From Lakers' bench

The Lakers' Game 3 victory over the Celtics proved me wrong in so many ways.

My biggest mistake before the NBA Finals started? Losing faith in Derek Fisher. This may be the most tired analogy in history but Kobe's team resembles Jordan's championship teams of the '90s in many, many ways. Fisher is John Paxson and Steve Kerr rolled into one, a player so overlooked by opponents that their lapses almost create the space and therefore those heroic moments that has made Fisher a legend.

At the end of the regular season, I was screaming for the point guard from Arkansas-Little Rock to go home. He was hitting a paltry .380 from the field, .348 from downtown. He was done, kaput, finito. I found his once tolerated shooting motion detestable, his penchant for passing up open shoots proof that he was a shell of the Fisher who made the miraculous Game 5 shot with 0.4 seconds left against the San Antonio Spurs in 2004.