No good at board games

"It was very difficult for [my teammates] to get me the ball," said O'Neal, who scored his 21,000th career point with his first basket of the third quarter. "That is why I told the guys to just shoot and that I was going to get the rebound."

But it was not all O'Neal. The Celtics did their part in helping the Lakers to victory. Boston committed 23 turnovers, shot just 42 percent, and recorded just 17 assists. Getting the big effort from O'Neal (including 10 offensive boards), the Lakers outrebounded the Celtics, 55-35. It follows that the Lakers outscored the Celtics, 55-35, in second-chance points.

"We had way too many turnovers and just an overall poor defensive effort by our ball club," said coach Jim O'Brien, who watched his club commit 14 turnovers last night. "If you turn the ball over 23 times, then you're not going to win many ballgames against good team.

"We're not a good rebounding team, and that's just where it is. We have been getting crushed on the boards. So we try to send as many guys as we can to the glass and sometimes it doesn't work for us when you're playing a more physical team."

The Lakers used a 19-5 run in the first quarter to establish an early 13-point lead (28-15). The Celtics responded with a run of their own and finished the first trailing by just 4 points (30-26). When Chris Mihm dunked over O'Neal early in the second, Boston had pulled within 2, but that was as close as it would come.

Maximum effort Apparently, O'Brien missed Mihm's slam dunk over Shaq, the 5 rebounds he grabbed in 21 minutes, and his 11 points off the bench on 4-for-5 shooting. Asked about Mihm's performance against the Lakers, O'Brien said he didn't remember anything special. Then again, O'Brien was so disappointed with the loss that he didn't think anyone played "particularly well for our basketball team."

But Mihm certainly looked more comfortable on the court with his new teammates.

It was his most productive outing since joining the Celtics.

"Right now, while I'm still trying to learn the system and get comfortable in the system, I've really been putting my focus on rebounding and blocking shots," he said. "I just want to come out and bring a spark off the bench defensively more than anything and get the team going, wake us up and cut the deficit.

"My time is going to come. I'm just concentrating on working hard and picking up as much as I can as quickly as I can. I'm not going to worry about the stuff that's out of my hands. If I'm playing well, my time will come."

That time wasn't last night, however. Mihm was a DNP-CD against the Warriors.

Biding his time Jumaine Jones said he's not the kind of player who asks questions. So he hasn't inquired about why he has played precious few minutes since being acquired by the Celtics in a sign-and-trade last summer, when he was mentioned as a possible starter at small forward. Jones is averaging 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds in 9.0 minutes per game.

Asked if he were frustrated, Jones, who played 17 minutes but was held scoreless last night, said, "I'm just coming into practice, working hard each day. If the opportunity presents itself, definitely I'd like that. No one likes not playing. If I get the opportunity, I'd like to fit into that rotation. But I pretty much come in and do my job and let them make those decisions."

Those decisions soon may favor Jones when the Celtics face bigger small forwards.

"There are two ways that I think Jumaine is going to be utilized," said O'Brien. "And those are at power forward, much the same way Walter [McCarty] is being utilized, to be able extend the defense, and when we're playing against stronger small forwards that Paul [Pierce], Jiri [Welsch], and Ricky [Davis] will have a difficult time guarding. Corliss Williamson, maybe [Ron] Artest, guys like that where we needed a stronger small forward. So he can fit into that role as well as a power forward spot."

He'll take a pass It did not take a dominating rebounding performance by the Lakers to emphasize the Celtics' obvious weaknesses on the glass. Boston ranks 24th in the league in overall rebounding (40.3 per game) and 27th in offensive rebounding (10.0). So, with rebounding specialist Dennis Rodman working on a comeback, would Danny Ainge be interested? "No," said Ainge. "He has that right. I really don't have many feelings about it one way or another. It doesn't really excite me or anything." . . . The Celtics activated rookie Brandon Hunter and placed fellow rookie Kendrick Perkins (right knee tendinitis) on the injured list. Hunter joined Mihm and Michael Stewart in the DNP-CD column.