Lakers center Shaquille O"Neal and Jazz center Greg Ostertag both celebrated birthdays on Wednesday, but Utah rookie Jarron Collins may have been in the best mood at the end of the night.

O"Neal scored a game-high 28 points on his 30th birthday but it could have been worse for the Jazz: On his birthday two years ago, Shaq dropped 61 points on the cross-town rival Clippers.

Ostertag played just one minute on his 29th birthday.

Collins, facing the 7-foot-1, 350-pound O"Neal for the first time in his life, may have been happy just to survive.

Giving up two inches and upwards of 75 pounds, Collins did his best to make O"Neal work for his points. It helped that Collins" twin brother, New Jersey"s Jason, battled Shaq last week and was able to provide a scouting report.

""I wasn"t intimidated," Collins said. ""I was looking forward to this matchup. You play this game to play the best, and he"s one of the best."

O"Neal, who served a one-game NBA suspension in 1998 for slapping Ostertag after a morning shootaround, on Wednesday tossed a basketball at Ostertag during pregame warm-ups to get his attention, then wished him a happy birthday.