The Oklahoma City’s Thunder’s quest for the top spot in the Western Conference got a huge jolt from Derek Fisher on Thursday night.
Fish was hot from the start and completed his best game since re-joining OKC with 17 points on 6-of-8 from the field, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc to lead the Thunder to a 100-88 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
San Antonio now holds the top spot by just half a game over OKC. The Spurs have just six games remaining and the Thunder have six. After the game, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich sought out D-Fish to congratulate him on his great game.
“I respect the hell out of him,” Popovich told the Oklahoman. “I’ve known him a long time. We’ve had dinner before when he was thinking about signing contracts, I mean, 10, 15 years ago. … So it was just fun to give him a little credit and let him know that we noticed. How could you not?”
Indeed, many took notice of Fish’s outstanding night, but it wasn’t something that shocked his teammates. Thunder star Kevin Durant said that even as Derek suffered through a cold stretch the last couple weeks, OKC knew that he’d be there and effective when they needed him most.
“Fish was unbelievable. He came in, did his job and put a mark on the game. His defense is always there, but on the offensive end he was hitting shots, spacing the floor and being aggressive. That’s what we need from him. Fish is a guy who works his tail off every single day and I knew it was a matter of time.”
The Thunder were off to a hot start even before Derek checked in, taking a lead of as much as seven early in the first quarter. But when Fish checked in for Russell Westbrook with just over two minutes to go in the quarter, they immediately started to pull away.
Just 23 seconds after getting into the game, D-Fish swished his first triple, doubling a three-point OKC lead to six. Going into Thursday night’s contest, Fish had hit just one trey in his last eight games, so he admitted that knocking down his first try of the night was a confidence booster.
“Hitting the first one doesn’t always symbolize how the rest of the night’s going to go,” Fisher said. “But I think that for sure helps, especially when you’re not a high-volume shooter. To see that first one go in, for sure gives you a little pick-me-up.”
With one trey in his pocket, D-Fish kept shooting. After a miss on the other end by the Spurs, Nick Collison grabbed the rebound and the Thunder pushed it. The result was another open trey for Fish that gave Oklahoma City a nine-point lead with 1:07 left in the first. They took an 11-point lead into the second quarter.
Derek continued his hot shooting early in the second. After another Spurs miss, Durant got the rebound, brought the ball up and after penetrating the paint dished to Fish, who buried his third three of the game from the left wing. That bucket made it 34-18 and when Durant again found Fish, this time in the right corner, and Derek swished another, OKC went ahead 39-21.
“We never worried about Fish when he was missing some shots. We knew we were going to keep going to him and giving him confidence,” Durant said afterward. “Tonight, he came up big.”
Though Derek was knocking down shots he credited the team’s work defensively with allowing them to open up such a big lead.
“I think the way the ball was moving and the activity as a team on the defensive end, where we were getting some stops there in that second quarter, we were feeding off each other’s energy and I thought that was big.”
The cushion provided was essential because the Spurs refused to go away quietly. After a Durant layup pushed the OKC lead to 20, San Antonio began to chip away at it and by halftime they had the Thunder lead down to just eight.
OKC came out hot again to start the third, outscoring the Thunder 17-6 in the first five minutes of the second half to bloat the lead back to 19. But the Spurs made another extended run and with a 9-2 spurt at the end of the third, had the deficit down to just six.
However, Fish helped to stymie that rally just over a minute into the fourth quarter with his fifth trey of the game.
Two minutes later he added his sixth bucket of the night on a drive to the basket. He credited the continued ball movement and search for the open man with allowing OKC to hold off the surging Spurs.
“Just trusting that the ball will find me or the right guy,” he said. “We have to continue to be that type of team that, even if a guy is not making an open shot, if we’re moving the basketball with pace and with trust, the ball will start to go in for you individually and as a team. I thought we did that for a lot of stretches tonight.”
Derek never got a shot to make it a 20-point night, as the Spurs want on a 9-0 run following his last basket and coach Scott Brooks went back to his starters to close out the game. But D-Fish noted afterward that his numbers were irrelevant and the team victory was all that mattered.
“That’s pretty much the only thought going into every game is that we win,” Derek said. “You can look at a stat sheet after a game and single out certain things, but at the end of the night it’s about our team winning the game. So when that happens, I’m not as concerned about what I did in particular as long as I helped us win.”
Of his meeting with Popovich, who Derek also sought out after the game, Fish described it as a mutual showing of respect and admiration.
“I think it just speaks to when you’re one of the best, when you’re a champion, when you consider yourself to be part of greatness, there’s an appreciation for others who have been there and done that before,” Fish said. “And I think that’s what we enjoy between the two of us.”
NEXT UP
The Thunder are right back at it on Friday night as they head to Indiana to take on the Pacers, who are also fighting for conference playoff position after locking up their spot in the postseason.
Tip-off of Friday’s game is slated for 8 p.m. and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Oklahoma.
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