’t follow hip-hop music all that closely, i’m referring to the opening line “Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years….”
I guess Steve Kerr and the rest of the Suns organization finally received the open letter Dr. Anklesnap of The Hoop Doctors wrote to them back in December of 2008. Terry Porter is gone, Alvin Gentry is in, and the Phoenix Suns are running and gunning again with Shaquille O’Neal at the heart of it all. Since the all-star break Shaq is playing a more dominant game than any other big man in the league (yes, that includes you Dwight Howard), and maybe any other player period.
I’m not talking about sheer numbers here. If you watch how much Shaq is affecting the game on both ends you’ll see things like: opposing guards taking a sober second thought before driving to the hoop when Shaq is in the paint, quick outlets that lead to easy fast break buckets, post kick-outs that lead to swing passes for wide open threes, team energy boosts after Shaq throws down the gauntlet with a powerful rim rocker, etc. etc. All of these intangibles and more don’t show up on the box score, but are having a very positive effect on his Suns teammates.
I have to agree with Shaquille O’Neal’s post game comments (video below) after the Suns victory yesterday over the league leading Los Angeles Lakers. When Shaq is healthy he’s always been a high performer, regardless of where he’s played. Decline? What decline? He just dropped 45 points on the Raptors, and to prove the pessimists wrong who said it was a fluke, he came right back out and dropped 33 on the Lakers big man Gasol.
The only thing that has surprised me about Shaq’s play as of late has been his free throw shooting. I think he’s even surprising himself that he’s shooting a career high free throw percentage this late in his career. But if Shaq keeps improving his free throw shooting, I wouldn’t want to match up with the Suns in Round 1 of the playoffs. How do you stop a Shaq who hits free throws?
Here are Shaq’s post-game comments with ESPN:
