First Option Against Spurs Is a Big One

Yao Ming is gone. Now things really get tough for Shaquille O’Neal.

Don’t be fooled into thinking O’Neal has a breather against San Antonio Spur Rasho Nesterovic after dueling Yao, the biggest threat to his title as supreme center.

This series, O’Neal will be asked to guard Nesterovic, harass Tony Parker coming off screens, spend some time against Tim Duncan and wage an inner battle against his own propensity to commit bad fouls.

He needs to do all of this while carrying a larger offensive load than he did in the first round against the Houston Rockets, when he averaged 16 points a game. Coach Phil Jackson said Friday that the Lakers can’t simply rely on Kobe Bryant’s energy the way they did in Game 5 of the first round and most of the second half of the regular season.

“Shaq’s our first option anyway, regardless,” Jackson said. “We’re going to try to get the ball into Shaquille.”

Karl Malone underscored the extent of Jackson’s desired game plan.

“We’ve got our marching orders,” Malone said.

We haven’t seen O’Neal demand the ball, haven’t heard stories about him saying “Come to me,” the way he did in playoffs past. At one point in the series-clinching Game 5 against the Rockets, he had 6-foot-9 Maurice Taylor guarding him, but O’Neal left the post and came out to set a screen for Bryant.

O’Neal seemed so out of sorts that during a pause in the action Bryant asked him, “You all right?”

O’Neal insists he is fine, that the tendinitis in his right knee “is not a problem” and the role of defender and offensive facilitator is fine as long as the team wins, even though it appears to be the work of a “token big man” he has loathed for so long.

“If it’s a game where I’m going offensively, I would like to get that opportunity,” O’Neal said. “If it’s a game where I’m not going offensively, then I don’t mind doing other things. But I like to have that option.”

O’Neal’s postseason dominance in the paint used to be as mandatory as an engine, not an option like 26-inch rims.

With the exception of his game-winning basket in Game 1, which dropped out of the sky and into his hands, O’Neal had to work hard for his points. He often faced double- and triple-teams. When he did score one on one it was against the 7-6 Yao, described by O’Neal as a “big dude.”

Jackson said he expects the Spurs to send less help than the Rockets did, and the shooting touch Malone showed against the Rockets should force Duncan to stick with him and away from O’Neal.

But with single coverage comes the risk of charging calls on O’Neal.

“This is a team that really wants him to get offensive fouls,” Jackson said of the Spurs. “Obviously when you double-team him you’re not going to get as many, like Houston did. They try to draw the offensive foul, with smaller players like [Malik] Rose, they try to throw the smaller player and get underneath Shaq and try to have him react to it. An offensive foul is daunting, because it takes away your ability to play defense. We’ve chided Shaq about not getting offensive fouls.”

Just as bad are the cheap reaching fouls he gets when he switches on to guards. He seemed to get at least one a game against Houston’s Steve Francis. And with Jackson predicting the Spurs will run the pick-and-roll 40 to 50 times a game, he will often find himself staring down at San Antonio point guard Parker, who’s even quicker than Francis.

“Most of my fouls come from reaching,” O’Neal said. “I just have to stop reaching and just move my feet a little more. I’ll be OK.”

He could learn from Duncan. The guy avoids fouls like a weight-watcher dodges carbohydrates. It’s remarkable for a guy who blocks an average of 2.6 shots a game. Watch how Duncan will back away from oncoming players or skip any chance at contact unless he has a clean angle. While O’Neal had 224 personal fouls in 67 games, Duncan had 164 fouls in 69 games. The only other player among the NBA’s top 10 shot-blockers with fewer fouls than Duncan was Detroit’s Ben Wallace, who had 162 in 81 games.

Some people think O’Neal hasn’t demanded the ball because he does not want to get fouled and go to the free-throw line. He is shooting 29.5% -- 13 for 44 -- from the stripe in the playoffs.

Yet the Lakers insist O’Neal will be more active in this series, will get the ball on the move more often.

He’ll certainly have to move on the defensive end.

“I think if I have to help on the pick-and-roll a lot, Tony Parker’s going to kick it back to those guys for wide-open jumpers,” O’Neal said. “I’ll probably have to guard Mr. Duncan in the fourth quarter. It’s going to be a good, fun matchup.”

As long as O’Neal can avoid foul trouble and stay in the game until the end. Compared to jumping off screens to run off little guards or worrying about how the officials call the game, guarding the two-time MVP one on one might be the easiest, most fun task he could have.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.