Howard Beck of the L.A. Daily News reports that Shaquille O?Neal is talking again. After two weeks of silence; silence for the press and his teammates, O?Neal spoke before last night?s game in Philadelphia.

In a brief pregame chat with reporters, O'Neal joked about his prolonged silence and generally was light-hearted as he predicted better days ahead. "Am I bothered? Yeah, I'm bothered. That's why I haven't talked to you guys. I'm pissed off -- to the highest of pissivity," O'Neal said, laughing.

After a bitter loss to the Warriors, O?Neal ripped the other Lakers for their lack of production. He insists that he was angry with the losing, not his teammates.

"I'll never jump ship on my guys. We win together, we lose together," he said. "The reason why I said, 'Talk to the guys who ain't doing (bleep)' is because over our last seven years here, when I make my guys mad, they usually respond. That's why I did that at that particular time."

O'Neal's surgically repaired toe continues to bother him, and he said it will be "a couple more weeks" before he's in prime condition. By that time, the Lakers could have 20-plus losses.

"I never look at the standings, but I know we're at the bottom," O'Neal said. "However, I know we're five or six games out of the last (playoff) spot. Of course, that's a disgrace to me to even talk about the last spot. ... When it comes to making the playoffs, we'll get there."