During the Lakers run of three straight NBA championships, he was often known as the Lakers' third option or third best player. That didn't mean much though, considering after Shaq and Kobe, there wasn't much there. Although he had hit a few key shots along the way, he was never given any credit, and why should he have? After all, Shaq and Kobe, and the big shots Robert Horry supplied, were the elements that brought three titles to La La land. But not this time...
Derek Fisher was the man of the hour, er, man of the fractions of a second, for the Lakers. After hitting one of the most unbelievable shots with only .4 seconds left, he darted off the court in truimph. The play was obviously not drawn up for Fisher, but Payton could not get the ball into Bryant and was forced to unload the ball to Derek Fisher. Manu Ginobli played great defense and contested the shot as well as anyone could have, but it simply wasn't enough.
Last year, in the second round and in game 5, the Lakers fell short on a buzzer-beating 3-point attempt by Robert Horry. This year, Horry missed the big shot again, only this time for the Spurs. With under a minute to go, and the Spurs up 71-70, Horry had a wide open look and missed badly. On the Lakers' ensuing possesion, Bryant hit a long jumper to put the Lakers back on top, where they would eventually finish. The whole series, everyone has been waiting to see if Horry would come back to haunt his old team and make a big shot like he has done so many times in his career. So far, it hasn't happened for Horry, and the Spurs find themselves in a 3-2 hole after dropping the last 3 games.
It will take a valiant and giant effort from the Spurs to win in LA, where they have been beaten badly the past two times, and force a game 7. Coming off this heartbreaking loss, it will be hard to imagine the Spurs, who have a history of being thought of as a mentally soft team, being able to get back into this series. The Spurs do have something to be optimistic about though. For the first time in 11 quarters, dating back from the first quarter of game 3, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan seem to have gotten their rhythm back. Their defense also came alive in the 4th quarter of game 5. The Spurs will need to duplicate that performance for all of game 6 in LA if they plan to stay away from having to go fishin'.
