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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURSMay 24, 2007Derek FisherSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Practice Day Q. You have been around long enough. You probably had streaks where the ball wasn't going in. How does player get going? DEREK FISHER: You have to keep playing and keep looking to be aggressive. I think you get yourself in trouble when you start becoming passive or start kind of stepping away from, not necessarily the spotlight, but opportunities to take advantage of plays. So, you know, against the Spurs, the opportunities and the looks and things, especially for me, have been kind of few and far between. I have had a harder time finding a rhythm. It has been a shot or two here and there. I have to try to establish a rhythm myself. I have to keep making sure I am playing the entire game and not just relying on shots to help the team. Q. Is that because they are better defensively maybe? DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I definitely think that's a big part of it. But I think on top of that, you know, if we're not executing up to par, you know, as far as what we do on the offensive end, then it make it is more difficult for the guys who are kind of in and around Deron, Carlos, Mehmet be effective. So you see Harpring not getting the same opportunities he normally gets. Giricek has not really been able to get good looks and get his shots going. It is more than a one-guy thing right now in terms of offensively not having enough fire power from enough different spots. And a lot of that goes back to sharpening up our execution so that when other guys do get shots, they are good shots and you can step into them and knock them down with confidence. Q. Jerry seemed to hammer home defense. DEREK FISHER: Yeah, he hasn't really had to hammer it home much, I don't think. That is what his job is and we respect it, we understand it. But it is no secret. I have said it both nights after the game. I mean, to let a team as good as the Spurs shoot in the mid 50s from the field, on their home court especially, you are going to have a tough time winning. So, you know, our chances to win Saturday and win this series are going to be built on our defensive play. That's how it was in the first two series, and it will be no different in this series or any team going forward. Defense wins championships and we are playing against a team that has been there before. We have to get that understanding ourselves, no matter how many times the ball is going in and out of the hole offensively, defensively is where you get it done. Q. Is it tough because if Tim has an off game or Tony and Manu can come in and get 30 off the bench. It just seems like you take away two of the weapons, they still have four in other directions. DEREK FISHER: I think that goes for almost every NBA team I can think of. 13 teams off the top of my head, they have six, seven, eight guys where they can give you 30 a night. That's why they are the best basketball players in the world. I think it is not really that, I think it is more so collectively as a team making it hard for them to operate in the space they are operating in, the way they are doing us. We have to get a little bit more physical and a little bit more aggressive in terms of the way we defend, but at the same time trying to do that without fouling so we have opportunities to get out of transition and open the game up a little bit. End of FastScripts |
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