When the Oklahoma City Thunder signed Derek Fisher in February, many outside of the Thunder organization were unsure of what they were getting.
And when Fish went through a long shooting slump at the outset of his second Oklahoma City tenure, questions began to fly about his playing time. But Thunder coach Scott Brooks knew what he had all along.
“It really makes no sense for me to have to defend Fish,” Brooks said. “It always seems like I have to defend him. But he has made our team better. His common influence is incredible, will to win, and his spirit of doing it every day is something that all teams should strive to play like.”
Derek’s excellent play in Game 6 helped OKC finish off the Rockets (Getty Images).
D-Fish was an integral part of sending the Thunder to the second round of the playoffs with a 103-94 win over the Rockets on Friday night in Houston.
Not only did Fish play over 26 minutes and tally 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting with four rebounds and an assist, he also spent most of his time on the floor guarding Rockets scorer and former Thunder teammate James Harden and did so very well. Harden finished with 26 points, but took 22 shots to get them and made less than 33 percent of his attempts from the field.
“[He forced Harden to] make tough shots and making him make tough decisions,” Brooks said. “For him to do that every single play down the court is a testament to his character.”
Prior to the game, as has become Derek’s custom over his years in the league, D-Fish spoke to his teammates about the challenge ahead and what it meant to what they are trying to do as a team. Teammates raved about his leadership and motivation, but after the game No. 6 downplayed his words.
“There’s nothing magical about what I’m saying,” he said. “Once you build a certain level of respect in the locker room, guys are willing to hear what you have to say. So I was just reminding them that it’s about us. It’s about our group. Accomplishing something special is always going require you to give more than you receive. Our guys responded that way tonight.”
Derek entered Friday’s game early in the first quarter with OKC trailing by seven and did his part to help them claw back with a pair of rebounds. They trailed by just three after one and took the lead two and a half minutes into the second quarter on Fish’s first three of the game 11th of the series.
Derek hit a trio of three Friday and finished the series 13-of-23 from deep (Getty Images).
D-Fish was reminded after the game of his clutch prowess particularly against the Rockets and in Houston and told reporters that thriving on the road and being showered by boos is one of the more gratifying parts of playing in the postseason.
“It’s never about a particular team, always just about doing my job to help my team win,” he said. “But when you’re on the road in the playoffs, the reason it’s so much fun is because the fans hate you so much. Because you’re getting booed and people are saying the most outlandish things that kids probably shouldn’t hear them saying. It requires you to go to a deeper level of focus and intensity. That’s the great part about being in the playoffs.”
After Derek gave them the lead, the Thunder maintained it thanks to the excellent backcourt play of point guard Reggie Jackson and shooting guard Kevin Martin. The duo combined for 20 of OKC’s 32 points in the second quarter on 7-of-11 from the field and thanks to their efforts, the Thunder took a four-point lead in at halftime.
“I knew it was going to take a total team effort. I knew in order for us to close this thing out, it was going to require that effort from us and that’s what we got tonight. Kevin Martin really set the tone offensively for us in that first half and defensively he was aggressive and grinding,” Fish said. “I thought, in Reggie Jackson’s play tonight, I saw the switch go on. He was aggressive. He was attacking the front of the rim. Those are the things that he’s capable of doing for our team. If he continue to that for us, we’ll have some success.”
Kevin Durant commended the way Derek has run the OKC offense in Russell Westbrook’s absence.
Derek also noted that, playing in their fourth game since Russell Westbrook’s injury, the Thunder have began to find the rhythm for their offense and how they want it to operate aside from the play of Kevin Durant.
“It’s taken us a little bit of time to figure out offensively how we want to attack teams,” he said. “Russell is so great at just being a one-man attack at times and then obviously with he and Kevin on the floor at the same time, they were a special pair. So we’re continuing to find ways to be effective offensively and still connecting as a team.”
The Thunder struggled to maintain that connection coming out of the locker room, tallying just 20 points on 38.1 percent from the field in the third quarter. Durant had nine of those 20 and only two other players, Serge Ibaka and Jackson scored in the frame as OKC’s offense went stagnant.
Houston jumped ahead early in the quarter and went on a four-minute, 12-0 run to push the advantage to 10. But Jackson and Durant led the Thunder back. A pair of free throws from Jackson stopped the Rockets run and after a Houston miss, Jackson splashed a three to cut the deficit to five. Durant added a three off a Jackson feed with 3:16 left in the quarter to make it a two-point game, then followed a Jackson miss with a putback layup to tie the game at 74.
After a 1-of-2 trip to the line by Houston’s Chandler Parsons put the Rockets back in front, Jackson cut in for a layup to give OKC the lead, then dished to Durant for a short jumper on the next Thunder possession to give them a 78-75 lead. Jackson has often praised Fish this season with regard to helping him along as a young player and Derek is just happy that Jackson has been able to put his knowledge to good use.
“I’m just giving him the pointers in terms of things that I see, outside of him. For a young guard, it’s almost like a quarterback in football, in you first couple years in the game, everything is moving so fast. Even if you’re extremely talented, it’s hard to see everything that’s happening. So I’m trying to live through him in a sense by passing on my experience, the pace that I see the game at, as a 38-year-old and just help him to kind of slow down and see some things.
“The reason why it works for him is because he’s willing and open-minded and he’s listening. A lot of young guys don’t like to listen and Reggie is one of those guys that wants to get better, he’s open-minded, he listens to all his teammates and he’s just a great young man.”
The Thunder took a one-point lead into the fourth and opened the final frame on a 14-4 run to put the game out of reach.
“Our defense caught up with that they were doing and we found a way to break the game open,” Derek said.
In the middle of it all was D-Fish. His 18-foot turnaround jumper off a Jackson feed put the Thunder up five just two minutes into the fourth and shortly thereafter he buried his second three of the night off a Durant dish to make it a nine-point game.
“He ran the team really well and his defense was great,” Durant said of Fish.
“People might think of him as, well, he is an old guy,” Durant joked. “But his defense is really good: keeping the ball in front, contesting shots, boxing out. He plays like he’s 25 years old. He’s great in spacing the floor and making shots for us.”
The Thunder got the lead up to 11 on a Nick Collison layup, but after a defensive breakdown led to a James Harden trey, cutting OKC’s lead to eight, Thunder coach Scott Brooks called a timeout.
Fish forced James Harden into tough shots all night and two turnovers down the stretch.
Out of the timeout, Jackson committed a turnover giving the ball to Houston with a chance to make it even closer. But D-Fish punched the ball out of Harden’s hands on a drive, leading to a Durant dunk that put OKC up 10. Fish followed with a dagger trey that pushed the lead to 13 with just over five minutes to go, then moments later picked off another Harden pass leading to a fastbreak jam for Martin.
The Thunder were up 15 with four and a half minutes remaining and cruised from there to the series clinching win. Afterward, Brooks heaped praise on D-Fish for his play throughout the game and particularly in crunch time.
“What I saw tonight was some of the most inspiring play I’ve ever seen in all my playing time and in coaching,” Brooks said. “The guy laid everything on the line. He was probably one of the best players in the game.”
NEXT UP
The Thunder have no time at all to bask in their Game 6 victory as they departed Houston late Friday night to go back to Oklahoma City, where they will host the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon.
Tip-off of Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinal series is scheduled for Noon CDT and the game can be seen on ABC.
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