AND, WHERE DOES THE BIG FINGER POINT?

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

EL SEGUNDO - And so the Lakers have arrived at the first crossroads of their loosely planned journey to another NBA championship - or maybe the lone crossroads, depending on how things go. Their direction might be pointed by a single index finger.

You can't miss it, since it's wrapped in a white bandage and attached to a big man named Shaquille O'Neal.

If it points toward the light, the cut and stitches proving to be nothing more than a further annoyance to the center who has played with foot and wrist pain for much of the season, then the Lakers will bounce back from their loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night and regain control of the second-round playoff series that's tied 1-1.

If it points into the darkness, proving to be one injury too many for O'Neal, the Lakers' game in San Antonio on Friday could be the beginning of the end of the three-peat.

One way or another, O'Neal, reportedly third behind San Antonio's Tim Duncan and New Jersey's Jason Kidd in the league MVP voting to be announced today, is about to point out how valuable a player he really is.

``He has a lot going on,'' Lakers guard Derek Fisher said after practice Wednesday, referring sympathetically to this injury and that. ``We've understood all season long that we haven't been dealing with the A-list, No. 1 Shaquille O'Neal. We've been dealing with a guy that's had injuries.''

Would-be championship teams have been sent off course by less than a lacerated finger, an arthritic big toe or a sore wrist.

When Lakers fans imagined the worst thing that could happen to their team, they pictured O'Neal requiring in-season surgery to relieve that famous big toe or being helped off a court with a knee injury.

But maybe it won't be anything that dramatic. If O'Neal's 19-point, 7-for-16, seven-rebound performance in the 88-85 loss to San Antonio is all he's able to give, then maybe something innocuous such as the season-long toe condition, the wrist sprain that kept him out of two games in April or the freak finger injury suffered in Sunday's series-opening victory over the Spurs will be trouble enough.

This is not a call for citywide panic. Each lost playoff game in the past two springs has been followed by Chicken Little predictions in the newspapers and on the airwaves, and the Lakers recovered in those cases against Sacramento, Portland, Indiana and Philadelphia.

This is a call to take note that this time the Lakers might not be able to count on O'Neal leading their recovery.

Clearly, the finger, slammed against a backboard or rim on Sunday at Staples Center, caused O'Neal trouble catching and handling the ball Tuesday. The three stitches binding the wound came loose during the game, and seven stitches had to be put in afterward. Shaq did conditioning and film work while teammates were practicing Wednesday.

With Friday the date injured David Robinson is expected to return to action and strengthen San Antonio's front line, having a healthy O'Neal will be even more important.

When the Lakers encouraged talk that after a lackadaisical regular season, they would flip a metaphorical switch come playoff time, they might not have considered that the finger that would do the flipping would come up stiff and sore.

O'Neal's 23.8-point average in the first five playoff games of 2002 is six points below his average for the past two playoffs. His lack of a breakout game, one of those 40-point nights that take the heat off his teammates, is cause for worry. So, too, is his slightly diminished playing time, which forces Samaki Walker into longer stretches at center and overworks Robert Horry at power forward.

Of the three items on Shaq's medical chart, the toe is the constant serious handicap.

``I had a heated conversation with Shaq ... about getting actively involved in chasing the ball down,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``I wanted to stimulate him, I wanted to motivate him, in the fact we need him to play at really an active level.

``He said it's basically his toe. He doesn't feel he's tired. He doesn't feel it's a matter of conditioning. He feels it's a matter of activity permitted or allowed him by the movement of his foot.''

But it doesn't help that, after he does chase the ball down, he has trouble grabbing it because of the finger.

What an unkind cut for O'Neal and the Lakers.

Since the NBA isn't giving him the MVP award, maybe NBC could dig up an old Fickle Finger of Fate.