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Love him or hate him, few athletes have loomed larger on the L.A. sports scene than Shaquille O'Neal. (See what I did there?) He was a centerpiece (again!) of the Threepeat Lakers, but with success came plenty of drama, most notably thanks to a partnership atop the roster with Kobe Bryant rarely lacking tension.

In his new book "Shaq Uncut: My Story," written with esteemed basketball writer Jackie MacMullan, O'Neal details his life in L.A., from his relationships with Kobe and Phil Jackson to how Jerry West jumped on an opportunity to import him from Orlando, and his lingering bitterness towards Mitch Kupchak.

MacMullan joined us this week to discuss the book and O'Neal's career and, no surprise, we focused a great deal on O'Neal's tenure in purple and gold.

Click here to listen to the whole show, or jump to a specific topic by clicking the links below...

2:00- How Shaq's childhood impacted his personality.

A great deal of attention has been paid to those sections of the book about conflicts with high profile figures like Kobe or Pat Riley, but arguably the most interesting stories come at the beginning. Shaq's youth was a rugged one in which he was mocked because of his size, and teased because of a stutter. Then there was the harsh physical discipline meted out by Phillip Harrison, in every way but biologically his father. Shaq fiercely defends Harrison ("Sarge," as he's commonly known), and MacMullan notes O'Neal was a tough kid to control. "Shaq was a juvenile delinquent, let's be honest here. Stealing cars, he was throwing spitballs at teachers, he was bullying kids at school. He wasn't really what we would call a model citizen when he was a kid. So when he messed up, his father answered with his fists, and sometimes his belt," she says.

There was an upshot to all the misbehavior, notes MacMullen. The amount of time Shaq spent "in punishment" (sent to his room) helped form the imagination and creativity eventually becoming O'Neal's trademarks. She explains how Shaq's behavior as a pro reflects those formative years.

8:10- Shaq and Phil Jackson.

Shaq writes in glowing terms about Jackson, who came to the Lakers when O'Neal desperately needed help overcoming the perception he couldn't win in crunch time. "He thought, "You know what, this guy [Jackson is] a winner. He's a proven winner. I need a ring, and I think this is the guy who's going to get me one." He had to make a decision to jump in with both feet and totally buy what Phil was selling, and that's what he did," MacMullan says.

9:20- On Shaq's sensitivity.

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Towards the end of Jerry West’s tenure as the executive vice president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, he spent much of his time dealing with the egos of his two superstar players, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. He said he viewed both players like sons and both players have said in the past he was almost like a second father.

Not long after West left the Lakers, the relationship between O’Neal and Bryant deteriorated and ultimately led the Lakers to trade O’Neal after he screamed, “Pay me!” at Lakers owner Jerry Buss during a preseason game in Hawaii in 2003 while he was seeking a new contract.

Before he signed copies of his new book “West By West, My Tormented Life” at the ESPN Zone in Los Angeles, he told ESPNLosAngeles.com that he didn’t believe his presence would have prevented the messy divorce and that the O’Neal’s trade probably facilitated the team’s last two championships.

“I think when you work for Jerry Buss the thing that’s the greatest about him is he’s not afraid to make tough decisions,” West said. “I think Shaquille put himself in a very precarious position with something he said in Hawaii and they moved on and Kobe Bryant was ready to take center stage.

“To some degree it was almost like when [Kareem] Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson were here. Abdul-Jabbar abdicated his throne for a player who was in the middle of his prime and I think Shaquille’s personality is completely different than Kobe’s personality and by making a tough decision they were able to win a couple more championships. Obviously here in Los Angeles they want you to win but they want you to win at the very highest level.”

West was not allowed to address the current lockout as a consultant and minority owner of the Golden State Warriors but he said he understood the Lakers’ decision to part with 20 staff members, including assistant general manager Ronnie Lester and scout Gene Tormohlen, who put in 43 years with the club.

“I know Jerry Buss well enough to know that he’s someone who has kept people there for years,” West said. “Sometimes people want to make changes and you can’t criticize people for making changes. When I was there we obviously had a much smaller group of people working and as the franchise has gotten bigger, there’s a lot more people and then you figure out we have too many people here. I think change is good. I don’t think it’s bad.”

The biggest off-season change for the Lakers was the retirement of Phil Jackson. In the book, Buss outlines his strained relationship with Jackson and an incident where Jackson kicked West out of the locker room. West, however, doesn’t believe Jackson’s attitude has resulted in so few of his assistants, including Brian Shaw, getting head coaching jobs.

“He did exactly the job with us that he was supposed to do,” West said. “He’s one of the few coaches in this league who has successfully made this triangle offense work. His belief in it, his ability to teach it and his ability to get players to buy into it were frankly his strengths. He hasn’t had a lot of coaches go on to have head coaching opportunities and who knows why that is. You would think with all the winning he’s done that more people would look into what he’s done because his offense really promotes team play and the way you win in this league is with team play.”

If you missed it, below are selected quotes from our interview Friday afternoon with former Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw. While he clearly was disappointed by not getting L.A.'s head coaching gig, Shaw seemed just as disappointed he heard the news of Mike Brown's good fortune on ESPN long before anyone in the organization spoke with him personally. Along with the decision not to run Brown's hire past Kobe Bryant (not for his approval, but as a courtesy) and questions about the handling of assistant GM Ronnie Lester and other team personnel, the treatment Shaw describes jibes neatly with the perception the Lakers, and particularly Jim Buss' Lakers, have a communication problem in the front office.

PODCAST
Andy and Brian speak with former Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, talking about Jim Buss, communication problems, and how members of Phil Jackson's coaching tree are treated around the league. Podcast

It's difficult to argue the point.

More than anything, though, Shaw's comments again accentuate the general level of nervousness among so many fans. Not necessarily regarding what decisions are made -- hiring Brown over Shaw is a reasonable position -- but of the motivation behind them. Are they based on basketball, or reflecting a desire to make bold choices and put a personal stamp on a team? What happens when Kobe isn't Kobe anymore? Where will the next superstar come from, and is Jim Buss up to the task of maintaining the success of his father? The bar is spectacularly high.

To have so much hand-wringing over a team as good as the Lakers still are seems a little strange, but it reflects the psychological space occupied locally by the team. The Lakers are one of the city's reliably uplifting commodities (sunshine being another), almost always delivering a good-to-championship-level product. Even in more sour moments, people ultimately tend to believe they'll be fine, mostly because Dr. Buss' track record is so good. Now, many worry about the direction of the team (code for "worried about Jim Buss"), and since concern for the Lakers is basically foreign, the anxiety is only heightened. By no means has Jim Buss definitively shown he can't do the job, but he hasn't exactly endeared himself to the fan base, either.

These days, nobody is looking for fresh additions to the ol' worry jar. Shaw, candid for sure but even-handed and still very diplomatic, doesn't oblige.

A partial transcription of his comments is below. For the whole interview, click the module at right.

On disappointment in not getting the Lakers job:

"Initially I was very disappointed. It was something that I had my sights set on. I didn't really feel comfortable talking about [it] leading into this last season, but just tried to do everything I possibly could to put myself in position, and soak up and learn as much as I could from the best coach that's ever coached in any professional sport. I thought that I had done that, and having been in the organization for the past 12 years, thought I positioned myself pretty well. But I also understand the business and the nature of the business.

Things didn't work out that way, so I understand that, so it was time to move on, and that's what I did."

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On Friday's Mason and Ireland Show on 710 ESPN, Andy and I interviewed at length Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, now the associate head coach with the Indiana Pacers.

PODCAST
Andy and Brian speak with former Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, talking about Jim Buss, communication problems, and how members of Phil Jackson's coaching tree are treated around the league. Podcast

We'll break down the interview in more detail ASAP, but in the meantime, among the topics covered...:

• Shaw says he learned Mike Brown would be the next head coach of the Lakers the same way most of us did -- via ESPN, and other outlets.
• Disappointment in how the post-interview process was handled, and how he was hurt by the lack of communication from the front office. Shaw says he's spoken to Mitch Kupchak and received a voicemail from Jerry Buss, but still hasn't spoken to Jim Buss. Shaw did say he believes in hindsight, the Lakers would have handled the situation differently.
• The depth of his relationship with Jim Buss.
• Typically, when candidates don't get a head coaching job following an interview, some sort of explanation of why they fell short. Shaw regrets getting no such feedback.
• Conventional wisdom says coming from the incredibly successful coaching staff of Phil Jackson would be an asset. Shaw says it's not the case, something he clearly finds offensive. "I've seen the faces of general managers cringe" when talking about his experience with Jackson and the triangle offense, Shaw says.
• That it was his association with Jackson ultimately preventing him from getting the job in L.A..

For those who missed the conversation in full swing, as always, the replay is provided. Among the talking points:

• What to make of Kobe Bryant remaining mum on Mike Brown.
• Potential offseason moves, whether by trade or draft.
• The odds of Devin Ebanks getting more PT next season, perhaps at shooting guard.
• Brian Shaw's immediate coaching future.

Here is the link.

I'll cop to some healthy skepticism about his skills, his overall qualifications and, particularly, his fit with the current roster when I learned Mike Brown would be the next head coach of the Lakers.

PODCAST
Andy and Brian discuss new Lakers coach Mike Brown with ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. Windhorst covered the Cavaliers for the Cleveland Plain Dealer while Brown was the coach. Podcast

Admittedly, it was based on an outsider's viewpoint. I certainly watched a fair share of Cavs games when Brown was the coach, but at no point was I a dedicated follower of the day in, day out, insider business of Cleveland basketball. My knowledge was shallow. Conversations with people who know more about Brown and his tenure there, including these with TrueHoop's John Krolik and ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst left me feeling better about his qualities as a coach and the results he was able to wring out of his teams. The resume he brings is strong, particularly relative to the field of available candidates.

Still, real questions remain, from how Brown's coaching philosophies mesh with current Lakers personnel to his ability to guide a more-or-less ready-made product filled with strong personalities individually and a long history collectively. (On the flip side, zero questions remain about Brown's ability to knock a job interview out of the park. He should write a book.) I wonder about the process by which he was hired and, even while acknowledging some of the drawbacks of Brian Shaw, what seems to be a driving need to sever the Lakers so cleanly from the Phil Jackson era. Jim Buss clearly sought to make a statement. Only time will tell if he did so for sound reasons.

Nonetheless, the days of Mike Brown are here, and with them come a whole host of questions. Here are a few:

1. What will Brown do with the offense?

As Windhorst noted, give the offense to someone else to run. Among the members of his staff will be an “offensive coordinator.” The idea the Lakers can’t have a productive, high-end attack with Brown at the helm is belied by Brown’s last two years in Cleveland, where his teams finished 4th and 6th, respectively, in efficiency. While his rep is rightly on the defensive side of the ball, Brown doesn’t have a moral opposition to scoring points. The ineptitude of Cleveland’s offense in Brown’s early years can be attributed in large part to personnel.

Some of those guys just weren’t very good. He won't have that problem in L.A..

It’s hard to determine exactly what sort of attack Brown and his staff will look to create, but he was with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio when the Spurs were a frontcourt-driven team. While the triangle is no more, as Jackson and his staff frequently noted, many of the offense’s principles exist in other systems and approaches, including the Spurs’. I’d be surprised if Brown and his staff try to completely reinvent the wheel with the Lakers. Expect an approach taking advantage of the team’s strengths -- length, versatile ball movers, intelligence -- in similar ways.

Particularly given the likelihood of a shortened regular season, with compressed practice schedules and abbreviated training camps, teams able to hit the ground running will have an advantage. Again, that puts a premium on continuity and playing to strengths the team already has.

2. How will he get along with Kobe Bryant?

Welcome to the eleventy-billion dollar question.

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With each passing day, the anticipation builds as to Phil Jackson's eventual successor. Despite a disappointing final season in L.A., PJ obviously leaves massive shoes to fill. The primary names reportedly in the hat include Brian Shaw (who also interviewed with the Warriors), Chuck Person, Mike Dunleavy, Rick Adelman, and Mike Brown, with perhaps even more to surface.

In an effort to compare two of the candidates, I gave a call to former Laker Josh Powell, who spent a season under Dunleavy with the Clippers before his two in purple and gold. Powell, who felt his time with Dunleavy helped prepare him for some occasionally important minutes during two title runs, offered thoughts on the very different systems of Dunleavy and Shaw (should he continue running Jackson's system as expected), plus the way the two communicate.

Powell, on the differences in the systems of Dunleavy and Jackson
"With Coach Dunleavy, he's more of [a deliberate] execution, in terms of slowing the game up and calling out more plays and just control from that standpoint. Which isn't a bad thing. It's just his method and his way of doing things, controlling the flow of the game.

"Phil has a different approach from the standpoint of he allows the players to be in much more control of what things are being run and executed out there on the court. Of course, during time outs or certain situations, he wants to come up with a play. But more so than not, he definitely puts that responsibility on the players."

On how long the differences between Dunleavy's and Jackson's systems took getting used to
"It didn't throw me for a loop. It's something to get used from that standpoint, because you're literally out there with the guys just calling and running through the plays. The triangle is a different offense, because it's not necessarily things that are called. It's just based on where the ball goes and things like that. We were just out there going with the flow. It was definitely great. I got used to it very quickly."

On whether Dunleavy's playbook is as thick as rumored
"He definitely has a large playbook and at the same time, everything is all with numbers. So that took a while to getting used to. But once you get used to the sets and everything, that's pretty much easy. Just like any other offense, once you start going through it, it becomes second nature. It's nothing."

On how long it would take for the Lakers, especially those who've been in the triangle for years, to get used to a more conventional system
"I'm sure it'll be tough, because you have an offense that basically dictates itself from the standpoint of its continuous movement. Nothing stops one other thing. And when you go to a [more conventional] set, if that option runs out, then you gotta be creative, you know? You're going from something that's continuous to now, you have to call a play. You run through that play. The first option doesn't work. The second option doesn't work. 'Oh, no. What do you do?' You gotta be creative, from that standpoint.

"Either way, that organization, they're very talented with the group of guys that they have. I'm sure that they'll find a way to make it where that group is successful.

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Big afternoon for Lakers Late Night on Friday, as Lakers beat writer Dave McMenamin squeezed his way into frame for a lively conversation.

Most of the show was spent on the coaching search. Who is the best candidate to replace Phil Jackson? We cover the pros and cons of the major candidates, including Brian Shaw, Rick Adelman, and Mike Dunleavy. Plus some reaction to the news former Cavs coach Mike Brown is garnering interest.

From there, we talk about the challenges in making changes to the roster, big or small, this offseason.

Via ESPN.com's Marc Stein and ESPNLA.com's Dave McMenamin:

"The Los Angeles Lakers' search for Phil Jackson's replacement is just beginning, but NBA coaching sources on Thursday described the Lakers as "very interested" in Rick Adelman as a candidate for the position. Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw has the public endorsement of Kobe Bryant and is regarded as by far the strongest in-house candidate for the position. Yet sources say Lakers officials are intrigued by the Adelman option, not only because of his history of success in Portland, Sacramento and Houston but also his reputation for thriving with veteran teams and the similarities between Adelman's 'corner' offense and Jackson's 'triangle' offense."

Also on the early list of candidates, Stein and McMenamin report, are Mike Dunleavy, who began his coaching career with the Lakers, and Jeff Van Gundy. As for Adelman, nothing about the report is at all surprising. I noted when the Rockets fired Adelman last month he'd instantly become an intriguing candidate to succeed Jackson. And while I still think Shaw is the leading contender, the way the Lakers went out only decreases his odds. Had they advanced to a fourth straight Finals, it would have been harder to break up the band.

At his exit interview Wednesday, Kobe Bryant pointed to "familiarity" as one of Shaw's great attributes. He knows their personalities as players, and how they like to be coached, Bryant said. At this point, though, familiarity and comfort may work against Shaw, not for him. Management might decide it best to make the players a little more uncomfortable. Getting dusted in the second round adds credence to the theory the Lakers need an entirely new voice, and while by definition no voice is like Jackson's, Shaw's still comes from the same tree.

Dunleavy, says Mark Heisler of the LA Times, is well thought of in the Lakers' front office and has had a successful career on the bench, but I tend to think his stint with the Clippers creates a P.R. problem for the team. I don't know if fans would accept the choice. Van Gundy feels like a long shot.

The real wrinkle here is the possibility of a lockout. A long layoff and short regular season favors veteran teams with continuity, obviously favoring Shaw (and, along with it, keeping the core of the team intact), who keeps the existing system and won't require a learning curve with the players. The Lakers don't have a large window with Kobe, and can't afford to give away a year rebuilding, whether with wildly different personnel or a big change in system in a compressed season. Mitch Kupchak wouldn't -- couldn't -- speak to how the labor issues impact the coaching search, but did say the team will be in no hurry to name the next coach.

Whatever the end result, I suspect it'll take a while to get there.

Call it "The Triangle: Postmortem."

This week, we join up with Ramona Shelburne, covering the following...

1. What went wrong against the Mavs, and should we have seen it coming?
2. Fact or fiction: Brian Shaw is the right man to replace Phil Jackson.
3. Finally, a special "Stay or Go?" edition of Rapid Fire, setting the table for an offseason of potential roster reconstruction.

Click here to watch...

If you haven't already, take the time to check out the moving feature on Brian Shaw authored by ESPNLA.com's Arash Markazi. Shaw has seen a great deal of success in his life, but the summer of 1993, in which he lost his mother, father and sister in a car accident, was one of inexplicable tragedy.

"It's a summer," Shaw said, "I want to forget.":

... For the past 18 years, his memory has been healing and haunting, constantly reminding him of those he loved and suddenly lost. Toward the end of the summer Shaw wishes he could forget, he went though his family's drawers and closets for clothes he could give to those in need. It was something his mother would have wanted him to do after all those summers of giving the clothes off their backs in Guyana. As he went through their belongings, his senses were sent into overdrive. His mind flashed back to events he experienced with them in each outfit as their smells filled the air. "When I was in the closet getting stuff, they still had the scent of my father, mother and sister on some of their clothes," Shaw said. "So I kept a few things of theirs and put them in a garment bag and zipped it up. …

"Every once in a while if I'm missing them, I'll just go into the closet, unzip it, and put it up against my face and smell it. It still had their scent and smell." Nikki Shaw has come to expect summers to be particularly hard, especially in late June. She knows there will be a day that month when Brian will take out the bag he keeps his mother's jewelry in and lay the pieces across the bed, touching each one as if he's taking an accounting of them.

"I remember how my mother looked like when she had it on," Shaw said. "I do that every year during the summer time, and my wife reminded me of that last year. I didn't even notice that until she told me." Shaw doesn't wear any jewelry outside of his wedding ring and a diamond earring in his left ear, made from one of his mother's rings. "I wanted to keep her with me in some kind of way," he said...

Excellent work.

We're not quite done telling the story of the 2010-11 Lakers, but it's certainly not to early to look ahead to next year's edition, and the work to be done this summer.

Here are 19 thoughts percolating around my brain in the wake of Sunday's season ending loss. Why 19? Because round numbers get too much love. And I ran out of thoughts following a weekend of very long hours...

1. The Lakers don't have an age problem, they have a skill set problem. Focusing too heavily on the former won't solve any of their issues. Keep in mind, they just lost to a team with a 32-year old star (Dirk), a 38 year old point guard (Jason Kidd), a 33-year old sixth man (Terry), and a 33-year old small forward (Marion). The Mavs are older than the Lakers, and swept them anyway.

2. The Lakers could use athleticism, but athleticism doesn't automatically equal productivity. Shannon Brown is easily the best pure athlete on the team, and played very poorly for most of the season.

3. Many of their problems are instantly fixed by not winning this year. The Lakers will benefit greatly by coming into next season as just another contender in the Western Conference, with fresh motivation, a chip on their shoulder, and things like a new coach to keep them engaged during the year. They're the band touring too long that needs to get off the road for a year.

4. Speaking of which, I still think Brian Shaw ends up the guy, but losing early and badly raises the likelihood the Lakers go outside the organization and shake things up.

5. The core of the Lakers roster -- Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, Odom -- is versatile enough to run any system. But obviously if the Lakers go a different direction than Shaw and the triangle, Derek Fisher's role is put in serious question. Really, it's in question, anyway.

6. No matter who coaches, the Lakers need to figure something out at point guard, and it's less about defense than offense. The Lakers have the least productive point guard tandem in basketball, and can no longer afford to play four on five at that end, particularly given the inconsistencies of Ron Artest's offensive game.

7. There's an irony to Andrew Bynum finally finishing a season healthy, putting himself in position be as strong as he's ever been come next year . . . and he now could lose a large portion of his season to suspension, following Sunday's cheap shot on J.J. Barea. Between the play, removing his jersey at halfcourt like he was in the octagon, and an increasingly large permanent record -- the NBA, like the parole board in "Raising Arizona," frowns on recidivism -- expect the league to hammer Bynum with a major penalty. His proverbial permanent record is getting lengthy.

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For those yet to read Lee Jenkins' (Sports Illustrated) profile of Andrew Bynum, get on the stick, because it's fantastic. Upon completing that step, strap on a headset and click the module to the right, because Jenkins is our guest. Among the talking points in discussing his article:

PODCAST
Andy and Brian welcome Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, author of a new feature on Andrew Bynum. Plus, a discussion of Bynum's impact on a threepeat run, and what happens next year if the Lakers fall short Podcast

- Jenkins shares how Drew remains in many ways the same kid who entered the league with a love of computers, gadgetry and engineering. (Brian and I refer to such people as "geeks.") Bynum's desire to devour knowledge is what makes him both a unique athlete and a great fit for a team with a collectively high I.Q. -- basketball or otherwise -- and varying interests.

"He never really just hung out with the jocks at school," says Jenkins of Bynum. "He never really just saw himself as a basketball player."

- Jenkins talks about how the same thirst for learning mirrors Drew's desire to evolve as a player.

- Drew established himself in 2011 as a defensive force after two seasons spent resisting instructions to embrace this role. On the surface, Bynum looked like a typical youngster obsessed with "getting his." But as Jenkins shares, the issue ran deeper. Before getting hurt during his breakthrough 2007-2008 season, he appeared on the verge of becoming the second option behind Kobe Bryant. Then came the arrival of a more polished Pau Gasol, which lowered his place in the pecking order. As someone who fancied himself a scorer, Bynum felt like he had no role, or even a place in the franchise.

"There was a long period where he felt lost," explains Jenkins. "He needed time, a lot of time, to come to the fact that what he wants to do isn't necessarily what the Lakers need him to do. They need him to do something different."

- What bothers Drew most about Kobe's infamous "Ship his a-- out" parking lot rant? Being asked so often about it.

- As an intellectual kid, Bynum genuinely appreciates the heady Zen approaches of Phil Jackson. No matter who replaces PJ, Jenkins thinks it will be an especially big adjustment for Drew.

- With Jenkins gone, we talk about the importance of Bynum in the Three-peat quest. The 2009 and 2010 titles provided tangible evidence the Lakers can win without Drew dominating, but the quest becomes much easier if he does. Plus, he's been dying to make an indelible playoff mark, so it would be nice for that dream to finally get realized.

- If the playoffs ended with a whimper, how would that shape the offseason, whether in terms of the roster or Phil's replacement? Would a second round exit make someone like Rick Adelman -- who brings more experience but also a different system to the table -- more appealing?

- Is there reason to be concerned Pau's regular season inconsistencies will linger throughout the postseason?

First things first: The Lakers are neither scared of, nor unaccustomed to, defending the pick and roll.

"Most teams see it as our weak point," Lakers assistant coach Chuck Person told me Monday after practice in El Segundo. "For instance, the second game we played in San Antonio, they ran 79 pick and rolls. So we know what that system is. We know [Hornets] Coach [Monty] Williams played in that system. He coached in it. I was his teammate in San Antonio. He went to Portland, and they run a lot of pick and rolls up there as well, so he carried it over to New Orleans."

"We knew coming in that we were going to face Chris Paul and the pick and roll," Person continued. "Over the course of this year when we played New Orleans, I don't think it was a concern. It's only a concern if you do things improperly, or out of the system that we determine is best [for us]."

You wouldn't know it based on Sunday's effort, but the Lakers are actually among the best in the league in defending the pick and roll. Via ESPN Stats and Information, when guarding the ball handler in P-and-R sets this season they ranked sixth in points per play and tied for fourth in adjusted field goal percentage. Against the roll man, again the Lakers were very good, ranking in the NBA's top five in both categories. Not Sunday. In Game 1, whether it was Chris Paul (1.5 points per play) or others (1.43 ppp, primarily fueled by Jarrett Jack), the Lakers essentially surrendered twice as many points per pick and roll as they did in the regular season.

Still, don't expect sweeping changes. As Kobe Bryant noted following Sunday's loss, the Lakers never gave themselves a chance. "We didn't do the coverages defensively that we were supposed to do. We just didn't do them. I don't know if we forgot about them, or if it was lack of effort to execute them, but we didn't stick to our game plan."

In Wednesday's Game 2, they aim to fix that. Among the points of emphasis:

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While I suspect most teams don't enter a game with the idea of giving away as many free throws as possible, over the last few seasons the Lakers have been very successful at playing defense without fouling, helping keep the opposition off the stripe. This year, though, the Lakers have turned it into an art form. As noted by SI.com's Zach Lowe, over their final nine games L.A. has a chance to become the least whistled team the league has ever seen.

How?

To gain more insight into how the Lakers do what they do, Thursday afternoon in El Segundo I tracked down assistant coaches Brian Shaw and Chuck Person (separately, though for the sake of continuity I'll put answers to similar questions together). Both emphasize how much attention goes into it from a teaching standpoint, particularly in practice. It can't hurt, too, having so many high IQ, experienced players on the same roster.

Q: As a team, the Lakers have been incredibly effective keeping other teams off the free throw line, to the point you might actually set a record. Is this a philosophical thing?

SHAW: We teach defend without fouling, but it makes it easier when you have big guys inside like Pau [Gasol], Andrew [Bynum], and Lamar [Odom] that we can constantly sandwich the offensive players. We’re chasing them over screens, they’re coming to close up the space, so they’re having to shoot over. Our big guys do a pretty good job of gauging blocking shots as opposed to just taking up space. And then fouling at the right times. Using our fouls when we’re not in the bonus. If they have an advantage on the break, fouling, so that they don’t get an easy basket, but they have to take the ball out [to the sidelines].

PERSON: It’s a system of play that we have that we protect one another when we’re beat off the dribble, that we don’t have to foul out of necessity because we are responsible for a man and a half. We are consistently doing it on a game-by-game basis. We’ve had some games where teams get away from us, but for the most part guys are locked in to what we’re trying to do defensively. It also helps that we are very efficient offensively, which makes teams take the ball out a lot and lets us set ourselves defensively...

...We move our feet really well, we keep teams out of the middle of the floor, and we show our hands on defense. Those are the rules. If you can show your hands on defense and play with your body, those are clean defensive plays. That’s allowable under the rules, and our guys are really catching on to what those rules are.

Q: Some teams- Utah for example- have a history of piling up fouls as part of their style of defending. Does an active belief in not fouling mean there are times when players have to concede a shot or points in the larger interest? Because a play might be too far gone?

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