Aside from Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal was the most dominant force in NBA history. 7 foot 1, and 325 pounds at his most terrifying, he combined brute force and power to become a player that simply could not be guarded one on one unless defenders wanted to be left in the dust.
Never more evident was Shaq's pulverizing power than on his 28th birthday in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. O'Neal would finish with a career-high 61 points and 23 rebounds, mercifully dominating Clippers' starting center Michael Olowokandi and any other opposing big that took on the impossible and unenviable task.
Olowokandi picked up his third foul in the first 3 minutes and 30 seconds of the game, and with 7 foot 3 backup Keith Closs - a two-time NCAA leader in blocks at Central Connecticut - out due to injury, the onus then fell on Anthony Avent, a 6'9, 240 pound forward who gave up plenty in the height and weight department. The first basket of the game for O'Neal would be an 8-foot jumper from the right block over Avent.
He had his moments of finesse - finger rolls, great passes out of the post, even running a fast break at one point - but the most impressive and frightening thing about prime O'Neal was just his sheer dominance and inability to be contained. He was so much bigger than every other big man, so much stronger, and he had great agility and athleticism for a guy his size, too.
After one quarter, O'Neal had 10 points and 5 rebounds as the Lakers trailed by a score of 29-24. His 12th point came on an easy post spin and layup over another outmatched Clipper forward/center Pete Chilcutt, and his 14th point a jump hook off the glass over Chilcutt. When O'Neal got deep post position on the night, there was nothing the Clippers - or any the team for that matter - could or can do. Legendary Laker announcer Chick Hearn commented at one point in the second quarter "as long as they have Chilcutt in there guarding Shaq, Shaq could go for 1,000." On another Laker possession, Hearn remarked "I feel sorry for Chilcutt. He's got no chance."
O'Neal was dominating his outmatched adversary in the second quarter, routinely catching the ball deep and using his footwork to spin for scores, dunk, or draw fouls simply based on the fact that Chilcutt had no other choice. The same went for Avent, who checked in later in the quarter. Diesel finished the first half with 26 points and 11 rebounds, getting to the line 16 times and making 50% of them. The Lakers took a 56-55 lead into the half against a game Clipper squad that saw good games from Derek Anderson (21 points off of the bench), Maurice Taylor (25 points, 10 rebounds), and Lamar Odom (17 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists).
The Lakers - who were playing the role of visitor on the Clipper-painted Staples Center hardwood - pulled away in the second half, eventually winning by 20, 123-103. For O'Neal, the second half was much of the same, and sprinkled in were full court floor runs that turned into dunks, alley-oops and blocked shots. By the end of the third, the Lakers had turned their 1-point halftime lead into a 12-point lead, with O'Neal's line, at the end of the 3rd quarter - third quarter - an absurd 42 points and 15 rebounds on 16 of 23 shooting. Laker color commentator Stu Lantz summed things up perfectly after the third quarter, saying about O'Neal "whatever he has thrown up tonight, he has scored."
The big man - who had averaged in the first three games against the Clippers that season 33 points and 18 rebounds - would score 18 points in the fourth quarter, and grab 6 rebounds, a fringe All-Star's season average. He was utterly unstoppable, too much for the Clippers to handle like he was for any team during that time in his career. At 28, he was just reaching his best, would win his first title that June, the season that really was the genesis of him being indefensible.
That season, O'Neal would lead the league in points per game at 29.7, and average 13.6 rebounds, which was 0.3 shy of the career-high 13.9 he averaged as a rookie. He would also average 3.0 blocks, and in the Finals go on a tear, notching 43 and 19 rebounds in Game 1, 40 and 24 in Game 2, 33 and 13 in Game 3, 36 and 21 in Game 4, 35 and 11 in Game 6, and 41 and 12 in the clinching Game 6. He would win the first of his three-straight Finals MVPs that would begin a three-peat, those Kobe-Shaq Lakers the last team in the NBA to do so.
He would have the most outstanding game of his illustrious Hall of Fame career on his birthday, with an unfortunate present gifted to the Clippers, and he no doubt at the height of his career.
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