Fisher Determined to Challenge Defense

Derek Fisher went into Tuesday’s game shooting a career-best 40.2% from the three-point arc, 20th in the NBA and up from last season’s 39.7%. He had made 35% in his career.

For the first time, however, Fisher is going to the basket a few times a game. Though his success rate is low--he never gets a foul call and often has his shot blocked--Fisher said he’s not stopping now.

“That’s very important,” he said. “Even if those shots don’t go in, they’re still a part of my game. If I go to the hole two or three or four times, just getting the feel of the ball sometimes helps me stay in rhythm.”

In the final week of the regular season, Coach Phil Jackson is feeling for a point-guard rotation, a mix of Fisher, Lindsey Hunter and Brian Shaw. Even so, Kobe Bryant often handles the ball, particularly against pressing teams.

So, Fisher sometimes plays most of the fourth quarter and sometimes plays none of it.

“I think he’s comfortable waiting until there are five, four or three minutes to go, that he has the confidence that I’ll be able to control the tempo of the game,” Fisher said.

Jackson said he’s leaned toward Hunter when he needs a quicker defender.

“I like Lindsey playing small guards,” Jackson said. “I like him tracking guys coming off screens and chasing through picks, those type of things. Not so much having to do with the lead guard role as much as defensively.”

The most-valuable-player ballots are out and due in 10 days, leading Shaquille O’Neal to think back to his glorious 1999-2000 season, when he won his MVP award.

“Yeah, an [idiot] [messed] around and [messed] up history,” he said. “Print that.”

CNN’s Fred Hickman voted for Allen Iverson, standing between O’Neal and the first unanimous MVP selection.

With five games left in the regular season and O’Neal taking treatment on a sprained wrist and arthritic toe, Jackson was asked what he expected of his center in the final days.

“Forty points, 15 rebounds, five blocks a game,” he said. “That’s what we need.”

Is that realistic?

“I don’t know why it isn’t,” he said.

Jackson, on the competitiveness of the Western Conference playoffs: “The way the balance is in the first six teams--I’m not going to count on Seattle or Utah--anybody can get bumped off in the first round.”