Lakers Hold Off Celtics’ Late Charge Thanks To Fisher’s 11 4th Quarter Points

Throughout the season, many Lakers fans were apprehensive about Derek Fisher’s place on the roster. His game was clearly declining on both ends of the floor. He was taking poor shots and was often powerless to stop quick guards on defense.

But as he did last year, Fisher has shown in the playoffs that he has some gas left in the tank. He’s been outstanding as the Lakers have made their run to the Finals, and after saving them last night with several timely buckets in the fourth quarter, it’s probably time for many of those Lakers fans to admit that they might have been wrong to doubt him. (If it helps, I, a non-Lakers fan, will do the same).

Fisher, like Bryant, going after his fifth championship ring, made 5-of-7 shots from the field in the final quarter.

Kevin Garnett scored 25 points for the Celtics, who also received 15 points from Paul Pierce. Boston had six turnovers in the last quarter after having just four combined over the first three periods.

I don’t know if I’m ready to say Kobe Bryant is a better player than LeBron James. Kobe has so many built-in advantages that LeBron has never had. He has a coach that knows how to use him correctly, a big man that is both unbelievably skilled and willing to defer, a surrounding group of strong-willed role players who won’t take his BS and a front office that won’t let him walk all over them. So while it’s tempting, I won’t do it, not until I see LeBron in a better situation than the 2003-2010 versions of the Cavaliers.

But I will say this: if there’s something that this playoffs has proved, it’s this: Kobe knows just when to unleash his full arsenal so much better than LeBron. So many of us expected him to come out of the gate quickly, including Magic Johnson. So many of us, including me, expected him to break the Triangle early and often. Instead, he made sure the Lakers ran the offense early, and when the time came late in the first half, he pounced. He shifted gears and allowed the Lakers to maintain their lead.

Pro Basketball Talk puts it best: “ The Lakers need to make baskets to slow down the Celtics in transition. Which is the exact opposite of the 1980s.”

Apparently, Derek Fisher can’t shoot pull-up jumpers off one foot. Who knew?

I’ve railed against the ABC pregame show before. Here, I’ll do it again:

Alright, gametime. Here’s hoping Jeff Van Gundy stays on topic and Mark Jackson decides to be silent. I know, I’m asking for a lot there.

Howdy folks. Mike Prada here, and I’ll be providing serious and non-so-serious commentary on tonight’s pivotal NBA Finals Game 3. A fair warning: I will probably do a lot of complaining about the announcers, Rasheed Wallace and Ron Artest. The latter two bother me when they play basketball.

(Not off the court, mind you, because Artest is awesome there).

For the first time since 2004, the NBA Finals are tied at one-apiece, and we’ve got a Finals where we legitimately don’t know who’s going to win. Thank God.

Headed back to Boston, there are a few key changes that we could see in this series. For one thing, we go back to the subplot mentioned in my NBA Finals Preview. The 2-3-2 series format. As I said then, in 25 years with the current format, the team playing three straight at home has swept those games only twice (DET in ‘04, MIA in ‘06). With one of the more evenly-matched series in years, the odds of the Celtics becoming the third team to do it are pretty slim. So what’s the goal, then?