LOS ANGELES -- Aaron McKie, the latest Philadelphia 76er to join the team's broken bone brigade, sat out Thursday's practice due to a fractured right ankle suffered in Game 1.

A little break isn't going to keep the Sixers forward from playing against the Lakers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday.

	McKie

"It feels fine. It just feels a little sore," McKie said. "I got this boot on, but I didn't want to wear the boot. I just got it on for precautionary reasons."

McKie couldn't recall exactly when he suffered the break, but he does remember feeling pain while trying to plant his foot to shoot a jumper. Initially, he thought the throbbing was caused by a tight tape job.

"It wasn't that bad. I was able to move around on it," McKie said. "If I was able to finish out the game, then I should be OK for Friday."

McKie helped harass Kobe Bryant into 7-for-22 shooting in the Sixers' 107-101 win on Wednesday. If the injury limits McKie's mobility, coach Larry Brown will have to assign rookie Raja Bell, Jumaine Jones or even Rodney Buford to cover Bryant, who'll be itching to make up for his disappointing 15-point effort.

"Only we know how we feel," Allen Iverson said. "A doctor can't say, 'This guy's all right. He can play tonight.' We really feel like we can't go, but it's about heart."

Shaq's shot doctor
Perhaps the most interesting sight at the Lakers' practice was the short, balding man wearing a canary yellow shirt constantly poking his index finger into Shaquille O'Neal's chest like he was some sort of drill sergeant.

	Shaquille O'Neal worked on his free throws Thursday after shooting 10-for-22 in Game 1.

As O'Neal would chase an errant shot, the man would follow, staying right in the 7-foot-1 center's face while continuously talking.

Who is this man? None other than shot doctor Eddie Palubinskas, who was hired at the beginning of the season to help O'Neal with his miserable free throw shooting.

Palubinskas was called upon Thursday morning after O'Neal returned to his struggling ways in Game 1, in which he made just 10 of 22 free throws in the six-point loss to the Sixers.

"We worked on all the things that he did wrong," Palubinskas said. "He told me each free throw, why he missed it, what he did. And we tried to correct those problems."

Palubinskas, a two-time Australian Olympic basketball guard, helped O'Neal shoot 65 percent from the line in March and April. Previously, he was a 53-percent free throw shooter.

Palubinskas, a graphic artist from Greenwell Springs, La., said watching O'Neal struggle Wednesday night was troublesome.

"I just wish he would have hit one more in each quarter. That would have been enough to win the game," he said. "It's frustrating to watch, but people expect him to be Superman, to be perfect. And he's not there yet."

No goin' to Lue
Even though Tyronn Lue helped hold Iverson to three fourth-quarter points on Wednesday, Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he is sticking to the original game plan of throwing Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant and Lue at the Sixers' league MVP.

"He was the most effective," Jackson said of Lue, who, ironically, was picked to imitate Iverson's moves in practice this week. "But you have to realize that he runs hot and cold and we're not going to think that Ty's the Allen Iverson stopper, so to speak. We just think that we're going to have to defend him by committee as a team."

Lue, the Lakers' quickest player, managed to deny Iverson the ball after replacing Fisher in the third quarter. Despite the exceptional defensive job, he wasn't campaigning for more minutes. The 6-foot-1 guard played 22 minutes, one fewer than Fisher, in Game 1.

"When I get the opportunity to play, I just want to come in and make the most of it -- whether it's five minutes or 20 minutes," Lue said.

Birthday boy

	Iverson

Iverson turned 26 on Thursday and talked about his life-changing, career-altering season like the mature veteran he's transformed into over the past year.

"For the first time in my life, I'm conducting myself on and off the court like a professional," Iverson said. "It just took some time growing up. Twenty-six years old today, I feel like I've learned from my mistakes and just tried to get better."

Iverson showed just how wise he's become when a reporter tried to get him to question Michael Jordan's possible comeback. "No way you'll get me to sit up here and bad-mouth him," Iverson replied.

Fox's locks
One hot topic Thursday was what forward Rick Fox would do with his increasingly nappy haircut and facial hair now that the Lakers' playoff winning streak has ended.

"If I come in here tomorrow bald like Shaq, don't be surprised," said Fox, who has said since April that he wouldn't cut his hair until the Lakers lost. "I was getting like Gaylord Perry out there with all that goop in my hair.

"It was getting on the ball and everything. Maybe if I would have gotten a little more on the ball, Iverson would have turned it over some more or something."