You do think of Shaq that way because he did it four times before. You look at his big muscular body and he looks pretty much the same as he always did. It’s easy to convince yourself he can dig deep and come up with one more great year, especially if he’s got LeBron to do the heavy lifting.

But the Cavs ought to think about why they lost to the Magic. It was not because Howard beat them single-handedly. He didn’t. The Magic won because their outside shooters — which is pretty much everybody on the team — kept burying jumpers when the Cavs collapsed on Howard. And when the Magic swarmed on LeBron like ants on a sugar cube, the Cavs outside shooters didn’t hit enough shots to make Orlando pay.

Put Shaq in at center, and you make Howard work harder early in the game. But at the end of the game, you can’t give him ball because the other guys will foul him and put him on the line. And we all know how good O’Neal is at foul shooting.

The Cavs didn’t need a bigger center to beat Orlando. They needed better outside shooters. They needed people who could make Orlando — or any team — pay for swarming LeBron.

They also could have used better rebounding, but that’s not something Shaq is going to improve. It’s five years since Shaq averaged double-digit rebounds for a season — and his 8.4 per game were only slightly more than Ilgauskas’ 7.5 per game this season.

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He also doesn’t score like he used to. His 17.8 points per game was his best average in three years, it’s nearly seven points less than his 24.7 career average.

The Cavs tries the aging center route when they got Ben Wallace after his glory days in Detroit. Wallace is just 34, and he can no longer get it done. Why would the Cavs think that Shaq will?

Again, the Lakers are winning without anyone who matches up on paper with Howard. The Cavs could have done the same — if they’d only hit those outside shots.

Shaq would create a lot of excitement and he’d provide plenty of quotes for the local writers. But he wouldn’t guarantee a title in Cleveland. As tempting as he is, he’s just not worth it.

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