Derek Fisher and the Los Angeles Lakers host the Utah Jazz tonight at the Staples Center and now that LA’s offense appears to be thriving, the talk has switched back to the champs’ defense.
But Derek believes that while they’ve had rough stretches on that end of the floor, for the most part, the Lakers have succeeded in their defensive setups.
"Statistically the numbers are there. In the last 10 or 11 games, we’ve seen the difference," D-Fish told the LA Times.
Over their last 11 games, the Lakers are allowing 92.4 points per game and only two of their opponents have scored more than 100 points. LA is also 9-2 over that 11-game stretch.
"We’ve obviously had some slip-ups. The Clippers game, it’s not even the game, but there were two- or three-minute stretches where we didn’t play good defense," D-Fish said. "We’re working hard in finding a way to a play a perfect 48 minutes. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but we’re working on it."
On Friday, the Lakers held the Denver Nuggets, who average a league-high 107 points per game, 10 under their season average in a 107-97 LA win in Denver.
No. 2 was integral in that win on the offensive end, where he dished out six assists.
Fish finished second on the team in assists, one behind Kobe Bryant, and he did it by finding three different Lakers throughout the game. He spaced them out generously, but four of his six assists came in the second half, when the Lakers surged to victory.
As he’s been known to do lately, Derek kicked off the game for LA with a dime, finding Ron Artest, who stopped a 6-0 Nuggets run with the Lakers’ first basket of the night. Fish followed Artest’s bucket with a trey a minute later to pull the Lakers within three.
Those were Derek’s lone points of the night, but that didn’t stop No. 2 from influencing the game. Los Angeles came out the locker room still down by three at halftime and Denver immediately pushed that to five.
But in the first four minutes of the third quarter, Fish found Kobe Bryant twice and Andrew Bynum once. Behind No. 2’s help, the Lakers went on a 13-3 run that swung the game. Derek added a fourth quarter assist to round out his night, bringing the Lakers back into the win column.
Tonight the Lakers host the Utah Jazz and though the Jazz have had trouble scoring lately, Fish is well aware of what they can do, as he told Lakers.com:
"We found out against the Mavericks, who came out with something they wanted to prove that night," said Fisher. "Utah has been struggling a little bit of late – they’re going to want to prove that they still belong as one of the top teams in the West, and we expect it to be a tough game."
Having played so many times against a Jazz team that still runs the same sets as ever under Coach Jerry Sloan, Fisher — who of course played for Utah before returning to the Lakers — says it can come down to a effort.
"Most of the time it’s just a game of will," he explained. "Their coach, Jerry Sloan, is that type of coach and they’re that type of team. For us battling against them the last couple of years, most games have just come down to wanting it more. They’re never going to quit regardless of what the score is."
To watch Fish talk more about Sloan and the Jazz, a team he is intimately familiar with, courtesy of the LA Times, click here.
Tonight’s tip off is at 7:30 p.m. PST and the game can be seen on Fox West.
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