Though his two shots on Thursday night easily rank among the most important in Lakers history, Derek Fisher wouldn’t go as far as to compare himself to a former teammate that earned a moniker for clutch shooting.
When asked to compare himself to “Big Shot Rob,” Robert Horry, D-Fish said he doesn’t have enough hardware to merit a comparison, as quoted on the LA Times Lakers Blog:
“No, I definitely don’t compare myself to Robert Horry. I’m quite a few rings shy of where he stands. He’s in his own category.”
But Fish claims there is something to be said for the propensity of the franchise to come up in the clutch during the Phil Jackson era:
“I do think some of it is—some of the credit does belong outside of myself in terms of my teammates, also Phil, and just the way that he’s willing to stick with certain people that he believes can help get the job done and that it’s not always about statistically what is this guy going to bring to the table. But when this guy or these guys are on the floor together, as a coach he’s confident in those five guys’ ability to win a game.
We had that type of group before where it was myself and Kobe and Robert and Rick Fox and Shaq. Those were the five guys that I don’t care what time or who we were playing, those were the five guys that were going to finish a game. With Trevor Ariza’s development, we have those five guys now that consist of Pau, Lamar, myself, Kobe, Trevor, when the game is on the line, more times than not those are the five guys you’re going to see out there.”
 Triumph (Getty Images). |
When asked where the shots ranked personally, Fish joked about the significance before letting on how much it mattered:
“Maybe 100, 101, something like that (laughter). No, I mean, obviously coming off of 20 minutes ago, it’s at the top. You know, personally, experience in the last couple years and leaving this team and coming back and play with this particular group of guys, it ranks right up there at the top.”
TO TIE IT
Before the Lakers could win the pivotal game four, they had to first tie the game.
The Lakers trailed by three, 10.8 seconds from allowing the Magic to tie the series at two.
Ariza inbounded at three-quarter court to Kobe. Ariza ran up and took Kobe’s pass near half court, then quickly fired across to D-Fish. D-Fish dribbled up to the three-point line, froze Nelson with a step forward and a slight head fake, stepped into his shot, then launched a three in Nelson’s face. The ball swished through the bucket to tie the score at 87 with 4.6 seconds to go.
After the game, Fish suggested that wasn’t exactly the design of the play, as quoted on the LA Times Lakers Blog:
“I’m sure you know who the play was designed for (laughter), so the ball will always be in Kobe’s hands down the stretch, unless the defense does something to take it away.
They threw a couple guys at him in the backcourt. He still was able to get the ball inbounds but they trapped him. That held him back, he kicked it up to Trevor, and he kicked it up to me.
Initially I didn’t catch the ball cleanly so I wanted to make sure I gained control of the ball, checked the clock really quick. As I continued to kind of dribble, one dribble, two dribbles, three dribbles, I noticed Jameer was backing up and backing up, and I decided to go up and shoot really right before because I felt like I had the space and he wasn’t close enough to deter me from shooting. And just in that split second I made the decision, and I think that worked out better for me as opposed to in my mind thinking on the catch I’m going to go down and shoot the ball. It was just a situation that I read as I got into what I felt like was a scoring position.”
For Stan Van Gundy, the play was made worse by the Magic not only not taking the foul, but Nelson’s decision to give D-Fish room, as quoted in the LA Times:
“We gave him so much space,” lamented Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy. “We played him like we were trying to prevent the layup. We just didn’t play Derek Fisher.
“That play will haunt me forever.”
TO WIN IT
The game-tying shot, combined with a missed buzzer-beating heave by Orlando sent the game to overtime, where lightning did what it supposedly never does.
With 46.9 to go and the score tied at 91, Ariza inbounded again to Fish. Derek fed Pau who pushed it to Kobe.
Kobe penetrated on Pietrus, causing Nelson to shift to Kobe on a double team. Rather than taking a contested shot, Kobe kicked out to D-Fish, wide open at the top of the arc. Fish received the pass, set himself from 25 feet, loaded up and drained another three, giving the Lakers the lead for good.
“You know, I just sensed that was the dagger. That was the one that would put us in a position to close out the game, even though the game wasn’t over at that point.
You know, the one in regulation, there are 4.6 seconds left. You know you have to get a spot. Best case scenario is you have five minutes left to play, and a world of things can happen in that five minutes, so I didn’t want to become overconfident, and I know that my teammates are also looking at my responses when things go well as well as when they’re going bad. I just wanted to make sure I stayed in the right place knowing that overtime was in front of us, but then once I hit the second one, it was hard to contain at that point.
“I have a responsibility to my team that if I’m going to be on the floor, then I have to make a difference.”
The difference Fish made is simple. Thanks to No. 2, instead of being on the ropes the Lakers are on their way. The magic number is one.
RELATED STORIES
Giving Lakers’ Derek Fisher his space: bad idea (Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2009)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-heisler-lakers12-2009jun12,0,6098337.story?track=rss
Derek Fisher is Mr. Big Shot for Lakers (LA Times, June 12, 2009)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-lakers-magic12-2009jun12,0,4062111.story?page=1&track=rss
Fisher saves Lakers: Game 4 goes to Purple and Gold (OC Register, June 12, 2009)
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisher-lakers-nba-2460949-finals-game
Postgame Quotes (LA Times Lakers Blog, June 12, 2009)
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2009/06/postgame-quotes-phil-jackson-derek-fisher-trevor-ariza-kobe-bryant.html