If recent games have shown anything, it’s that D-Fish shows up at crunch time.
Derek scored 12 points on Tuesday night as the Lakers downed the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-93. No. 2 added a steal and a rebound to his point tally, but two more big shots, something that have become a staple of his, helped key the Lakers to victory in OKC.
Kobe Bryant raved about No. 2 after the game, as quoted on Lakers.com:
“One, he’s a monster. Two, he’s a very intelligent basketball player. He understands defensive rotations. He takes charges and does a lot of things that don’t show up on the box score. It takes a true professional to not get a lot of touches all night and then step-up at that key moment and hit the tough shot. That’s just tough to do.”
Derek’s back-to-back jumpers with less than four minutes to go extended a seven point Lakers lead to double digits and helped to quiet a rowdy OKC crowd at the Ford Center.
Andrew Kamenetzky at the Lakers Blog on LATimes.com gave the best description of Derek’s open looks:
Derek Fisher hit a pair of “Seriously, we’re done screwing around” shots in the last few minutes for good measure.
A humble D-Fish gave credit to his teammates for moving the ball to both tire the Thunder and get him open, as quoted in the LA Times:
“By that point in the game, Kobe and Pau and Lamar had killed them so much, that they had to leave somebody open,” said Fisher, who finished with 12 points. “I’ve been the beneficiary of some good ball movement and those three guys have just been phenomenal, so somebody has to be open and it’s been me a few times lately.”
MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY
Derek wasn’t the only one sporting a cape late in Tuesday’s win. Kobe Bryant, the Lakers’ resident superhero, scored 15 points in the closing 9:14 to put a wrap on LA’s win. D-Fish, who broke into the league in the same year as Kobe in 1996-97, and has teamed with Bryant for almost 10 seasons, spoke about Kobe’s effort after the game, as quoted by the Los Angeles Daily News:
“He doesn’t really do anything that amazes me anymore, but it’s still just fun to observe his ability to just make his mind up and say, `OK, this is what I’m going to go do,”’ Fisher said after watching Bryant work his fourth-quarter magic.
“To just make his mind up that he’s going to make the shots go in, I just don’t know if there’s anybody in our game who can consistently match that ability. I know I’m biased, but it was impressive to me.”
THRIVING WITHOUT THE BIG MAN
The victory was the fifth straight for the Lakers and 10th in 11 games since center Andrew Bynum went down to injury, what many thought would be a stunning blow to the title bound team. But the Lakers haven’t skipped a beat. No. 2 said the continued success hasn’t been much of a shock for the team because they know what they’re capable of, as quoted by the LA Daily News:
“I don’t want to say I’m not surprised,” Fisher said. “Our team is just so talented and so deep that (without) one person, even as great as Andrew is and as great as he was playing before he went out, we have enough people to fill in to get it done.”
CLOWNING AROUND
After a pre-game interview on Sunday about the weather in Minnesota, Derek stuck around and playfully mocked KCAL reporter John Ireland who was none the wiser as Derek impersonated him behind his back.
NEXT UP
The Lakers get a quick breather before returning to the Staples Center on Thursday for a home matchup with the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers have downed the Suns in two prior matchups this season.
The Lakers and Suns tip off at 7:30 p.m. PST and all the action can be seen live nationwide on TNT.
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