Every time there seems to be a question about their drive, their work, or their commitment, Derek and the Lakers put their best foot forward.
Fish scored two points and tallied only a steal in 17:37 of action, but he was part of a three-guard rotation that kept the speedy Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks off balance and held to just 14 points on 4-11 shooting.
With Brooks in check, the Lakers feasted on the undersized Rockets and put Houston on the brink of elimination with a 118-78 victory on Tuesday night in LA. The victory gives the Lakers a 3-2 series lead.
 Derek driving past Houston’s Aaron Brooks (Getty Images). |
The contributions of D-Fish were noted in Bill Plaschke’s game five column for the LA Times:
“Derek Fisher sorry? It was Aaron Brooks who was sorry, as the star of the Rockets Game 4 victory was harassed by Fisher into making only four baskets while missing all three of his three-point shots.”
After the game, Fish assessed the team’s performance as not a statement, but a glimpse at what the team is capable of, as quoted on Lakers.com:
“It’s not about trying to send any messages or get revenge for something that happened before. You go out there and you do the best that you can on that given night. We did that tonight.”
The Lakers did their best to fluster the Rockets with a barrage of shots and a variety of shooters. Every one of the 12 Lakers that played, scored, and seven of the 12 tallied in double figures.
“You have to take advantage of those opportunities you get,” D-Fish said. “Opportunities to make plays. Whether it’s Andrew, Trevor or Lamar, you move the ball around and it’ll just depend on who we’re playing and how the game unfolds.”
BYNUM COMES UP BIG
As the Lakers moved the ball around, one of the chief recipients was center Andrew Bynum who had his best playoff game.
Bynum scored 14 points and pulled down six boards in less than 20 minutes, taking full advantage of Houston’s lack of size with Yao Ming out for the rest of the playoffs.
“Andrew is extremely important to what we need to do going forward, trying to close this series out and any hopes of moving forward, against teams that we possibly play,” Derek said in his post game conference with the press. “You have to have that size, that strength and that athleticism.”
All season, Derek has spoken about the importance of LA having Bynum, which allows the team’s game plan so many other options, with Pua Gasol moving to power forward and Lamar Odom moving to the bench. But according to Fish, in order for Bynum to make contributions, everyone has to pitch in to get him chances.
“It’s not just a matter of saying let’s put
[Andrew] out on the floor and things are just supposed happen. He’s a really good basketball player and the rest of us have to sacrifice and put him in a position to be successful. If that means one less shot for me, one less shot for Kobe, one less shot for Pau and one less shot for Trevor, so that he can get four or five more opportunities to be effective around the basket, then that’s what we have to do. We can’t just put him out on the floor an expect him to get a double double, and then question him if he doesn’t because we don’t utilize him the right way.”FOUL PLAY BECOMING A CONCERN
As a 13-year veteran, D-Fish has plenty of experience with what is and isn’t considered a foul in the NBA, but recently the line has blurred.In an article for CBS Sports, Ken Berger explores the recent non-call in game three between the Nuggets and Mavericks in which Dallas forward Antoine Wright made an intentional attempt to foul Carmello Anthony with just seconds to go and the Mavericks clinging to a two-point lead.
The Mavericks had a foul to give and Wright tried to give it, but no foul was called and Anthony sank a game-winning three to give Denver a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Berger quotes Fish on the play and the rules, noting Derek has some experience on a similar play:
“Sometimes at the end of games, even though you’re trying to foul initially, you might go for a steal or trap the guy,” Fisher said. “And sometimes the whistle’s blown prematurely when you’re really not trying to foul the guy right there. It’s just a tough spot for all parties involved. The refs are trying to figure out, ‘Is he really trying to foul him or not?’ As a player, you don’t want to foul him in the shooting action. The offensive player is trying to figure out, ‘Do I try to draw it,’ and then he ends up taking an off-balance shot. Everybody’s thinking and making split-second decisions.”
Fisher knows from experience. He was part of the famous Brent Barry play in last year’s playoffs, which resulted in the NBA’s inaugural mea culpa statement—not written, but informally delivered to media members who had asked—that the officials had missed a critical call at the end of a playoff game. Fisher had bumped Barry on the Spurs’ final possession, but no foul was called as Barry missed a long 3-pointer. The Lakers won the game and went up 3-1 in the series.
One part of the whole situation that didn’t sit well with No. 2 was that after the game, the NBA released a statement admitting that a mistake was made, as quoted by Berger:
“I didn’t particularly like that part of it,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of calls in games that are missed and there aren’t announcements made about the calls that are being missed. So it shouldn’t just come down to an end-game call that was missed. If you look at the film, there were probably 15 or 20 other calls that were missed that could have impacted the game. I think it may be OK to make statements to the team, make a call in to the owner or the GM of that particular team, and speak directly to them…It’s fair that there’s still some feeling of accountability—that it was missed and to say that, that’s a positive thing…It’s not like you’re trying to hide it or say it didn’t happen.”
NEXT UP
Wednesday is a travel day for both teams as the series heads back to Houston for game six. With a win in game six, the Lakers can eliminate Houston and move on to the Western Conference Finals. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PST and all the action can be seen live on ESPN.RELATED STORIES
Rockets at Lakers Box Score (NBA.com, May 12, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/games/20090512/HOULAL/boxscore.html
Lakers, welcome back (LA Daily News, May, 13, 2009)
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_12356464?source=rss
Lakers Post game Locker Talk Videos (Lakers.com, May 12, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/090512video.html?rss=true
Lakers quotes: 5/12/09 (Lakers.com, May 12, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/090512_quotes.html
A total reversal for Lakers (LA Times, May 13, 2009)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-lakers-rockets13-2009may13,0,2091450.story?track=rss
Lakers from sorry to starry in one game (LA Times, May 13, 2009)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-plaschke-lakers13-2009may13,0,7942525.column?page=1&track=rss
Players, refs, coaches, agonize over end-game actions (CBS Sports.com, May 11, 2009)
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/11736089