Shaq Has Last Laugh on Lakers
Basketball: Despite Kobe Bryant posting a season-high 42 points, Shaquille O'Neal emerged the victor from their personal feud as Miami beat the Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant scored a season-high 42 points but it was not enough to defeat his adversary and former team-mate Shaquille O'Neal, whose Miami Heat ran out 104-102 winners after overtime in one of the most eagerly anticipated regular-season games in NBA history.
The two players won three consecutive NBA titles together at the Lakers but fell out after O'Neal recorded a derogatory rap song about his colleague and Bryant was reported to have told a police officer that O'Neal used to pay off women not to say anything after they had been together.
This was O'Neal's first return to LA since his blockbuster move in the summer and he scored 24 points and took 11 rebounds as Miami registered a record 11th consecutive win at the expense of the struggling Lakers.
Fouling out with 2min 15sec to play in the final quarter, O'Neal watched the extra period from the bench but said the outcome was never in doubt despite Bryant's shot in the dying seconds that came back off the rim.
"I knew it wasn't going to go in," said O'Neal, who received a hero's welcome from the Lakers fans.
"I fouled out, I felt I let my team down a bit but we did what we came here to do, which was to win."
The two players won three consecutive NBA titles together at the Lakers but fell out after O'Neal recorded a derogatory rap song about his colleague and Bryant was reported to have told a police officer that O'Neal used to pay off women not to say anything after they had been together.
This was O'Neal's first return to LA since his blockbuster move in the summer and he scored 24 points and took 11 rebounds as Miami registered a record 11th consecutive win at the expense of the struggling Lakers.
Fouling out with 2min 15sec to play in the final quarter, O'Neal watched the extra period from the bench but said the outcome was never in doubt despite Bryant's shot in the dying seconds that came back off the rim.
"I knew it wasn't going to go in," said O'Neal, who received a hero's welcome from the Lakers fans.
"I fouled out, I felt I let my team down a bit but we did what we came here to do, which was to win."
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