Fisher Sends Message to Teammates: It’s Gonna Take Toughness to Win This Series

It’s perhaps too easy to look at Lakers/Rockets as a clash between two opposites, or what would happen if you split the world’s greatest basketball team right down the middle and had them scrimmage. But at some points during last night’s game, you’d catch all five Rockets flexing their muscles in the lane, and most of the Lakers doing something or other around the perimeter. Los Angeles has so much skill on its roster, it’s almost absurd; with the exception of Aaron Brooks, Houston is an exercise in blunt force.↵
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↵On Monday, and during any number of possessions last night -- most of them involving Ron Artest or Carl Landry -- it looked like this might be the Lakers’ undoing. Even with Yao Ming riding the pine with foul trouble, the Rockets just seemed bigger, stronger, and more willing to mix it up than the Lakers. Even with Kobe shooting the lights out in the first quarter, since at some point, someone else had to do something.↵
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↵That’s when Derek Fisher decided to speak up. After the Game One loss, some were saying that it was time for the speedier Jordan Farmar to get more minutes, since Fisher was having such trouble keeping up with Brooks. This time, Fisher provided perhaps the key play of the series, cracking Luis Scola and cutting his own head in the process. It got him ejected, and forced Phil Jackson to go with his youngsters down the stretch. But it also showed that the Lakers weren’t going to be intimidated, got Kobe even more fired up, and had last year’s MVP throwing cheap shots at Artest that had the latter trying to fight.↵
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↵As the series goes to Houston tied 1-1, with any number of players possibly facing suspensions, a lot is up in the air. It’s pretty clear, though, that the Lakers recognize that it’s going to take toughness to get past the Rockets, and by extension, to win a title. Maybe only Fisher and Bryant are capable of bringing that to the table, and Bynum if he gets steady. But even if Fisher misses this next one, he’s responsible for sending a wake-up call to the Rockets -- and his own teammates.↵