Fish Trey Sets Off Game 4 Rally

//Fish Trey Sets Off Game 4 Rally

Fish Trey Sets Off Game 4 Rally

By | 2012-05-21T18:55:58-08:00 May 21st, 2012|News|Comments Off on Fish Trey Sets Off Game 4 Rally

Every rally starts somewhere.

For the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night, the rally that propelled them to a 103-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers and a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals started with a man known for ending them in his career: Derek Fisher.


Derek’s trey with just under eight minutes to go helped to spark an OKC rally (Getty Images).

With eight minutes to go in Game 4, the Lakers had just pushed their lead to 13 on a jumper by Jordan Hill — the man that Derek was traded for back in March. Fish answered with a trey 17 seconds later, cutting the Laker lead back to 10. It was a simple shot. One that, isolated on its own, might not stand out. But for OKC it was a kick-starter.

"That’s what he does. That’s who he is," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks told the Oklahoman. "He loves the game, he has passion for the game and he’s a winner. I can never emphasize that enough. He’s a winner and you can never have enough of those on your team. That shot was huge."

Derek exited the game shortly after making the shot, ending his night with five points on 2-of-4, a rebound, an assist and a steal. He watched from the bench — cheering his teammates on and getting up to greet them during every stoppage — as the Thunder began to rally.

"His leadership, you can’t put a win total on it, but you know the effect it’s having on our guys," Brooks said. "He talks. He communicates. He’s a great leader."

By the seven-minute mark Oklahoma City had the Los Angeles lead down to nine. Over the next two minutes, Russell Westbrook took over and trimmed it down to four with 4:54 to go. The Lakers were stunned.

"Our guys really did a good job of fighting, not giving up and making basketball-winning plays after another," Brooks said. "We all challenged each other at halftime and we came out better in the second half."

A couple of Kevin Durant free throws with just less than three minutes to go made it a two-point game and one minute later, when Durant knocked down a fadeaway jumper, the score was tied. Shortly thereafter, Kendrick Perkins putback a Westbrook miss to give the Thunder the lead.

Derek’s triple had spawned a 17-5 run to the front. Though the Lakers would tie it on a couple of Kobe Bryant free throws, OKC never trailed the rest of the way. Durant put the hammer down when he buried a triple from 26-feet with 13.9 seconds to go. Bryant’s try at a trey of his own missed and James Harden closed out the win at the free throw line.

"The win was an amazing win," Westbrook said. "You know, everybody kept fighting, we all believed in each other."

NEXT UP
It’s back to OKC for Game 5 on Monday night as the Thunder look to close out the series and set up a Western Conference Finals match-up with the San Antonio Spurs. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CDT and the game can be seen on TNT.

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