FISHER CAN NOW PUT BEST FOOT FORWARD SURGERIES SLOWED GUARD DOWN LAST SEASON.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

In the athlete's code of conduct, talking about injuries is bad etiquette. If you're healthy enough to put on your uniform and play, then complaints about aches and pains are strictly forbidden.

That's why you never heard Derek Fisher bring up his aching left foot last year, the one that never reached 100 percent after back-to-back offseason surgeries in 2000 and 2001. An injury that hindered his defensive success against opposing point guards Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd and Tony Parker during the playoffs.

Fisher, in keeping with the athlete's mantra, simply held his tongue and grinded out the season.

Painfully.

He can smile now. The Lakers won their third consecutive NBA championship and, for the first time in two years, Fisher had an injury-free offseason. He focused entirely on physical conditioning and getting his foot healthy.

Fisher met both objectives. He reported to Lakers camp in the best shape of his life and, more importantly, the foot is completely sound.

That makes for a much-happier Fisher and perhaps an even more dangerous Lakers team as they begin their quest for a fourth consecutive title.

``The big thing with me is knowing my foot is really solid and sound and that I'm healthy,'' Fisher said. ``That takes a lot of worry and concern off my mind. It allows me to just go out and play basketball.''

Fisher's return to health is a huge lift for the Lakers, especially because they'll open the season without Shaquille O'Neal, who is recovering from his own foot surgery, and Samaki Walker, Devean George, Brian Shaw and Mark Madsen are all battling bumps and bruises.

Fact is, the Lakers can use all the healthy bodies they can get.

For Fisher, the key will be how much his sound body will improve his defense. The Lakers struggled in the postseason against Sacramento's Bibby, New Jersey's Kidd and San Antonio's Parker because Fisher lacked the mobility to contain them.

Fisher took responsibility for the problems and vowed to not let it happen again this year.

``I'm sure it did (drive him to work harder). I'm sure he thought about Bibby and Kidd.'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``Teams were led by guards. And Parker was a pain in the butt in the San Antonio series.''

And it helped that Fisher could work diligently on the finer points of his game rather than concern himself solely with a post-operation rehabilitation process as he did the previous two offseasons.

``Being healthy all summer I got a chance to train properly to be in the type of physical condition necessary to compete in this league,'' Fisher said. ``Every year there is a guy coming at you that's just as quick and just as strong and could even be better. It's been disappointing to me that I haven't been able to challenge those guys.''

Fisher's struggles weren't limited to defense. His field-goal shooting suffered dramatically, especially in the San Antonio series (14 of 48, 28 percent) and against Sacramento, when he made 19 of 66 shots (29 percent) and was 6 of 31 on 3-pointers.

The poor shooting was partially the result of the energy he expanded trying to stay with Parker and Bibby, and it clearly limited the Lakers' success.

When the Lakers steamrolled to the NBA championship in 2000-01 with a 15-1 record, Fisher was at the forefront, making 77 of 159 field goals (48 percent) and connecting on 35 of 68 3-pointers (51 percent).

His ability to stretch the defense with his outside shooting was key in the Lakers' championship drive.

``(He) destroyed teams with his 3-point shooting, basically,'' Jackson said. ``And his 3-point shooting (last year) was not near what he shot in the playoffs (the previous year). Even though he had umpteen number of 3-point shots for us last year, it wasn't with the same regularity that he did before, which is the difference between us just cashing people out, and last year made it much more of a struggle.''

Nobody expects Fisher to shoot as effectively as he did two years ago, when he went on the hottest shooting streak of his career.

But with his improved health, Fisher is confident he can at least improve on his numbers from last year.

``I expect to be much stronger in terms of my complete game,'' Fisher said. ``I expect to still be able to hit outside shots and do the little things I need to on the offensive end. But I also pride myself on my defense and getting back to those fundamentals as well.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Derek Fisher played hurt last season trying to recover from back-to-back foot surgeries.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

DEREK FISHER BY THE NUMBERS