Better Fitness Sought

Because of a quirk in the schedule, the Lakers are in the midst of four days off. They don’t play again until Friday night, when the Memphis Grizzlies, formerly the Vancouver Grizzlies, visit Staples Center.

“It gives us a chance to relax and also get in some conditioning,” Kobe Bryant said Tuesday after practice at the team’s headquarters in El Segundo. “We’re 4-0 and all the pieces to the puzzle are there. [But] we’re not playing up to our standard, to our potential.”

“We need to get in better shape. It’ll come. It takes a month or so into the season.”

Coach Phil Jackson is also a little concerned about conditioning.

“I called off practice 15 minutes early,” he said. “We were dragging. We just couldn’t go anymore.”

The way Bryant sees it, getting into top shape won’t be difficult for this team.

“This is the hardest-working team I’ve been on,” he said after shooting around with assistant coach Kurt Rambis for about 15 minutes after practice. “Just look around. There’s Mike [Penberthy] over there on the treadmill, Jelani [McCoy] is out there shooting, and so are Mark [Madsen] and Joe [Crispin].”

Madsen and Crispin, a rookie from Penn State, are on the injured list.

“Nobody on this team is in a hurry to leave [the practice facility].”

However, Brian Shaw, after his first practice since signing a cost-cutting $1 million contract, headed to the showers before reporters were admitted in.

“He had a good practice,” Bryant said. “He was shooting really well.

“He had some luck on his shot too,” he added with a smile. “A little first-day-back luck. They were bouncing in from the front of the rim and the back of the rim.”

Asked if he viewed Shaw’s experience--being asked him to take a pay cut--as strictly a business decision, Bryant said, “Yeah, it was a business decision, but I’m not bummed out about it because he’s not bummed out. He’s been professional about it, and that’s good. And it’s good to have him back.”

Jackson, told of Bryant remark about this being the hardest-working team he has been on, then was asked if this team works harder than Jackson’s old Chicago Bull teams.

Jackson smiled and said, “They haven’t reached that level yet.”

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Shaquille O’Neal made 10 of 18 free throws against Utah on Sunday night and his free-throw shooting down the stretch was one reason the Lakers were able come from behind and win, 100-96.

“Shaq is usually dedicated to free-throw shooting at the end of the year,” Jackson said. “It’s good to see him dedicated now. If he can make 55% of his free throws, you can figure it out mathematically that that means more victories.”