Something about playing the Indiana Pacers brings out the scorer in Derek Fisher.
Two seasons ago, No. 2 scored 22 points, going 3-5 from the three-point line and hitting 7-8 free throws to lead the Lakers passed the Pacers, 112-96, back on January 6, 2008.
Though in their last meeting, on January 27 of this year, the Lakers’ starting point guard was held to eight points in a 118-96 win. It should be considered a feat for Indiana, because it doesn’t happen often.
Over the last three seasons, D-Fish is averaging 12.8 points per game against the Pacers, nearly four more points than his career average.
Fish is averaging 9.3 points per game in his last four games and he could be the spark the Lake Show needs against Indiana tonight.
NEGOTIATION NOTES
NBA owners and players entered serious negotiations during All-Star Weekend regarding the NBA’s expiring collective bargaining agreement.
The negotiations continue and as union president, Derek gave some of his thoughts on the negotiations to FanHouse.com:
Fish told FanHouse’s Chris Tomasson that he doesn’t believe that high salaries are the reason for the NBA losing record amounts of money:
"I think the discussion also is about, ‘Are things just related to the economy. What other variables go into why teams are losing money? That’s the conversations that we (the union) want to have."
Derek does not believe that the blame falls carte blanche on player’s salaries, which has becoming a point of contention in the negotiations:
"Some of it is you have some teams in bad arena (situations) that are in tough markets. You have situations where teams aren’t as competitive where you know that’s going to impact the fan base. You have another batch of teams this year that have dumped guys to clear salary-cap room for the summer, and that’s not something that’s necessarily going to raise fan support or increase season-ticket sales for next year. … We don’t necessarily agree the only fix is impacting players’ salaries.”
Fish understands that when compared to the average American, NBA salaries are high and sees why people may think right off the bat that the problem is compensation.
"I guess all of our salaries are too high in a relative sense of what hard-working Americans or people around the world and what their income is,” Fisher said. "We’re not insensitive to that reality. At the same time, we feel like this system is as well as systems in the past."
To read the entire interview, conducted by Fanhouse’s Chris Tomasson, click here.
NEXT UP
The Indiana Pacers play the Los Angeles Lakers tonight in Hollywood. The game will be broadcast on FOX West at 7:30.
RELATED STORIES
Pacers-Lakers Preview (ESPN.com, March 2, 2010)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=300302013
Union President Fisher: Premature to Say NBA Salaries Too High (FanHouse.com, March 1, 2010
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/03/01/union-president-fisher-premature-to-say-nba-salaries-too-high