The LA Times reports that Shaquille O'Neal's feet continue to bother him, both from what he called an arthritic condition in his right big toe and the claw-toe deformity in his small left toe, the latter corrected by surgery in August.

Asked if he believed his feet would have been improved by now, O'Neal said: "Not when you average 900 minutes."

He averaged 38.3 minutes in the first four games, about a minute less than he averaged last season.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson seemed concerned at the lack of progress in O'Neal's feet, but not yet to the point of cutting his playing time.

"Eventually, we're going to have to sit down and measure that out if it continues over a period of another two or three weeks," Jackson said. "Right now conditioning is the most important thing, to play the game we need to play with him on the floor for 35 minutes, playing an active 35 minutes. So he can rebound the ball and run back on defense. Those are the real critical things that he does when we're a really good team."