OKLAHOMA CITY – In the quiet of the near-empty Thunder locker room, as the last player to leave after the Monday victory that sent Oklahoma City to the Western Conference final, Derek Fisher passed on the chance to make noise. He would help beat the Lakers, but he would not bash them.
“It obviously feels good to advance and beat anybody we face,” he said.
Except that it wasn’t anybody this time. It was the team that dealt him at the trade deadline in a shock to Fisher and most around the Lakers. It was the organization that felt it needed to replace him for an upgrade at point guard and then needed to move him to clear a wide berth for Ramon Sessions to be the successor.
Surely this was not just another victory for a player who has known many.
“If I came here just to beat the Lakers, then maybe so,” Fisher said. “But the idea was to come here and have an opportunity to win a championship. That journey is still in front of us. We’ll keep working at it.”
HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Before anyone else in Los Angeles points another finger at Pau Gasol, Mike Brown, Ramon Sessions or any of the other convenient scapegoats in the wake of a second straight second-round playoff exit, look in the mirror.
Stare long and hard and ask yourself if you didn’t see this coming. Didn’t you realize last season, when Andrew Bynumwas heading to visitor’s locker room in Dallas without his jersey, that this team was fatally flawed and had no chance of overcoming its own internal obstacles?
Like an aging heavyweight champ who gets K.O.’d in his last bout and then comes back into the ring the next time without truly understanding what went wrong, the Lakers got popped against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. This time, it came by believing in their ability to overcome any obstacle with sheer talent alone.
Avoiding the sweep this time around shouldn’t ease the sting for Lakers fans, either. They knew (better than most) what they saw from this group during last season’s semifinal flame-out against the Mavericks exposed the team’s flaws.
Why would anyone, Kobe Bryant included, be surprised at Gasol’s struggles against the Thunder when you saw him crumble against the Mavericks?
You replaced a living legend in Phil Jackson with a good coach in Brown, but if Jackson couldn’t get this team over the proverbial hump in his final season, why would anyone assume Brown would be capable of pulling it off now? And Sessions was supposed to be the anti-Derek Fisher — a younger, more athletically gifted point guard capable of matching up better against the league’s younger and more athletic guards. He proved to be just as ill-equipped to handle Russell Westbrook as Fisher would have been.
This is a mess of the Lakers’ own making, whether they admit it or not. They are the ones that tossed Jackson’s hand-picked successor, Brian Shaw, aside in favor of Brown. They saw the cracks in their foundation and opted for some instant sealant instead of legit fixes.
HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – A 13-point deficit in a hostile environment, with a close-out opportunity fading away with every empty possession, would have worried most teams heading into the fourth quarter.
But not the Oklahoma City Thunder. And certainly not James Harden, the Thunder’s mercurial sixth man who came to the rescue and delivered the Thunder’s 103-97 series-clinching Game 4 win over the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night at American Airlines Center with a staggering 29-point performance that included virtuoso work in the crucial minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Thunder not only swept the defending champs out of the playoffs for the second straight year (the Mavericks got the Lakers in the Western Conference semis a year ago), they also became the first team in this postseason to punch their ticket to the second round, where they await the winner of the Lakers-Nuggets series.
Perhaps even more important in their own locker room, however, is that they vanquished the team that ended their dream run in the conference finals last year by schooling the young upstarts in the art of closing out playoff games.
“We learned a lot [from that series],” said Thunder All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, whose lockdown defense on Mavericks sixth man Jason Terry helped turn the series in his team’s favor. “We learned that we had to come back this season with a lot more toughness.”
And they did!
It’s far too early to crown the Thunder as anything but the first team to move on to the next round. But they showed resilience, some toughness and some maturity that many people wondered if they possessed after seeing the Mavericks take them apart in that five-game series last year.
“They’re a great young team,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “They have a certain look in their eye right now, not only that they belong but that this could be their time. I’m sure the addition of [Derek] Fisher has something to do with that. But they came at us like a buzzsaw in the fourth quarter … they’re going to be tough to beat.”
DENVER – Game 3 of Lakers-Nuggets is a few hours away at Pepsi Center on a beautiful day around the Rocky Mountains, and the building subplot isn’t far behind: Derek Fisher against his old team and, more to the emotional point, Derek Fisher against his old backcourt running mate.
Kobe Bryant does not love the idea. But with Fisher and the Thunder in complete control of their first-round series against the Mavericks and the Lakers in position to take the same 3-0 lead against the Nuggets tonight, Los Angeles vs. Oklahoma City in the Western Conference semifinals is quickly moving from likely to inevitable.
Bryant obviously wants the second round. And he may even want the Thunder, the young opponent that has been trying to push the Lakers into a retirement home for years, the opponent that spent most of the regular season as West favorites.
But looking forward to facing Fisher, a close friend and confidant?
Not so much.
“I’d be a little torn,” Bryant told NBA.com. “I’ve always wanted to see him do well, I’m always pulling for him and so forth. But at the same time, being great friends, somebody has to win and I’d rather it be me.”
Bryant admitting that much – that he would be torn – is a rare side of the superstar shooting guard who thirsts for competition. But the situation is that unique, the way they came into the league together with the Lakers, won titles together, became trusted teammates in the way Bryant trusted few from any part of his life, and now the way Fisher was traded to Houston as the pair was beginning to line up another playoff run.
Fisher reached a buyout with the Rockets and signed with the Thunder to back up Russell Westbrook at point guard. Bryant, meanwhile, had to move forward without him, although with hopes of getting Fisher to re-sign with the Lakers in the summer. Even now, even though they had been separated once before, it seems weird to Bryant to be at this stage without Fisher.
“It is,” he said. “It’s different. I find myself having to do the bulk of the speaking and things like that about certain things here and there. Normally it would be something he would say. It’s definitely different.”
Just nothing like the feelings if (when) he faces Fisher in the next round.
HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Don’t let the designer Poindexter glasses fool you. Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook see just fine.
They can see through the playoff matrix already, just three trips into the postseason in their young careers.
Clearly, the Thunder do not plan on waiting their turn. They also won’t be deferring to their elders, as their 95-79 Game 3 destruction of the defending champion Mavericks Thursday night at American Airlines Center serves as proof.
Durant’s shooting touch came back — he had 15 points 12 minutes in — was 8-for-10 and had 21 points by halftime and finished with a game-high 31 points. Westbrook did as he pleased and the Mavericks still do not have anyone on the roster capable of shutting him down. And the Thunder, from Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison up front to James Harden, Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha in the backcourt, are proving that they are the deeper, stronger, more resilient and a just plain better team.
“We wanted to focus on being solid, keeping it simple, hit singles and not home runs and I thought we did that,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “That’s important, because sometimes we get a little excited. And that’s good, because they are very excitable. But when we talk about playing our basketball and improving everyday, we have to think simple. Sometimes it’s challenging to coach simple with our guys but it’s important to focus on that.”
A 3-0 hole in a playoff series is the ticket for any team to get off the postseason ride, even the defending champs. The Mavericks know this better than anyone, having handed the same ticket to the Lakers last year in the Western Conference semifinals.
Now here they are, 48 minutes away from the same fate.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – On days like Thursday, when the shades to the second-floor office of Jeanie Buss — the Lakers’ executive vice president of business operations — are open, 10 gold championship trophies shine down on the court at the practice facility. At home games, the title banners hang prominently on an inside wall at one end of Staples Center.
Ramon Sessions notices. Not that he needed much reminding of playoff expectations after he arrived from Cleveland in a trade-deadline deal, but the pressure of delivering in the postseason has been hammered home. Little that happens in the previous months matter.
Sessions is in the playoffs for the first time anywhere as his career moves to a unique level of pressure because he replaces a point guard known for postseason clutch. That was the thing with Derek Fisher — he could drive Lakers fans mad with poor shooting and susceptible defense the first 82 games and still head into summer a hero.
OKLAHOMA CITY – What is it about Derek Fisher this time of year?
For years the veteran point guard point guard made himself a presence in Los Angeles, helping the Lakers win five championships during his two stints with the team. When the Thunder signed the veteran free agent in March, they did so hoping he could provide the sort of clutch play and leadership ability that has become his trademark.
And Fisher did exactly that in the Thunder’s 102-99 Game 2 win over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. He scored 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including a couple of his trademark clutch shots when the Thunder needed them most. His buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter helped kick-start a surge that led to the Thunder’s 16-point lead.
Even bigger was his corner 3-pointer with 5:26, a dagger that pushed the Thunder lead to 92-88, the largest lead either team would enjoy in the final five-minutes of the game.
“Derek did a great job of giving us that spark off the bench, knocking down shots, playing tremendous defense and playing hard,” Kevin Durant said. “This is what we expect from him every night.”
With a solid bench scoring punch from Fisher and sixth man supreme James Harden (15 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals), the Thunder was able to offset yet another choppy shooting effort from Durant, who was just 5-for-17 from the floor but 14-for-16 from the free throw line.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Four or five more like this and the winner of this Thunder-Mavericks series might need help getting out of the bed for Western Conference semifinals.
Their budding rivalry has suddenly turned physical, nasty even, with shoulder shrugs and forearms from Dirk Nowitzki and Kendrick Perkins early (see above), marking their latest episode.
The Thunder emerged from the rubble to claim their second straight narrow win over the Mavericks Tuesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, surviving 102-99 on free throws in the final minute from Kevin Durant and James Harden. Durant made two with 50.4 seconds left and Harden hit four more foul shots to close it out for the Thunder, who had to rally for the win after leading by as many as 16 points early.
Russell Westbrook, who torched the Mavericks for the second straight game, finished with a team-high 29 points to carry the Thunder. Durant finished with 26 and 10 rebounds, but is just 15-for-44 from the floor in these first two games.
“We knew these guys were going to play physical, they are a physical team,” Durant said. “The refs did a great job of letting us play. We just have to continue to take that punch from them and do a great job of sticking together. Games like these in the playoffs are going to get chippy.”
CHICAGO – Serious men tackling significant issues. That’s how some past leaders of the National Basketball Players Association view their group’s history, and that’s why the current power struggle within the union is so troubling to them.
“They’re making too much money,” said Oscar Robertson, a former NBPA president whose lawsuit to prompt free agency in the NBA is nearly as legendary as his Hall of Fame career and triple-double feats. “There are no goals to strive for anymore. They got together and got the collective bargaining agreement resolved. There’s no goals now.”
The CBA that the players and owners ratified in December ended an acrimonious, five-month labor lockout, salvaged a shortened 2011-12 season and got the NBA to eve of what it hopes will be a memorable postseason. The deal also shifted $3 billion from the players to the owners if it runs its full 10-year term, caused factions within the union’s ranks and led to the intramural conflict now between NBPA president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter.
Fisher has asked for an independent audit of the union’s finances and business practices, which allegedly include compensation and opportunities funneled to Hunter’s family members through direct employment and affiliations, according to stories by Yahoo! Sports and the New York Times. The executive committee of eight current and former NBA players responded by voting 8-0 asking for Fisher’s resignation, which the veteran point guard has declined.
It all has bubbled over, in an age of endless media coverage, at an awkward time of year for those involved, putting the union’s business very much in the sports world’s streets. “What bothers me more than anything,” said Robertson, the NPBA president from 1965-74, “if they’ve got a problem, why don’t they settle it within their organization instead of going public with the whole thing? We settled all our problems within.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Embattled players’ union president Derek Fisher said Friday night he would not quit despite the executive board of the National Basketball Players Association requesting his resignation in an 8-0 vote.
“I don’t agree with the executive committee’s decision to ask for my resignation,” the Thunder’s backup point guard said after the 103-92 victory over the Kings at Power Balance Pavilion. “It’s not something that I plan to do. I’m going to continue to push – not just as the president of the Players Association, but as a member of the Players Association – for what I think is the right thing to do. That is simply to take a look at the way we conduct our business, not just our finances, our overall business practices, and try to do a much better job than we have in the past serving our members.”
An internal fight with executive director Billy Hunter spilled into full public view after Fisher pressed to conduct a review of Hunter and the union. Hunter pushed back by rallying support to push Fisher out.
“I’m obviously spending more time on my phone communicating than I would like to be, especially at this point of the season,” Fisher said. “But I also challenge people to think about why I would chose consciously to do that. Normally at this time of year, the one thing that I’ve always wanted to concentrate solely on is helping lead a team to a championship. That’s what I am trying to do here with the Thunder, is to make positive contributions to a great team, and we’re trying to win a championship. That’s what I would really like to focus on solely.
“As I’ve tried to state, if this was just about me, that’s what I would do. I would just concentrate on basketball. But because this is bigger than me, this is bigger than any other one person, it’s really about all players and what’s best for our guys, then I’m willing to take the hits and some of the scrutiny that will come with some of the decisions right now.”
