Coming out of the gates after the All-Star break, the Lakers needed a jumpstart and Derek Fisher was happy to oblige.
LA kicked off the second half of their season with a 104-80 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night and it started with the kind of performance they’ll need from their captain down the stretch.
The All-Star respite did wonders for Derek, who started the game as hot as ever en route to 10 points.
Fish kicked off the rout by sinking his first shot attempt, a 19-foot jumper that gave the Lakers the game’s opening points. He followed that with two more deep jumpers, first again from 19-feet, then a little later, a little deeper, sinking a 21-footer. In the game’s first three minutes, it was Derek Fisher: 6, Atlanta: 0.
Zephid at Forum Blue and Gold described the hot start:
"The Lakers absolutely crushed the Hawks in the 1st quarter, leading 28-15 after 12 minutes. Derek Fisher hit his first 3 shots (a clear foreshadowing of what was to come) and the Lakers never looked back. They missed 4 shots the entire quarter, and the lead would’ve been even larger had they not turned the ball over 4 times."
Though by the end of the first, the Laker lead was up to 13, LA didn’t let up. In the second, Fish hit four straight free throws, sinking his lone strokes in the frame, and putting the Lakers ahead by 21 heading into the locker room. The Lakers finished the first half a torrid 66.7 percent from the field and Fish chipped in an individual number of 75 percent (3-of-4).
No. 2 played facilitator in the third and ended his night with two dimes, finding Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest before taking a seat on the bench with the game in hand. Derek rested the entire fourth as the Lakers easily closed out the Hawks. It was LA’s ninth wire-to-wire win of the season.
SHOWING UNITY
In his years as a Lakers leader, D-Fish has made his share of speeches to galvanize his teammates and many of those talks have led to success.
On Friday afternoon, Derek made another impassioned plea to a set of NBA players, but this group was much larger and the impact of his words rang true with his peers.
Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld writes that Derek opened the Friday afternoon meeting between the NBA players and league owners with an address that struck a chord with his fellow players:
The meeting began with an opening address from Players Association president Derek Fisher. The speech given by Fisher was relatable and summed up how everyone in the room was feeling. While players wouldn’t go into specifics, they described the address as powerful and raved about Fisher’s leadership following the meeting. Fisher’s comments set the tone for the rest of the meeting and made a lot of sense to everyone in the room.
Derek wouldn’t reveal what he said, but did state the intention of his message, as quoted by USA Today:
"I tried to humanize the process," Fisher said.
D-Fish also revealed the tone and progress of the meetings, while noting that it’s still very early in the process:
"The dialogue was constructive," he told the LA Daily News. "There definitely was a commitment to trying to get this process done in this room.
"We’re committed to it, and we made sure that was understood. We are going to continue to negotiate in good faith, more than good faith."
Derek said that everyone realizes what the objective is and all seem willing to take the proper steps to get to that point.
"Players want to play basketball," he said. "There isn’t anything we want more than to play basketball."
NEXT UP
After a one-game stay at home, the Lakers heads up to Portland to take on the Trailblazers tonight.
In the Lakers; first game against Portland this year, a 121-96 win, D-Fish scored 12 points and dished out four dimes. The Lakers haven’t made the trip up the Pacific Coast since February of last season, when they snapped a streak eight consecutive losses in Portland’s Rose Garden.
Tonight’s tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PST and the game can be seen on KCAL.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant lead way as Lakers end 3-game slide (ESPN.com, February 22, 2011)
- Lakers/Hawks: Where Joe Smith played (Forum Blue and Gold, February 22, 2011)
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- All quiet on the NBA’s labor front after Friday’s meeting (USA Today, February 19, 2011)
- NBA Players, owners finally get into same room (LA Times, February 19, 2011)
- Fisher says labor talks are ‘constructive’ (LA Daily News, February 19, 2011)