Things are coming together very well for Derek Fisher and the Lakers on their annual Grammy trip.
LA split a pair of games on the East Coast this weekend, defeating the New York Knicks on Friday before dropping their first game of the trip on Sunday in Orlando. But even with that loss, the Lakers now sport a 4-1 record on their longest trip of the season with two games to go.
On Friday night, in a primetime meeting at Madison Square Garden, Derek dished an early assist to a red-hot Kobe Bryant, who scored 19 first quarter points to help LA put the game away early.
D-Fish also pulled down three rebounds in just 24 minutes on a light night for Lakers starters as LA cruised to a 17-point victory over the Knicks, 113-96.
On Sunday in the Sunshine State, Derek dished four assists and scored four points, but the effort went for naught, with Los Angeles falling 89-75 to the Magic.
Two of Derek’s Sunday afternoon dimes went out early as No. 2 found Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum for a pair of first quarter alley-oops.
Orlando led by four at halftime and went up by nine early in the third, but D-Fish helped to produce a binge that brought the Lakers back within striking distance. After a Dwight Howard dunk gave the Magic a nine-point edge, Fish found Bynum again and the big man answered with a layup cutting the deficit to seven.
Howard scored again on a layup minutes later and this time No. 2 answered by his lonesome with his first bucket of the day, pulling LA back within seven. Derek found Bynum for a third time just 30 seconds later to cut the deficit to five and Ron Artest followed with a three, just half a minute after that, to pull the Lakers within two. Orlando’s Ryan Anderson ended the run with a triple, but D-Fish answered with his second jumper of the quarter, pulling LA within a single possession one more time.
However, the Magic finished the quarter on a 6-2 run and never looked back on the way to handing the Lakers their first loss in five games.
Fortunately, No. 2 and the Lakers have no time to dwell on their defeat, as they’re right back at it tonight. LA heads to Charlotte where they’ll take on the Bobcats in the sixth game of their seven game road swing. In the Lakers’ most recent win over the Bobcats, Derek scored nine points on 60-percent shooting. Tonight’s game tips off at 4 p.m. PST and can be seen on KCAL-TV.
A PROFILE OF SUCCESS
What D-Fish has done with his NBA career is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that hard work does pay off.
A recent feature in Success Magazine took a look at Derek’s career and how he has become the player and person he is today.
Long before the glitz and glory of an NBA career, Fisher was a typical kid growing up with loving parents and a big brother and sister in Little Rock, Ark. "My mom introduced us to faith and God, and what that means. That’s a foundation for me that will never leave," Fisher says. "Second
[is] my family and the things that come with supporting my family, not just financially, but as a husband, father, brother, son and cousin. I know I represent them in everything I do, and so keeping my family really close to my heart is something that helps me make smart decisions."As a youth, Fisher played basketball, football, baseball and soccer, as well as trumpet in the band, and participated in speech and debate. No matter what he was doing, Fisher went all out.
When his dad woke him up before sunrise so he could run hills wearing a weighted flak jacket in the stifling Arkansas humidity, he didn’t complain. "I understood at a young age that, no matter what it was I was doing, it took an extremely large amount of work to be good at it," he says. "I carried that thought through my whole life. I want to be good; I want to be the best I can be."
To read more of Success Magazine’s profile on D-Fish, click here.
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