Fish Shines as Thunder Push Spurs to Brink

//Fish Shines as Thunder Push Spurs to Brink

Fish Shines as Thunder Push Spurs to Brink

By | 2016-10-22T05:57:43-08:00 June 5th, 2012|News|Comments Off on Fish Shines as Thunder Push Spurs to Brink

What a difference a week can make in the NBA postseason.

Seven days ago, Derek Fisher and the Thunder were heading back to Oklahoma City in need of a win to keep from falling into a 3-0 hole. But led in the locker room by the wisdom of D-Fish — a man who had twice been there before — the Thunder maintained a laser sharp focus.


Guided by point guards past and present, the Thunder are a win from the finals (Getty Images).

Since then, they’ve reeled off three consecutive wins — the first three losses all postseason for the Spurs — including a 108-103 Game 5 victory at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. They head back to OKC again for a Wednesday night meeting on the brink of a trip to the NBA Finals.

"We did not get too low or too down on ourselves when we lost a game and we are not getting overly excited or too high emotionally after winning a game," Derek said. "We are just showing up the next night to play and try to give ourselves a chance to win."

It was partly the play of D-Fish on Monday that gave OKC a chance to turn the tables on San Antonio and win on the road. Derek played 22 minutes in the victory and the Thunder outscored the Spurs by 15 points with the veteran point guard on the floor. He finished with six points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal in the win. 

OKC coach Scott Brooks said that it’s the ability of reserves like Derek to step up and have a big game, or simply do the little things asked of them night in and night out that makes the Thunder unique.

"We have a very good basketball team, a deep basketball team, and a team that believes in each other," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. "Guys step up at (different) times throughout the year."


Derek’s +15 point differential Monday night was second on the team (Getty Images).

Derek entered Game 5 with 3:44 left in the first half and the game tied at 15. Over the next three-and-a-half minutes, he grabbed a pair of rebounds and sank a pair of free throws as OKC took a 26-21 lead after one. Fish helped the Thunder kick off the second with a bucket when he dished to Serge Ibaka for a runner that put them up seven.

No. 37 then answered a Spurs bucket with one of his own, a 21-foot jumper to make it 30-23. When he exited with 5:05 left in the half, OKC maintained a seven-point edge. It ballooned as high as 14 late in the quarter, but at halftime the lead was eight.

The Spurs came out of the locker room hot and by the time Fish came back into the game, San Antonio had grabbed the lead. They led by one when he checked in, but OKC turned it around fast. An alley-oop from Kevin Durant to Russell Westbrook put the Thunder back up by three and Durant added a jumper to make it a five-point game.


Fish has taken on several defensive assignments and performed well (Getty Images).

After an exchange of free throws, Fish picked the pocket of San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili and pushed ahead to Westbrook who laid it in with 29.9 seconds to go in the third to put OKC in front by seven. They entered the fourth with a nine-point lead.

The Spurs cut it to eight early in the third, but Derek pushed it back to double digits with his second bucket of the night, a runner off the hand of Westbrook. Though their lead became tenuous at times late in the game, the Thunder closed out the win in the final minutes to go home ahead 3-2. But just like their two wins before, Oklahoma City did not see the win as a cause for celebration. Fish and the gang know there is still work to be done.

"It is the first team to four wins, so there really isn’t anything to celebrate or get happy about until you win the series," Fish told the Oklahoman. "This team made it to the conference finals last year and I don’t think anybody was happy with the final result, so who cares if we are up 3-2 now? If we don’t finish our business, it does not mean anything and that has to be our mentality going into it."

NEXT UP
Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals will take place at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

Derek says there are no secrets about what the Thunder are trying to do and no changes in the game plan.

"We are just trying to be who we are," Fisher said. "We have to figure out a way to win another game for all of this to make sense."

Game 6 tips at 8 p.m. CDT an can be seen on TNT.

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