Lakers Drop Game 2 in LA

//Lakers Drop Game 2 in LA

Lakers Drop Game 2 in LA

By | 2016-10-22T05:57:47-08:00 May 5th, 2011|News|Comments Off on Lakers Drop Game 2 in LA

The Lakers’ hole just got a little bit deeper and the defending champions will have to overcome all of the odds to win their third straight title.

Los Angeles dropped its second straight game at home on Wednesday night, falling 93-81 in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers now trail Dallas 2-0 in the best-of seven series, which shifts to Dallas on Friday night for Game 3. Derek Fisher knows it won’t be an easy comeback.

"It’s not a great place to be," he told the Orange County Register. "(We have) a big uphill climb to make from here."


The Lakers find themselves in an unexpected spot after two games (Getty Images).

That climb was necessitated by the mistakes of Game 2. The Lakers shot just 41 percent from the field and hit just 2-of-20 attempts from beyond the arc. Derek came up empty on his two attempts from deep, but with his shot not falling, D-Fish again brought his passing to Game 2. 

He finished with five assists and now has 11 assists in the Lakers’ first two games. To go with his five assists, he added four points, three rebounds and two steals.

Fish assisted on the game’s first play, finding Ron Artest for a long two. Midway through the frame, he hit Andrew Bynum for a basket. Fish had a quiet second before assisting Pau Gasol on back-to-back plays in the third. He then hit a layup and found Kobe Bryant for a bucket, cutting the Mavericks lead to just two points. 

Dallas pulled away in the fourth though and Fish said the problem for the Lakers was the little things.

"We’re making too many mistakes at this time of the year," he said, providing an example. "You can’t miss nine free throws when you are already struggling."

Derek added that while the Lakers were obviously feeling frustrated, they couldn’t let that affect their play.

"You can expect all our guys to be frustrated after a game like tonight. That’s something we talked about, the whole season. The only way we are going to win a championship, offensively and defensively we

[have to] trust the system."

That includes trusting each other, which center Andrew Bynum pointed out as a downfall in Game 2. Derek said it’s a matter of communicating with one another.

"We trust what we’re trying to run," he said. "Defensively we’re working hard, we’re helping each other, we’re talking to each other. I didn’t hear what [Bynum] said, but I can’t assume that he’s trying to call anybody out or say that we have a problem on our team. I just think he’s expressing what all of us feel a little bit right now, that we have to stay together and remain strong as a team and not start to point fingers at each other."

RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER
While No. 2 is solely focused on the playoffs, he knows that as soon as the season is over, he’ll be communicating the needs of the entire league.
 
With the NBA collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the conclusion of this year’s Finals, Derek, the president of the Players’ Association, said the players are beginning to assess what it will take to get a deal done.

"We want to get a deal done," he said. "NBA basketball has never been more popular and we don’t see any reason why it should stop.

"With the recent news that Round 1 ratings are at an all-time high, the popularity of the game globally has never been higher, we have to work to keep this going in the right direction," Fisher said. "I will continue to urge our players to be prepared in the event of a lockout, but will remain steadfast in my efforts to drive this process forward."

The players received a proposal from the owners this week, but Derek said it was mostly similar to the last proposal from the owners.

"Unfortunately, the proposal is very similar to the proposal the league submitted over a year ago," union president Derek Fisher told ESPN.com. "This last proposal doesn’t look close to what we were expecting.

"We are taking a close look at each piece of the proposal, and I along with my players and executive committee will be determining what next steps best move this process forward. "I continue to work on this daily, take this very seriously, and have a responsibility to my players to try and get a deal done."

Fish told Steven A. Smith on ESPN Radio last week that he’s acutely aware of what’s going on with the NFL and their current labor strife:

"I think the NFL situation, everyone in the NBA, whether it’s the players’ side or the owners’ side, is watching the situation very closely. There’s a lot of differences between the two sports, in terms of how some of these legal decisions will be made, but there are enough similarities to where how this NFL situation plays out will definitely have an impact on the way that the NBA can negotiate and the way that the Player’s Association can negotiate in response."

At the same time, Derek remains hopeful that the NBA players don’t have to take their fight to the courts like the NFL did, he told ESPN:

"We’re really trying to stay focused on the proposals," he said. "For us, decertification is never something that you want to do — it’s not a strategy like that. It’s more a decision you make when your hand is forced and there isn’t another option to try to save the season."

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