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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 11, 2009

Derek Fisher

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Four

Los Angeles Lakers - 99
Orlando Magic - 91

Q. What would you rank this win for you in your personal career and the shot you made tonight? Where would you rank that in your big-shot category?
DEREK FISHER: Maybe 100, 101, something like that (laughter). No, I mean, obviously coming off of 20 minutes ago, it's at the top. You know, personally, experience in the last couple years and leaving this team and coming back and play with this particular group of guys, it ranks right up there at the top. You know, even greater than 0.4 because I feel like we're as close as possible to what our end goal is.
We know we still have work to do, and we've got to be ready to go come Sunday.

Q. You hadn't made one all night --
DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I know.

Q. And then you make two of the biggest shots of the game. How does that happen?
DEREK FISHER: Just, you know, recognizing why I was missing the ones that I missed in the first half and earlier in that second half and continuing to understand that I'm capable. You know, I have a responsibility to my team that if I'm going to be on the floor, then I have to make a difference.
Not of us can continue at times to just expect that Kobe is going to save us. We have to be willing to take blame, responsibility, accountability, and when things go well as well as bad. I felt bad because Pau was kicking it out to me for some wide-open threes that I was missing, and I promised him that I was not going to miss those shots anymore, even though Kobe was the guy to pass it to me, the last one I hit, I thanked Pau for warming up my elbow because the ones I was missing early, I wasn't supposed to miss.

Q. You didn't have much of a reaction after the one in regulation, but after the one in overtime you smiled. Why was that?
DEREK FISHER: You know, I just sensed that was the dagger. That was the one that would put us in a position to close out the game, even though the game wasn't over at that point. You know, the one in regulation, there are 4.6 seconds left. You know you have to get a spot. Best case scenario is you have five minutes left to play, and a world of things can happen in that five minutes, so I didn't want to become overconfident, and I know that my teammates are also looking at my responses when things go well as well as when they're going bad. I just wanted to make sure I stayed in the right place knowing that overtime was in front of us, but then once I hit the second one, it was hard to contain at that point.

Q. You've been a part of the Lakers' team throughout most of the 2000s, this decade. Talk about making shots, big shots like Robert Horry did. Can you compare your shots tonight to Robert Horry's? Is it something Phil does? How do you guys have the ability to do this?
DEREK FISHER: No, I definitely don't compare myself to Robert Horry. I'm quite a few rings shy of where he stands. He's in his own category.
I do think some of it is -- some of the credit does belong outside of myself in terms of my teammates, also Phil, and just the way that he's willing to stick with certain people that he believes can help get the job done and that it's not always about statistically what is this guy going to bring to the table. But when this guy or these guys are on the floor together, as a coach he's confident in those five guys' ability to win a game.
We had that type of group before where it was myself and Kobe and Robert and Rick Fox and Shaq. Those were the five guys that I don't care what time or who we were playing, those were the five guys that were going to finish a game. With Trevor Ariza's development, we have those five guys now that consist of Pau, Lamar, myself, Kobe, Trevor, when the game is on the line, more times than not those are the five guys you're going to see out there.

Q. Can you trace back to the regulation three? Coming out of the huddle who was the play designed for? And at what point did you start thinking "shoot"?
DEREK FISHER: I'm sure you know who the play was designed for (laughter), so the ball will always be in Kobe's hands down the stretch, unless the defense does something to take it away.
They threw a couple guys at him in the backcourt. He still was able to get the ball inbounds but they trapped him. That held him back, he kicked it up to Trevor, and he kicked it up to me. Initially I didn't catch the ball cleanly so I wanted to make sure I gained controlled of the ball, checked the clock really quick. As I continued to kind of dribble, one dribble, two dribbles, three dribbles, I noticed Jameer was backing up and backing up, and I decided to go up and shoot really right before because I felt like I had the space and he wasn't close enough to deter me from shooting. And just in that split second I made the decision, and I think that worked out better for me as opposed to in my mind thinking on the catch I'm going to go down and shoot the ball. It was just a situation that I read as I got into what I felt like was a scoring position.

Q. You took some heat earlier in this postseason. You've taken unusual heat about he's too old, too this, too that. Did you hear it and how you did you react to it?
DEREK FISHER: I've heard different versions of it. Now it's age, before it was other things in terms of not being able to shoot or not tall enough or whatever the case was, and so. I've always used those things as motivation to work even harder and try to be better than I was before. You know, I think what has really allowed me to continue to remain confident and play better as things have gone on has really been the support of friends and family who have thought of me, prayed for me, but the guys on this team are just unbelievable. They ride with me, good or bad, so I'll just continue to want to really thank them or reward them by continuing to show the confidence that I need to show when I'm out there on the floor.

Q. Hindsight always being 20/20, 11 seconds left in regulation, Magic up by three. If you were on the Magic's team, would you have fouled on the inbounds pass to prevent somebody from hitting a three like you did?
DEREK FISHER: I don't know if initially on the catch you foul because you don't want to leave too much time on the clock to have the two free throws, still only be up one, and then we come back and foul right away and kind of turn it into a free throw-shooting contest. I think they do have one or two guys that are high-percentage free-throw shooters but not everybody on their team is a high-percentage free-throw shooter, so I don't know if fouling too early would have been something that I wanted to do.
At the same time, I do think they thought of it, and that's why we decided to take the ball out at three-quarter court as opposed to advancing the ball up into the half court because we felt like in the half court, as soon as you throw it in, they're going to foul, because right away you can catch.
So it ended up, like you said, hindsight being 20/20, it ended up being a smarter decision. But it's just a tough play to make, to be honest, guys. I know everybody always writes about that or has statements about they should have fouled or shouldn't have fouled him. As a player, it's just a tough play to try to time up, split second, to foul a guy before he's in the act of shooting. But more times than not, in recent memory at least, teams are starting to get burned with it. I'll leave you guys to debate whether he should have or not. We'll take the win and we'll get out.

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