Shaquille O’Neal’s Return Just the Beginning of Revitalization for Celtics’ Front Line

Shaquille O’Neal may have missed four games over the last week and a half with an injured calf, but he took the floor Sunday and played like he hadn’t skipped a beat.

The Celtics’ big man stormed into the TD Garden and picked the Indiana Pacers apart in the opening minutes, pouring in 11 points in the first quarter and setting the tone for the Celtics’ 13th-straight win.

Off the court, O’Neal has been passive and overly cautious. Every ailment, no matter how minor, has been cause for a weeklong sabbatical — no game, no practice, no nothing. But when the Diesel actually takes the floor, he’s explosive as ever.

“I felt good out there,” O’Neal said after the Celtics’ 99-88 win over the Pacers. “Doc [Rivers] and [trainer] Ed Lacerte gave me some rest, and they did a great job of getting me back.

“I feel pretty good. I was a little bit sore, but I’ll just take it easy and try to strengthen the area.”

With O’Neal back on the floor alongside Kevin Garnett, the Celtics were able to reestablish the dominating post presence they were lacking the last four games. With the two future Hall of Famers out there together, the C’s overpowered the Pacers’ front line of Roy Hibbert and Jeff Foster. The Pacers are a big team, but there’s only one Diesel.

“He was great,” Rivers said of O’Neal. “You could just see that he had great energy. Him and Kevin, they’re both great passing bigs. When you have them both on the floor, our passing is off the charts.”

The Celtics were up against it last week. They began the season with four centers on the roster — Shaq, Jermaine O’Neal, Kendrick Perkins and Semih Erden — but by Dec. 9, they were down to one. Just Erden. While the Turkish rookie was solid in a starting role, holding down the fort for four Celtic wins, the team was revolutionized by Shaq’s return.

“It’s great,” Paul Pierce said. “Just his presence alone. I saw a couple of times where a guy had a wide-open shot in the lane, and he missed it just because of Shaq being there. He really sets the tone in there, because we try to go to him early in the game and establish a post presence. It makes life easier, especially for us guys on the perimeter, when he’s doing things like that.”

“He definitely sets the tone,” Ray Allen added.”We go to him and Kevin early in the game. So when he’s out there, I don’t care if I don’t shoot the ball. The game is so easy when we get him the ball, and the defense is reeling, and we go up seven, 10, 12 points. The important thing is when the second unit gets in there, being able to sustain it.”

Piece by piece, the Celtics are starting to rebuild their front line. Shaq is back, Erden is still playing through his shoulder pain, and Jermaine O’Neal is likely to return this week. Early in 2011, the C’s will welcome Perk back as well.

The C’s have a lot of big men waiting in the wings to make an impact. But they only have one Shaq, and they were thrilled to welcome him back Sunday.