On a night when his shot was not falling, Derek Fisher was still able to execute the Los Angeles Lakers’ offense and get his team a much needed 106-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
The Kamenetzky Brothers, with the Los Angeles Times, noticed how well Fish did despite scoring just four points.
"Derek Fisher was 0-3 from the floor, but did a nice job orchestrating the offense, and more importantly didn’t repeatedly force shots like he did against the Rockets. If it wasn’t there, Fish didn’t pull the trigger."
BIG FROM THE LINE
D-Fish hit four consecutive free throws toward the end of the third quarter, both times putting the Lakers up 27
Derek was perfect from the line last night, the second time this season he’s hit 100 percent of his free throws in a game. On the year, No. 2’s only missed one attempt from the charity stripe.
 Derek’s defense played a crucial role in L.A.’s win Tuesday night (Getty Images). |
And though those four shots were Fish’s only points of the night, as always, he helped the Lakers in a myriad of ways. He had three assists in the last four minutes of the first half, as the Lakers surged to a 15-point lead.
The Lakers pushed the lead to 20 at the start of the third quarter and never looked back, coasting to a 13-point victory.
FISH DISH
In a post-practice interview with the Los Angeles Times this week, Fish spoke at length about the Lakers and their season to date. The Kamenetzky Brothers wrote that Derek is one of their favorite subjects to talk to.
"There’s almost always an upside to extended conversations with Derek Fisher, and it’s typically two-fold. First, he’s a given for introspective, thoughtful copy. Second, the discussion will often take unexpected turns that spotlight additionally interesting topics."
The discussion ranged wide from the most recent games to the team’s structure and how they play and space on the floor. Derek even compared Lakers coach Phil Jackson’s coaching style of "letting players figure it out" to parenting:
"
[It’s] what I try to tell my stepson all the time as far as homework. It’s one thing to just kind of get the homework done or come to us for the answers and we kind of help you through it. But if you don’t fully understand it and the test comes, that’s why you’re gonna have low test scores, if you don’t understand it yourself. It’s not for us to try and help you understand it all the time. So it’s the same concept."Derek believes the biggest concern is within the Lakers are spacing themselves within the triangle, as quoted by Kamenetzky:
Yeah, we’re just kind of locked into throwing the ball down to Kobe (Bryant) or throwing the ball down to Andrew (Bynum) and even though those guys have had success with that at times, there’s been kind of an in and out flow for everyone else. Ron (Artest) has had good moments, and (then) hasn’t. I’ve had good moments, haven’t. Sasha (Vujacic) has hit some shots, sometimes he hasn’t.
That’s kind of going all the the way around the whole team. So as we improve our spacing and execution, I think you’ll find that we’ll have six, seven, eight guys playing in the flow. The ball moving well. Even if guys aren’t necessarily getting a lot of shots, the shots will be higher quality and everybody will feel involved and you’ll see more of a team game happening.
The Triangle offense, as always, was also a point of interest:
"Our offense, it doesn’t really matter who’s on the floor. Obviously, you have different guys who have different strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn’t change the spacing on the floor and where guys will be setting up. What type of things that we should be able to execute and take advantage."
For more of Derek’s discussion with Kamenetzky, including quotes from D-Fish on setting up, how the Lakers work within the offense and the process of integrating Ron Artest into it, click here.
POWERING THROUGH
The NBA season is by no means a short sprint, and the Lakers hit their first rough stretch of the long trip. D-Fish though, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, knows this is just part of the journey:"We understand that in order for us to achieve our goals, we’re going to have to continue to get better," Fisher said. "And sometimes in order to get better, you’re going to have to suffer through some things, some adversity, some ups and downs.
"The better teams, the championship teams are the teams that learn from nights like last night as opposed to making excuses or coming up with reasons why. We just figure it out, keep playing."
According to Fish, quoted by Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, the team hasn’t been living up to its full potential.
"Derek Fisher spoke plainly about just how inattentive the team has been to meeting its own standards thus far, saying:
"Not even close. … We’re so talented we still found a way to win seven games."
Fish predicted ‘a much more disciplined team’ playing ‘more of a team game’ will emerge from under this dark cloud. The results of the team’s scrimmage Monday suggested as much, with the heretofore disappointing Bench Mob beating the starting unit (with Bryant out there despite his tight groin) on Shannon Brown’s dagger jumper.
NEXT UP
Fish will battle last season’s Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose when the Bulls come to Los Angeles on Thursday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 10:30 PST and the action can be seen nationwide on TNT.
RELATED ARTICLES
Lakers 106, Pistons 93 (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 18, 2009)
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2009/11/lakers-beat-pistons-kobe-bryant-40-points-.html
Derek Fisher, on the offense… (L.A. Times, Nov. 17, 2009
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2009/11/derek-fisher-on-the-offense-phil-jacksons-style-and-learning.html
Lakers Handle Pistons (Silver Screen And Roll, Nov. 18, 2009)
http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2009/11/18/1162739/lakers-handle-rockets-as-kobe
Lakers season so far is In-n-Out (Orange County Register, Nov. 16, 2009)
http://www.ocregister.com/sports/gasol-219733-lakers-jackson.html