Derek Fisher leads the Los Angeles Lakers onto the floor tonight in an effort to stall a two-game losing streak, the result of a tough weekend in LA.
But even after a loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday, in the first meeting between the two teams since the Lakers defeated Boston in last season’s Finals, Derek has kept an even keel.
He was asked after the game if he was concerned about where the team, still second in the West at 33-15, is, as the calendar flips to February, just over two months from the postseason. Derek said there’s a difference between concern and panic. And there’s only one productive way to address concern: work.
"I’m concerned everyday," he said. "That’s why we go to practice, that’s why we put the time in. Unless you win every single game, you are concerned. You want to get better defensively every day. You want to get better offensively every day. Every day you want to play harder, every day you want to correct the mistakes you made the night before."
It’s a balanced process, No. 2 said, between focusing on the long-term goal, but also not losing sight of what needs to be done in the now to achieve it.
"You can win games in November, December, January and have a great record," Derek said. "You can have the best record in the NBA and go to the playoffs and get beaten in the first round.
"There isn’t a magic pill or a snap of the finger that will change things. I’ve been on too many successful teams to get bunkered down on the ups and downs that happen to every team this year… We’re still going to have ups and downs, but I’m confident that over the course of the season, we are going to get to the place we want to get to."
For his part, D-Fish played a strong game against Boston, which drew praise from Brian Kamenetzky of ESPN LA’s Land O’Lakers blog as one of the highlights of the game:
Derek Fisher doing the little things. Fish didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, save the rare drive-and-finish for the and-1 with about four minutes left in the first half, but Fisher did a lot of other things right. His hands were active early, slapping the ball away from Shaquille O’Neal down low or jumping passing lanes up high. In the third, Fish had a great sequence where he jumped a pass at the top of the key, earning himself free throws at the other end, then worked through a moving screen from Perkins to pick up another TO from the Celtics.
But those things weren’t enough as No. 2 and the Lakers got what he expected, a stellar effort from a Celtics team bent on revenge. He could certainly relate:
"When you knock a team out of the playoffs, particularly in the conference finals or the NBA finals, that never leaves your system," Derek said. "I’m still upset about losing the finals in 2004 to Detroit. I’m still upset about losing in the finals to Boston in 2008."
And the Lakers are in a unique position, having knocked a number of teams out of the postseason over the past three years.
"Were trying to do something that has never been done before, since most of us in the locker room were kids," D-Fish noted. "It’s been 25 years since a team’s been to the finals four years in a row."
NEXT UP
The Lakers aim to stop their streak tonight when they host the Houston Rockets.
"You don’t ever want to lose, on the home or on the road," Derek said. "When you have the ability that we have."
The Lakers are 1-1 this year against the Rockets, with each team having won a home game. The rubber game tips off is at 7:30 p.m. PST and the game can be seen on Fox West.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Derek Fisher on Lakers’ 109-96 loss to Boston Celtics (LA Times, January 30, 2011)
- Celtics 109, Lakers 96: At the Buzzer (ESPN LA, January 30, 2011)
- Work still to be done: more items on the to-do list (ESPN LA, January 31, 2011)
- Lakers flop against Boston (ESPN LA, January 30, 2011)
- Off Color Shaq (True Hoop, January 30, 2011)