Derek Fisher often talks about not getting caught up in the rollercoaster of emotions that is an NBA season.
There’s a very good reason for that. Because as much as one loss may be tough to swallow, it’s important not to let it distract the team from what is in front of them.
After a road loss to the Miami Heat last night, the Lakers are faced with just such a situation, because their weekend doesn’t get easier.
The Lakers head to Dallas for a Saturday night matchup with the Mavericks and an opportunity to right a wrong.
LA saw its eight-game winning streak snapped on Thursday night after surrendering a late lead and falling 94-88.
The game teetered back and forth for most of the night and the Lakers entered halftime trailing by two. But, as they have made a habit of doing during their win-streak, LA made the proper adjustments at halftime and came out of the break strong.
There of Derek’s four assists came in the second half and he picked his spots to help Los Angeles seize control. With just over four minutes gone-by in the third, Fish found Ron Artest for a three to tie the game at 58. Miami quickly pulled back ahead, but the Lakers had an answer.
Fish started a 9-0 LA run when he drove baseline and handed off to Andrew Bynum who threw down a vicious slam to pull Los Angeles to within one. Bynum and Pau Gasol would split the next four points to put the Lakers up three.
Derek doubled that lead by capping the run with a big triple to put Los Angeles in front 68-62. The Lakers defense also limited Miami to just 13 third quarter points. Mike Trudell of Lakers.com wrote about their third quarter success.
"Derek Fisher’s first triple of the game gave the Lakers their biggest lead at 68-62 moments later, the Heat falling to just 3-for-13 from the field in the quarter, turning the ball over seven times as whatever adjustments Phil Jackson and his staff made at halftime were working quite well (as had been the case since the All-Star break in particular)."
No. 2’s last assist of the game went to Kobe Bryant and it put Los Angeles ahead by one with four minutes to play. But the Lakers only scored one more basket down the stretch and Miami finished stronger to complete the season sweep of Los Angeles.
The Lakers, though, don’t get much chance to dwell and they departed Miami for Dallas and a Saturday night affair against the Mavericks.
The Mavs already hold one win over the Lakers, beating them 109-100 earlier in the season. Fish scored nine points in 25 minutes in the loss.
The Texas two-step tips off at 6 p.m. PST and can be seen on KCAL-TV.
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Itz weird that the lakers were on a 8 game win streak nd miami were on a 5 game lose streak then when they played each other miami all of sudden win ”weird”…….