Derek Fisher leads the Lakers onto the Staples Center hardwood tonight fresh off one of their best wins of the season.
The Lakers pulled out a tight overtime win over the Portland Trailblazers, 106-101, on Wednesday night at the Rose Garden, their second straight victory coming out of the All-Star break.
In the winning effort, LA got six points and two assists from No. 2 and Fish did all his work on the evening from deep, splashing down on 2-of-4 shots from behind the three-point arc.
The first of the two triples finished off an early Lakers surge that put the champs ahead 10-2 less than three minutes into the game. He added his other three at a crucial point in the third quarter, cutting a six-point LA deficit in half. The Lakers went on to take the lead moments later.
Additionally, both of No. 2’s helpers led to three pointers as well, with the guard finding Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest for treys. Bryant’s gave LA a 67-65 lead late in the third while Artest’s bucket pushed the Lakers out to a 95-92 lead early in overtime. The momentum helped push Los Angeles to the win.
Tonight, the Lakers look to continue the streak when they take on their in-house rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. In their first meeting of the season, an 87-86 Laker win, No. 2 scored six points, including the game-winner. You can relive the buzzer-beating layup here.
The game tips off at 7:30 PST and can be seen on Fox West.
The Lakers then finish their weekend in Oklahoma City on Sunday where they face the Thunder. LA beat OKC in their lone matchup this season. Fish was the impetus to victory and scored 15 points on 5-of 10 shooting.
The Sunday matinee tips at 11:30 a.m. local time and will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR
Last night, No. 2 was given recognition for both his on and off the court actions, when he was named Los Angeles sportsman of the tear by the L.A. Sports Council.
Derek accepted the award in person at the Beverly Hilton and said he was proud of what the achievement meant.
"It’s always quite humbling to receive awards for not just things you do on the court as an athlete, but recognition for things you attempt to do off the court, in the community," he said. "The city of Los Angeles has been not just a second home, but a home to me since I was drafted here in 1996, and I take very, very seriously my commitment to this city."
Derek also accepted an award for the Lakers franchise honoring their 16th NBA championship.
"Every season is filled with different stories and reasons why teams do well and teams win a championship or not," Fish said as quoted by Mark Medina of the LA Times. "There are lots of things that we can all pick apart as to why a team was successful or not.
"For our team the last couple of seasons, our teams have had some ups and downs and we had moments where even amongst ourselves, we continued to question, ‘Can we take this to where we want to go?’ And that’s to the top of the NBA. So even currently as we go through the ups and downs of another regular season, we make an attempt to a fourth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals and third consecutive NBA championship, there isn’t anything more important to our group than that one thing and that one goal.
"Even when we’ve had our bad days and those nights when we haven’t looked like a quote-unquote championship team, we all still came back into the locker room and continued to band together as brothers and to push ourselves into the best team we can be," Fisher told the audience. "We recognize in terms of expectations. There isn’t anything less this city expects of us, which is to be champions. That’s what we strive to be every single night. I pledge to you on behalf of my team with this award that we’ll give everything that we have."
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