Sports

Exposing Shaq, Darko questionable for Lakers

Wolves center still feeling ill after missing Friday's game

By Kent Youngblood

January 28, 2012 at 10:03PM

In case you missed it...

Shaquille O'Neal did make good on his promise to appear on the TNT set only in his undies if Blake Griffin didn't outplay Kevin Love in that game in L.A. eight days ago.

Shaq danced off the set Thursday night -- but it was about 1:30 a.m. Central time -- wearing only his underwear under his sport coat after Love and Griffin played to basically a statistical draw but Love won the game with that dramatic buzzer-beating, step-back three.

By waiting until so late in the night, Shaq dramatically lowered the number of viewers who saw him exposed Thursday night, but thanks to the Internet and TNT you can see here as many times as you want (which probably will be once):

View the video here.

Also, Kent will come on here and add some updates from Saturday's practice.

He tells me Darko! is questionable for Sunday's game against the Lakers after he missed Friday's victory over the Spurs because he was ill.

That would mean big Pek gets this second consecutive start -- and who knows, could be in the starting lineup to stay for a while -- and it also could mean Brad Miller will get his first minutes of the season to help counter Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Here's a post-practice update:

Long after practice ended many of the players who either haven't been playing much lately (Anthony Randolph, Anthony Tolliver) and players working back from injury (Michael Beasley, J.J. Barea, Malcolm Lee, Brad Miller, Martell Webster) engaged in a series of three-on-three games that got rather intense.

Indeed, coach Rick Adelman almost got run over at one point while he was doing his press briefing. Once order was restored, here's what Adelman had to say:

--Darko is definitely questionable for tomorrow. Still sick, he stayed home. More will be known tomorrow. And that's a problem, given the size the Lakers present. Adelman said Miller could very well get some minutes as a result, whether Darko! is there or not.

--Webster could play a little more as part of a mix of players Adelman will used to defend Kobe Bryant. Remember, Wes Johnson has played some of his best ball against Kobe and the Lakers.

Meanwhile, Ricky Rubio talked at some length about his friendship with the Lakers' Pau Gasol and their time playing for the Spanish national team together. Rubio and Gasol worked out a lot during the summer out in California.

--Beasley said he felt out of synch in his first action back after missing 11 games with a foot sprain. Adelman talked yesterday about how the offense has changed since Beasley last played, and today Beasley agreed. There are far more pick and rolls, far fewer isolation plays. And the Wolves, Beasley said, are spreading the floor a lot more.

Beasley knows he'll have to adjust. He also knows he'll need a bit more work to get into basketball shape. Saturday he said he didn't feel he had his legs yet and was missing some quickness.

The big question, of course, is whether Beasley's role has significantly -- and permanently -- changed given the team's relative success in his absence. "We'll see," he said. "As time goes on we'll definitely find that out."