Derek Fisher carries a lot of attributes on his 6’1" frame, but worry isn’t one of them.
So after his Lakers dropped Game 1 to the New Orleans Hornets on Sunday, Fish is set on keeping his team calm.
Though the loss can’t be easily explained, he said that’s the nature of the playoffs. No one, after all, has ever won an NBA title in just 16 games.
"It’s easy to try to explain and say all the reasons why," Derek told The Dan Patrick Show. "But sometimes there is no explanation; the other team beats you, they play better than you that day, that’s the end of it. In the Playoffs, at least, you’ve got to figure out how to win the next one."
The next one is tonight and at the top of the agenda for Los Angeles is shutting down Hornets guard Chris Paul.
Limiting Chris Paul is priority one for Fish and the Lakers in Game 2 (Getty Images).
ESPN’s LA Land O’Lakers blogger, Andy Kamenetzky, writes that Fish did a fine job matching up against Paul, on Sunday. Kamenetzky cited one specific example, of which there were many, of Fish having a handle on CP3.
"Later in the third quarter, as Paul ran a curl off ball, Fisher stuck exceptionally well to his side and nearly came up with a steal after Ariza tried forcing the ball to his quarterback. The ball went out of bounds off Fisher, who continued denying Paul aggressively after the inbound, and the possession ended with an Ariza miss."
Fish said that the key to beating someone like Paul is to limit defensive mistakes. But that, No. 2 said, wasn’t something that was only true of Paul. It’s applicable to any player in the league.
"If he’s in the NBA, he can do something, and if you don’t play the proper defense, guys are going to take advantage of it," Derek said. "For somebody that’s as good as Chris Paul is already, if you make mistakes on top of that then it magnifies the situation. So that’s what we have to correct. It still doesn’t mean he won’t have good games, but he can’t have great games because we’re making bad decisions and not doing things correctly."
As always, it comes down to execution, something LA lacked on Sunday:
"There are a lot of things we can do, but we have to do them," Fish said. "There aren’t any secrets. We just have to do what we practiced, the job we’ve done against a lot of good guards and good teams all season. We’ve played some great defense in stretches this year. But it’s a five-man job. We were poor in that area on Sunday and we have to be a lot better."
No. 2 feels the Lakers will be up to the challenge, having gotten two days of good practice after their Game 1 slip up.
"We need more practice; we need more time together to continue to push to become the team we need to become in order to win a championship. We already have the guys and the team that’s capable of winning it, but as you work through a postseason you actually do have opportunities to get better. To have two days off in the playoffs is definitely an opportunity to get better."
D-Fish said after a Tuesday practice, in which the Lakers watched film from Game 1, that adjustments have been made to limit mistakes. But he said much of what the Lakers have done in the last few days has centered around getting back to what they do best.
"There are always adjustments," he said. "There are adjustments between games and during games. That’s a natural part of basketball. But you have to have a foundation and a basis to begin with. You start there. You can always make adjustments, but we have to improve upon on our basic things and that’s what we spent time on."
Fish and the Lakers will try to translate their practice efforts onto the Staples Center hardwood tonight. Game 2 tips at 7:30 PT on TNT.
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