The Old Guard Takes Stock of New Tricks

Years pass, seasons fade, and a funny thing happens to the precocious guard with the oversized headband.

Derek Fisher looks up, and he’s guarding some kid eight years younger.

He looks up, and the kid is past him.

He looks up, and he’s old.

“Isn’t that something?” said Fisher, 27. “I was thinking the other night, all those times I was the young guy battling John Stockton ... and now, in this series, it’s like, I’m Stockton.”

And Tony Parker, 19, is his teenage nightmare: sassy, stubborn and wanting to run all night.

At times during the first three games of the Western Conference semifinals between Fisher’s Lakers and Parker’s San Antonio Spurs, the kid has driven the old guy batty.

Speeding around him after curfew. Trampling through his prize defense. Turning him into the equivalent of the neighborhood grump.

Late in the third quarter Friday, a well-aimed Parker elbow caused Fisher to push the kid away and shout the one thing he never thought he would be shouting at anybody.

“Watch yourself, young fella!” Fisher scolded.

Young fella?

“It’s crazy, ain’t it?” Kobe Bryant observed. “The old dog getting chased around by that young pup.”

You want to know what’s even crazier?

Despite the appearance of being collared, the old dog is winning.

Parker is averaging 13 points, Fisher is averaging 11.

Parker is shooting 43%, Fisher is shooting 31%.

Parker is averaging six assists, Fisher is averaging two.

“But the only number I care about is the only number that matters,” Fisher said.

Meaning this: The Lakers have won two games, and the Spurs have won one.

“At times, we have to get down and dirty,” Bryant said. “And nobody on this team is more down and dirty than Fisher.”

It is a quality that has served Fisher well here, and will continue to be a necessity if the Lakers are to continue playing.

Unlike last year, Fisher has no Tyronn Lue for defensive backup, no Ron Harper for composure, no place to run, and no excuses to run there.

Also unlike last year, Fisher will face a great point guard before the finals, with Sacramento’s Mike Bibby possibly waiting for him in the next round.

It has been said that on a team with the game’s two greatest stars, no one person is an island.

But for the next couple of weeks, perhaps, Fisher will have to fight his way off one, beginning with his current battle against perhaps the league’s most unique player.

Parker is the only guy in the NBA who runs like a sprinter ... yet talks like a hockey player.

With his thick French accent, the former Parisian sounds completely out of place amid the game’s urban vibes.

There was no mistaking, however, his half-set, half-jump shot--a hop shot?--that accounted for 20 first-half points Friday. This happened while Fisher was still searching for his first two-point basket of the series.

One guy was growing up fast. The other guy was aging like fine milk.

“I took it very personally,” Fisher said. “You never want to be the guy whose man is beating him.”

At halftime, realizing that Parker was getting open looks because of pick-and-rolls, the Laker coaching staff adjusted their defense.

While Derek Fisher adjusted his neck.

“The thing about Derek is, he’s strong, and he’ll try to body the other point guards,” said Spur Steve Smith. “And Tony just being 19, he doesn’t have a body yet.”

Fisher busted through picks and hounded Parker into missing all three of his shots in a third quarter that turned on the old dog’s bite.

With 1:26 remaining in the quarter, and the Lakers trailing by one, Fisher dribbled the length of the floor for a layup that put them ahead.

Moments later, at the other end of the floor, he blocked Parker’s shot.

Then Parker threw the elbow, and Fisher threw him off, and a double technical foul was called.

Said Parker with a grimace: “I don’t back down from anybody.”

Said Fisher with a grin: “I just told him, ‘Don’t think you can do that to me.’”

Parker then missed a layup, Fisher connected on a three-pointer, and the Lakers carried a three-point lead into a fourth quarter that they dominated.

“Derek is going to keep coming at you,” Bryant said. “Doesn’t matter what you throw at him, he’ll keep coming.”

From one old guy to another.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com