NBA Finals 2012: Why Derek Fisher Must Step Up for the Oklahoma City Thunder

If the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to win the NBA Championship, players not named Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden are going to need to step up.  

Most notably Derek Fisher, who's had a subpar series thus far.   

Fisher, while he is a bench player, is one of the more important players for Oklahoma City.  He's one of just two Thunder players with an NBA championship—Kendrick Perkins being the other—and has been known throughout his career to step up in postseason play.  

However, in the 2012 Finals, Fisher has scored just six (3-for-5) and two points (1-for-5) in Games 1 and 2, respectively.  Granted, the 37-year-old is not going to explode for 20 points in a game—but that's not what the Thunder need.  What they do need is consistent outside shooting from Fisher, something he has not shown so far in this series.  

In fact, the entire 2012 playoffs have been somewhat a struggle for the five-time NBA champion.

He is averaging 6.2 points per game compared to his career-postseason average of 8.7.  Fisher's outside shot has also suffered, as he is shooting just 33 percent from deep, significantly below his career-postseason mark of 40 percent.

That was most apparent in Game 2, in which Fisher shot 0-for-4 from three-point range, missing multiple wide-open looks.  

The 15-year veteran has made a career knocking down big-time shots and making big-time plays in the most pressure-filled moments.  Who could forget Fisher's miracle shot with 0.4 seconds left on the clock against San Antonio or his key contributions in overtime for the Jazz on a night when he showed up at halftime after his daughter's eye surgery?

That sort of clutch play is exactly what the Thunder believed they were getting when they signed Fisher in March.  And while he is a major reason the the team is in the Finals, he has produced an un-Fisher-like shortage of big plays in this series.   

With seemingly no outside shooting coming from OKC's starting backcourt—Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha have shot a combined 3-for-15 from three-point range—Fisher needs to find his shot...and fast.  Besides Daequan Cook, who has played only three minutes all series, Fisher is the one role player who is a spot-up shooter.

Having a "small" lineup that features the Big Three, plus Fisher and one of their bigs (Perkins, Serge Ibaka, or Nick Collison), is the Thunder's most effective lineup against the Miami Heat.  That lineup provides a balance of playmaking, proficient outside shooting and even some defense and rebounding.

In order for that lineup to be its most effective, Fisher—the man who is often left alone—must start knocking down his long-range shots.  

It's obvious that the Heat are going to look to shut down Durant, Westbrook, and Harden whenever they can—a strategy that has left Fisher wide open multiple times in Games 1 and 2.  If the Thunder hope to win their first NBA Championship in Oklahoma City, they're going to need Fisher to knock down those open shots and pose as a viable shooting threat.

The two versions of the Big Three have essentially cancelled each other out thus far in the series:  Combined, neither has scored more than nine points higher than the other in a single game.  That means the winner or loser may very well be decided by role players.  

In Games 1 and 2, the team with the higher-scoring supporting cast—players outside each team's Big Three—has won the game.

While the Heat role players include NBA champion Udonis Haslem and 10-year veteran Shane Battier—who has scored 17 points in Games 1 and 2—no Heat role player can match the championship pedigree or amount of clutch plays that belong to Fisher.

With five NBA Titles and countless big playoff moments, Fisher obviously possesses a unique clutch gene.

Now he must show it.