Another Finish for the Ages

Derek Fisher made plays and turned heads in the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 91-84 victory over the Boston Celtics Tuesday night.  

But the final play he made in Game 3 of the 2010 NBA Finals, a fierce drive to the bucket, will always stand out for the heart and intensity it exhibited.  

What seemed like a split-second decision at TD Garden actually was a lifetime in the making.

ESPN Homepage, June 8, 2010.

No. 2 had already played his best quarter of the Finals, pouring in eight points on four drives to the bucket.  

But with the game on the line, D-Fish was far from finished. Off a Ray Allen miss — his 13th of the game — Derek grabbed the rebound. Then, with 50 seconds remaining, he dribbled past Boston point guard Rajon Rondo, pushing the ball ahead until he passed half court.  

When it suddenly became clear to the Celtics that Derek had no intention of slowing down, three of Boston’s biggest bodies — Kevin Garnett, Glen Davis and Allen — charged back in a panic to protect the hole.

Derek rose to the rim. All three big bodies collided with him. Everyone crashed to the floor. 

But the ball, laid high off the glass, eased through the net.

"They swallowed him up," Lakers forward Luke Walton told the Los Angeles Times. "But he came out huge."

The bucket increased the lead to six, and Derek’s subsequent free throw made it 87-80. The Garden was silenced. The game, in effect, was over.

When the final buzzer had sounded, Derek described the moment and why it later made him overcome with emotion.

"At that time, the clock is, I guess, our enemy and our friend. Because the Celtics had so many guys up the court, initially I was really just trying to advance the ball and get it past halfcourt before the eight-second count," Fish said. "I saw KG coming up and the angle that he took, I knew I could get around him without stepping on the left sideline. Once I broke through him, I saw that they didn’t have anybody back at the basket. So I just took the direct line. Had they got there and cut me off, I probably would have pulled it out, but I felt that I could get to the basket and get a good shot off before they could get to me.

"To see Pau’s reaction and my teammates’ reactions, that’s why those moments feel so good to me. Hitting the floor didn’t feel that good to be honest, but Pau’s reaction and Lamar and Kobe and what the guys were saying to me. That’s why those things feel so good."

LA Times Homepage, June 8, 2010.

CLUTCH AND FUNDAMENTAL
Though it was mostly guts and grit, Fish’s coach said their was some sound basketball behind Fish’s clutch drive.

"We have this direct-line principle — no one steps up, you keep going — and he saw the opening and made a very bold play,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "It was one-on-four. It was imperative that it goes in for us to win.”

Celtics coach Doc Rivers agreed saying it was a back breaker that "won the game."

"Derek Fisher was the difference in the game. We lost our composure a little bit down the stretch — a four-point game, all you need is a stop. We let Derek Fisher dribble the ball all the way up the court, unattended, get a three-point play. If you get a stop there, we had plenty of time."

Beautiful basketball made for even prettier prose. Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe hailed D-Fish as the kind of winner all players should strive to be.

"This kind of clutch play from Fisher has been going on for a long time. He has always had a great long-range jumper, he always knows his assignments, and he has no fear of taking the big shot. He can go unnoticed for long periods, and you often hear that the Lakers would love to replace him with a newer, younger, sexier model, but the fact is that they still need him."

But no one could top the eloquence of the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke whose description of the sequence was poetic in itself.

"Fisher has long since taught us, if you push long and hard enough, nobody can stop you. And amazingly, on a floor covered in the sweat of legendary defense, in an arena filled with the cries of legendary desperation, nobody did. Fisher drove right to the basket and took flight just as Garnett, Glen Davis and Ray Allen all converged on him. They collided in mid-air. Fisher dropped to the floor. Just as the ball was dropping in the basket. Just as a dagger was going through a heart. Just as the biggest moment in a second consecutive NBA Finals was being stolen by the smallest presence in the gym."

Yahoo Sports Homepage, June 8, 2010.

FOURTH QUARTER POWER
Derek’s baseline-to-baseline layup was just the icing on a 16-point night, 11 of which came in that pivotal fourth quarter.

It was simply a stunning performance that brought the Celtics to their knees. Fish also did it all without hitting a single three. Instead No. 2 attacked the basket and the heart of the Celtics defense to lead the Lakers to victory.

"Truthfully, he’s done it over and over and over again," said Kobe Bryant, who often gets the most credit for clutch plays. "So it’s almost his responsibility to our team to do these things."

Which is what he did from the moment the clock showed 12 minutes to go after the Lakers had watched a 12-point halftime lead get sliced in half to six.

It started with a pep talk in the huddle, before the refs whistled, and continued on the court, when Fish saw how Boston chose to play out the game.

"

[Boston’s] defense really started to tighten up," he said. "So we started using Kobe as a screener to try and free other guys up. And that worked for us, and I continued to remind myself to be aggressive and step into the opportunities and have fun."

Which he did, torching every Boston defender that got in his way. Boston had the lead down to 1, 68-67 with just under nine minutes to go when D-Fish began to attack.

With a chance to take the lead, the Celtics turned the ball over when Ray Allen fouled Fish on a screen. On the subsequent possession, LA took time to set up their offense and Lamar Odom, set a screen for D-Fish, that allowed No. 2 take the ball through the center of the lane, past three Boston defenders and to the hoop for a tough layup with 8:57 play to push the Lakers lead to 70-67.

Then after a Lamar Odom bucket, it was Fish’s turn again. The ball found Derek as it circled around the perimeter. Rather than taking a contested three, D-Fish drove toward the bucket, pulled up and, despite contact with Allen, willed in a floater to push LA’s lead to four at 74-70. After a Boston miss at the opposite end, Derek knocked down a mid-range jumper to push it to 76-70 with 5:30 to go.

"We saw some things we could accomplish by playing a little two-man game between Kobe and myself," No. 2 told ESPN. "When Kobe sets a screen, his man is going to be very reluctant to help off him, so it allows somebody else to get into the interior of their defense, and a couple times I made a pass or two and a few other times I was able to knock down shots."

Boston’s Glen Davis followed with a three-point play to pull the Celtics back within three, but D-Fish answered.

An inbound pass off a loose ball got the ball to Fish at the top of the key and the Lakers went back to that very same play. Kobe with the pick, Fish drives left of it, He made it past Ray Allen and got a step on Rajon Rondo as he pushed toward the paint. Before he could get there, he pulled up and leaned into a running bank shot over Glen Davis. The pinpoint touch caromed of the window and into the bucket with 4:33 remaining to make it 78-73.

"He pretty much won the game," Rondo said. "When we made our run, he seemed to have answers every time.”

After the game, Fish was choked up when speaking to reporters. The rigors of the regular season were long past. This is were Fish lives and does his best work. And he was so happy to see the labors of a long season bear fruit. Yet for a player who so routinely comes through at critical moments, he said shining never loses its luster.

"I love what I do and I love helping my team win," D-Fish said. "To come through tonight again for this team after so many great moments, it’s always quite surreal and quite humbling to experience it again and do it again, But it’s like being a kid, man, you just never get tired of that candy."

LEADING LAKER
Of course, on the Lakers’ he’s not nearly the smallest presence. In fact, he’s probably the biggest.

"He’s really the only one I listen to," Bryant said. "Everybody else is a bunch of young kids. Derek, he and I came in the league together. We spent long nights together as rookies, battling each other, playing full-court one-on-one games. We’ve been through it. So he can come to me and say, ‘Kobe, you’re [messing] up.’"

As it’s been often pointed out, Kobe Bryant has never pulled in a ring without No. 2, and not that he needed a reminder, but last night was just that.

"I went through years where I didn’t have him. I had point guards who were nowhere near his caliber in leadership and shot-making ability and toughness. It changes things drastically for me personally. I don’t have as much responsibility as I had when he wasn’t here. He’s the heart and soul of this team."

And often times, it’s most important player.

"Even when things maybe aren’t going the way I’d like them to go for reasons I can control and some I can’t, I still pretty much keep my mouth shut and just keep doing my job and remain faithful that things will come around when they need to," Fish said.

It’s never steered him wrong in 36 years of life, and it’s definitely never led him astray on the basketball court.

NEXT UP
Unfortunately, and Derek Fisher knows this as well, one good night in the Finals doesn’t mean anything if you can’t win three other games.

Los Angeles has only two more wins to go until they can repeat as NBA Champions, and they’ll go for a 3-1 on Thursday night in Boston. Tip-off is once again scheduled for 6 p.m. PST and the game can be seen on ABC.

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