When the moment is there to be seized, Derek Fisher always seems to be ready to grasp it.
Fish had his biggest game of the 2012 postseason on Sunday night, knocking down his first six shots on the way to a 6-of-8 evening. He finished with 13 points, two assists and a steal, but the Spurs put a damper on Derek’s superb effort with a 101-98 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
"I love to play, so whatever it takes for us to win I’m going to do," Derek said. "Tonight it was not enough."
Derek had 13 points, but the Thunder dropped Game 1 (Getty Images).
But it was after the game when D-Fish did perhaps his most important work, counseling teammates on how important it is to move on from a loss like they experienced in Game 1 and regroup so things don’t start to snowball.
"It’s tough to put together a perfect game," he told the San Antonio Express-News. "It is a long series and we just have to continue to play and not get too high or low in one particular game in a series. This is a good team we are playing and they showed some mental toughness tonight being able to battle back, so now it is our turn."
The Thunder held a lead in Game 1 by as many as nine points. They played particularly well in the second quarter, turning a six-point deficit after one into a halftime lead. The second also happened to be Derek’s best quarter. He played just over eight minutes and scored nine of his 13 points in the frame.
After opening the quarter with a jumper to cut the San Antonio lead to four, he struck again to knock it down to four with 8:37 left in the half. The shot sparked an 8-3 run that Fish capped with a 21-footer to pull OKC within one-point of a tie. They finally tied the score with 46.9 to go in the half on a Kevin Durant jumper and Derek followed with a trey to put OKC up 47-44 with 11.9 to go. They went into halftime with a 47-46 lead.
Fish added another bucket in the third as the Thunder stretched their lead to nine entering the fourth, but San Antonio surged back to start the fourth, opening the quarter on a 15-3 run to take the lead for good.
"How it happened is irrelevant. Whether we lose by 20 or lose by one, we lost the game and we will hopefully come back and figure out a way to get Tuesday night’s game," Derek said after the loss. "It’s not so much about how you play a particular quarter, but just finding ways to win. In the fourth quarter they did a better job of it last night and in order for us to win, that will have to be us."
OKC players value the words of D-Fish as much as they do their coach (Getty Images).
Derek believes that in that fourth quarter the Thunder were forced out of the type of play they are best at and never made the adjustments needed to get back to it.
"My first thought is that we did not move the ball as well offensively," he said. "We got stagnant and the ball stopped moving. We had some breakdowns on the defensive end and they scored points from the free throw line and from the paint. Those are things we cannot allow a really good basketball team to do, so we have to make some adjustments and improvements over the next few days."
Fish did plenty of talking between games and according to reserve guard Royal Ivey, his teammates were listening intently.
"He’s been to the pinnacle and back," Ivey told the Express-News. "He’s had all those big moments in his career that guys like Kevin and Russ want. You want that manuscript."
To watch Derek talk more about Game 1 and getting ready for Game 2, click here:
NEXT UP
The Spurs enter Tuesday’s Game 2 on a 19-game winning streak that stems back 10 games into the regular season. But Derek believes that the Thunder can’t worry about things like back going into tonight’s game.
"We still believe in who we are and what we can do," he said. "We’ll prepare ourselves for
[tonight] and try to get a win in this building."After shootaround today, Derek went 1-on-1 with broadcaster Grant Long to break down the upcoming matchup. Click here to watch Derek’s breakdown.
Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals tips from the AT&T Center in San Antonio at 8 p.m. CDT and can be seen on TNT.
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