Los Angeles ? The Miami Heat just wants to get home, having spent the past 14 days on the road.

The Lakers just want to get on with their search for something more than the one-on-five offense of Kobe Bryant.

Having already presented the league with its annual Christmas Day drama, Heat-Lakers seems committed to offering mere basketball tonight at Staples Center.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t care,” said Heat center Shaquille O’Neal, who appears to have run out of material for his running feud with Bryant. “It is one of 82. I don’t look at it as a do-or-die game to me. It doesn’t mean anything.”

On that Bryant is in agreement.

“I don’t think it’s a story,” he said. “The guy’s in Miami. Who the hell cares any more? You know what I mean? He’s down there doing his thing, we’re doing our thing here.

“It’s a basketball game.”

Similarly, Heat guard Dwyane Wade said too much is being made about his rivalry with Bryant, a matchup that has grown contentious in recent meetings, leading to a flagrant foul on Wade for an elbow tossed during the Heat’s 97-92 Christmas Day victory at AmericanAirlines Arena.

“I don’t take that matchup any more personal than any of the others,” Wade said. “I think it’s just more documented more, because of the Kobe-and-Shaq thing. I don’t think it’s more physical than any other game I play.”

Undeniable on Christmas Day was tension between Heat point guard Gary Payton and Lakers forward Lamar Odom.

Payton’s jawing grew so profane and so personal that Odom said after that game, “His mouth is horrible, atrocious.”

While Payton took Odom off his game that afternoon, he has been around long enough to appreciate that the referees will be all ears tonight.

“Me and Lamar Odom? I’m not even thinking about it,” Payton said. “I don’t have a rivalry with him. I don’t care.”

Through all that was made of Bryant-O’Neal as well as the rivalry of Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Heat coach Pat Riley, Payton-Odom turned into one of the most significant sidebars to the first game, especially with Payton scoring a team-high 21 points and Odom being limited to 5 of 12 shooting.

“It’s over with. They’re talking about it too much as it is,” Payton said. “I’ve got nothing to do with that guy. It’s over with me.”

Considering the two will not be matched up, Odom said it is a non-issue.

“It’s nothing,” the former Heat forward said. “He’s a little dude anyway.”

To Jackson, there is one particular display of sportsmanship he’d like to see, but one he acknowledges as unlikely – a pregame handshake between O’Neal and Bryant.

“He should just acknowledge Kobe,” Jackson said at Sunday’s practice. “There’s plenty of time in their lifetimes for them to hopefully make up the distance that’s between them.”

As for the game itself, Jackson said he would like to see an upgrade from his team from that meeting three weeks ago.

“I don’t think either team played exceptionally well, but it was a close score and it was a close game and it was dramatic in its own fashion,” he said. “We’d like to have a rematch that made some sense to our fans.”

The Heat’s priority will be making sense with its defense against Bryant, who had scored 40 or more in seven of the previous eight games before being limited to 38 in Saturday’s victory over the Warriors while playing with a pad to protect a bruised right wrist.

“You really can’t guard him,” said Payton, who helped limit Bryant to 12-of-30 shooting in the previous meeting. “You’ve just got to contain him. That’s what we did on Christmas.”