Derek Fisher scored nine first half points and played lockdown defense on the Orlando Magic guards as the Los Angeles Lakers levied an opening salvo with a 100-75 blowout of the Orlando Magic on Thursday night in game one of the 2008 NBA Finals.
The Lakers lead the best-of-seven series 1-0.
“Fish is always there,” Kobe Bryant said. “They didn’t leave Fish too much. As the series goes on, maybe that will change. But the shots that he did have he knocked down.”
D-Fish went 4-6 from the field for his nine points and chipped in three boards plus an assist to help the Lakers cruise to victory.
 Derek driving hard to the basket in Game 1 of the NBA Finals (Getty Images). |
EXPERIENCE SHOWS
One of the underlying themes of this Finals showdown is the experience of the Lakers versus the relative inexperience of the Magic.
Fish was one of many Lakers to expose the disparity in game one.
Twice the Lakers went to Derek, all 6-feet-1-inch of him, in the post on inbounds plays, and both times Fish turned an Orlando mistake into a bucket.
Early in the first, after Trevor Ariza had the ball knocked out of his hands on a drive to the basket, Ariza was called on to inbound. As the Lakers ran their play, Fish cut inside of opposing point guard Rafer Alston and found himself wide open in the paint. Fish went for the uncontested layup, missed it, but was right there to clean the glass and put it back to give the Lakers an 8-7 lead.
Toward the end of the first half the Lakers ran virtually the same play on another inbounds by Ariza and this time, Fish scorched Jameer Nelson.
As Ariza looked outside toward the perimeter with 35 seconds to go in the half, Fish circled into the paint, ran around Nelson, then boxed out the returning point guard in the post. Ariza fed the ball right in to Derek who leaped and shot it off the window and in. The score gave the Lakers a 51-41 lead, they led 53-43 at the break.
Before the series, Phil Jackson spoke of Derek’s ability to understand the unspoken, as quoted by the Guardian:
“He knows what’s important to us and what the focus should be. A lot of things that a coach can’t say all the time with emotions and expressions, he does.”
SHARP SHOOTER
But Derek doesn’t make his living in the post and he showed flashes on Thursday of why he is still feared as one of the more clutch shooters in the game.
With Kobe Bryant beginning to heat up in the first quarter, the Magic began trying to throw more pressure his way. But Kobe trusts in Derek to make a shot and Fish delivered. With less than four minutes to go in the first, Kobe obtained the rebound off his own miss.
Being the player that he is, Kobe looked to penetrate drawing three defenders. Rather than going for the bucket, Kobe kicked it out to D-Fish. Alston raced out to cover Derek on the perimeter, causing Derek to wisely pass up a three. Instead, Fish gave Alston a head fake, then drove, pulled up and drained a jumper from the top corner of the key.
After the play, ABC’s Mark Jackson praised Derek’s shot selection:
“I like that. He’s a knock down shooter, but that time he didn’t fall in love with the three. The shot fake gets a better shot.”
But D-Fish wouldn’t be denied a chance from beyond the arc later in the half.
No. 2 reentered in the second quarter with the Lakers in the midst of a 6-0 run to take a 34-33 lead. Kobe pushed the run to 10 and the lead to five with back-to-back buckets, but the Magic cut into it by a point when Dwight Howard sank a free throw.
The Lakers drove back down looking for more and Kobe once again used dribble penetration to get D-Fish a look.
As Kobe went to drive the hole, he caught a glimpse of Derek all alone in the corner. Kobe rose over the defenders and delivered a two-handed pass to Fish, who loaded up and drained a three over the outstretched hand of Jameer Nelson to give the Lakers a seven-point lead, their largest of the game to that point.
Fish took only one shot in the second half, a missed jumper in the first two minutes, and he finished the game 2-3 on jumpers and 2-3 on layups.
MORE LOOKS IN GAME TWO?
Given Kobe Bryant’s 40-point game one explosion, it can be expected that the Magic will focus more of their defense on Kobe in game two on Sunday. This could be a blessing for Fish who made the most of the limited looks he received on Thursday night.
If the Magic double-team Kobe in game two, as anticipated, it will leave someone open on the perimeter. If that player is D-Fish and game one’s small sample size is any indication, it could be another long night for Orlando.
IMPACT DEFENDER
While Derek made several contributions on the offensive end, his defensive impact on the Magic’s point guard tandem of Jameer Nelson and Rafer Alston cannot be denied.
Alston and Nelson combined to score just 12 points on 5-18 shooting, with Derek playing the role of stopper for 32 of the game’s 48 minutes. Fish delivered a plus-minus of +22.
“Defensively his effort was outstanding,” Kobe Bryant said of his teammate D-Fish.
D-NOTES
Among the things the Lakers are looking to accomplish in this series, one that stands paramount is getting coach Phil Jackson to the top of the coaching mountain.
With a victory in these Finals, Phil would claim his 10th championship as an NBA coach, passing Red Auerbach for the most of all time.
And as Derek notes in a quote in USA Today, it’s something Phil is yearning for as much as he and Kobe are:
“Lakers guard Derek Fisher looks at his coach, and the first thing he notices is “much less hair” but “more enthusiasm.”
“He’s as excited about a Finals as I’ve seen him in a long time,” Fisher said. “I think he misses the days of carrying off that trophy.”
THE VIEW FROM HOME
In an article for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Doug Crise takes a look at Derek through the eyes of No. 2’s supporters at his alma-mater the University of Arkansas Little Rock:
“Fisher is president of the NBA Players Association and has been active in his support of UALR, meeting with the university’s men’s and women’s basketball teams on West Coast road trips.
“I have never worked at an institution where you’ve had someone on the national scene maintain such a humble and sincere love for his institution,” UALR Athletic Director Chris Peterson said. “You can’t buy that kind of image.”
NEXT UP
The Lakers will look to finish off the first home-stretch of the Finals by taking a commanding 2-0 lead when they host the Magic in game two of the NBA Finals on Sunday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. PST and all the action can be seen live on ABC.
RELATED STORIES
Magic at Lakers Box Score (NBA.com, June 4, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/games/20090604/ORLLAL/boxscore.html
Game 1 postgame quotes (LA Times Lakers Blog, June 5, 2009)
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