SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Shaquille O'Neal can reach an impressive milestone when the Los Angeles Lakers cap their season-high six-game road trip against the archrival Sacramento Kings at Arco Arena on Thursday.
O'Neal needs just 11 points to become the 28th player in NBA history to score 20,000 for his career, and he would like nothing better than to have a monster game against the Kings, whom he called the "Queens" in the offseason.
The Lakers edged the Kings in seven games in the Western Conference finals last season en route to their third straight NBA title, and their rivalry carried over to a preseason
contest, when the Lakers' Rick Fox and the Kings' Doug Christie got into a fight that started on the court and continued in the tunnel leading to their respective locker rooms after each was ejected.
On Wednesday, O'Neal ripped the inclusion of Kings point guard Mike Bibby on the U.S. national team that is trying to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
"How did Mike Bibby get on the team?" Shaq wondered aloud. "Any Cub Scout with Boy Scouts can do Boy Scoutish things. When (Bibby) was in the Cub Scouts, he was a Cub Scout. When he was with Vancouver, nobody heard about (him). Now that he's with Sacramento ... he's on the team. I ain't going.
"And Allen Iverson isn't on the team? Why not? (U.S. coach) Larry Brown should have said, 'If he's not on the team, I'm not going."'
After the Kings' victory over Golden State on Tuesday night, Bibby refused to take the bait. Though he has become much more vocal on and off the court during his two seasons in Sacramento, Bibby prefers living in relative anonymity -- and doing his talking on the court.
"I don't care what he says about me,'' Bibby said. "I don't care what anybody says. It's not going to affect me.''
"That's just talk from a guy who likes to talk,'' Sacramento's Bobby Jackson said. "Nobody cares. You can't listen to everything he says. Even he don't listen to everything he says.
"Shaq is looking to get the rivalry started already, before the playoffs even start. He has no right to criticize Mike about making the Olympic team.''
Sacramento defeated Los Angeles on the road on Dec. 25, 105-99, but the Lakers returned the favor here on Jan. 31, 124-113.
The Lakers have won 19 of the last 25 games in the series.
O'Neal scored 42 points and Kobe Bryant added 26 as the Lakers won their third straight game to improve to 3-2 on their road trip with a 102-85 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
The Kings had lost two of three before pulling away from Golden State on Tuesday, 117-91.
Peja Stojakovic led seven players in double figures with 20 points and Bobby Jackson added 18 off the bench for Sacramento, which improved its league-best home record to 29-6.
The Kings are 2-1 on their four-game homestand.
SportsTicker and The Associated Press contributed to this report.