The Kobe / Shaq of the late 90s went deep in the playoffs and had a number of impressive wins — two series wins against the Payton-led Sonics. Each year though, they lost to the eventual Western Conference champions (twice the Jazz, once the Spurs). In those three losing series, the Lakers won one game and lost twelve.

Phil Jackson flipped the switch in 2000, but that’ll be the subject for another write-up. Today, we’ll talk about Game 1 of the 1997 playoffs against the Blazers — the first Laker playoff game for both Shaq and Kobe.

Kobe only got garbage time, although he sank his sole midrange jumper (with — my god — really loose handles). Kobe Bryant playing less than a minute surprised me because I’m familiar with his four airballs in the fourth quarter / overtime against the Jazz that same year, ending the Laker playoff run. Nevertheless, this is understandable. He was only a teenager.

The Lakers were a young but deep team. They had fast guards like Eddie Jones and Nick Van Nexel, a veteran presence in Bryon Scott who showed flashes of Showtime, solid frontcourt players including Robert Horry and Elden Campbell, and a string of rookies including Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher.

The real star of the show was obviously Shaquille O’Neal. He was fast, big and lean. I jumped out of my seat numerous times with how quickly and how forcefully he would get his shots off. He had a graceful power unstoppable by the strong but slow giant in Arvydas Sabonis.

Over time, you got a sense of Shaq’s go-to moves. He would evade double teams with half-spins into baseline floaters. Even when he did get trapped in a double team, it didn’t matter much.

The Lakers would set up a double back screen to get him isolated in the paint. In these situations, Shaq liked to reverse spin and go for the lob. But even with just a pass into the post, he often got the ball with such deep positioning that there was no time for help.

When Shaq got the ball, he showed patience. He didn’t try to just jam it in or clank it up (unlike his Superman successor Dwight Howard). Shaq was smart with his moves and had a light enough touch to either kiss it off the backboard or use the rim to cradle the ball in.

Claiming that Shaq wouldn’t survive in today’s NBA is a travesty. He is the most dominant physical specimen since Wilt Chamberlain. Even if he never developed a jump shot, he would have so much more space to operate. Double teams would lead to easy three’s.

Early Shaq would eat up modern defenses with pick-and-rolls. He was quick and athletic enough to do damage twelve feet away from the rim too. Nothing you could do but foul him when he had enough space for a nasty dribble spin move. In this game, he grabbed a loose ball behind the backboard, eight feet away from the rim. A quick one dribble floater later, he scored two points fluidly.

For his size, athleticism, and young agility, I expected Shaq to be an elite defender. But, he wasn’t. He was caught with poor defensive positioning several times against Sabonis. The poor positioning led to silly fouls, and there were times where he didn’t jump or even raised an arm to contest.

It’s undeniable that Shaq could have played with more consistent defensive effort on the court. Off the court, he could have been in much better shape and put in the time to become a much more skilled big man.

Kobe once said, “To think of me as a person that’s overachieved, that would mean a lot to me. That means I put a lot of work in and squeezed every ounce of juice out of this orange that I could.” Shaq only lightly squeezed his orange. No wonder Kobe thought he left eight championships on the table.

Bill Simmons argues in the Book of Basketball 2.0 that Shaq was lazy because basketball wasn’t really fun for him, and I agree with that. Shaq had to fight for every pass into the post. Once he got the ball, he had to fight to get a shot up. He would get hounded, and many fouls went uncalled every game. Even when he did get fouled, he had to go to the free throw line where he missed half the time. Staying in shape when you’re 7’1 and well over 300 pounds likely isn’t easy either.

Shaq may have loved rapping, acting and simply being a personality more than being a basketball player, and that’s perfectly fine. He obviously doesn’t owe anyone anything. As a Laker fan, I can accept that and appreciate what he gave to. Because at the end of the day, even though he only lightly squeezed his orange, that was one big fucking orange with more than enough juice to leave us satisfied.