After a long, draining, eight-game road trip, Derek Fisher and the Los Angeles Lakers return home tonight to take on the Charlotte Bobcats.
Surprisingly, Charlotte has taken the last three games from Los Angeles, as well as six of last seven. But tonight, the Bobcats run into a Lakers team back home for the first time in two weeks and hungry after a last second loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
"We just didn’t finish the trip," Fish said to the Press-Enterprise of the loss to Memphis.
As the Lakers look to rebound, they face a team in Charlotte that Fish knows he can go off against.
To open last season’s two-game set, No. 2 scored 14 points on 6-11 shooting, including going 2-3 from behind the arc. He also dished six assists, four of which went to Andrew Bynum. Los Angeles, though, was outlasted in the second frame of overtime, falling 117-110.
The last time Los Angeles beat the Bobcats was back in February of 2008. No. 2 was a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line in the Lakers’ 106-97 win.
To get their first win in two years against Charlotte, D-Fish says the team needs to play strong in the post, and that strength will carry over to the rest of the team.
"Inside then outside, we’re always better that way," Derek said. "There are really no excuses. We have to be stronger."
CUTS DON’T CUT IT FOR FISH
And while the nine other Lakers are focusing solely on how to beat Charlotte, Derek is also spending his time thinking about the future of players around the league/
As head of the Player’s Association, Fish is every NBA players’ spokesman about the expiring collective bargain agreement.
In an interview with ESPN’s Chris Sheridan, Derek corrected a Sports Illustrated claim that said owners will seek a 12 percent cut in total player salaries.
"I don’t foresee any situation where we agree to a deal that flips the percentage in that manner, but there are a lot of ways to get to a destination or a goal."
"It’s a negotiation, so I don’t think we’d be surprised if there’s an overreach." Derek said. "So we’ll see when we receive it how it looks, but I don’t know if we should box ourselves in to just sending back our response to what they sent."
LOOKING FOR BALANCE
After the Lakers’ loss to Memphis, Derek was asked about Kobe Bryant’s offensive production, and put things into their proper perspective.
"I think you always know that Kobe’s going to lead in shot attempts, but the percentage of that has to kind of balance out," Fish said to the Los Angeles Times. "When you think about him having 28 shots
[Monday] night out of 73 total, that percentage is not enough for our team to have the balance that we need to have."Fish, of course, sagely pointed out that had Los Angeles won, the discussion wouldn’t even be happening.
To listen to more of what Fish said, both about Bryant and the Lakers inside game here.
NEXT UP
Fish and Co. take on the Charlotte Bobcats tonight at the Staples Center. Tip off is at 7:30 p.m. and the game can be caught on Fox Sports West.RELATED ARTICLES
Lakers: Time to fret about the Bobcats (Press-Enterprise, Feb. 2, 2010)
http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/lakers/stories/PE_Sports_Local_W_lakers_notes_03.447d6b4.html
Lakers’ Fisher: Big salary hit not likely (ESPN.com, Feb. 1, 2010)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4877615
Pau Gasol takes some of the blame for low number of shots (LA Times, Feb. 3, 2010)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-fyi3-2010feb03,0,277021.story