"He knows our plays — but so do the other 29 teams in the NBA," he said. "You know, coach (Jerry) Sloan's been running this offense since ... when?"

Dinosaurs?

Someone quietly suggested as much at a Jazz shootaround this week.

"Yeah," Williams said. "So, I mean, teams know what we do, and we know their plays. It's just a matter of execution."

Sloan himself was similarly dismissive of the notion that Fisher somehow has an upper hand.

"He (Fisher) knows every player in the league," the Jazz coach said. "Most of the veteran players do.

"It's the same thing you have to deal with when you're in practice," Sloan added. "The guys you practice against every day know the stuff better then the guys that are running it sometimes."

Still, some Jazz players said between Games 1 and 2, Fisher does seem to be a step ahead.

"We know he knows about our sets, everything. ... I think he knows some continuation of our execution," starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko said.

"He's knows our team," All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer added. "We haven't changed since he left. We have the same plays, the same offense, the same defense."

And in the Lakers' camp, there is no hiding the fact that Fisher's first-hand knowledge is being passed along.

"He's helping us out a little it in practice," Laker forward Luke Walton said. "The coaches have a pretty detailed scouting report of what they (the Jazz) like to do, and Derek just helps clear up whatever questions they do have on it."

But it doesn't stop there.

Fisher can be heard calling out game plays when he picks up signals from the Jazz, all in an effort to let his current teammates know what's coming.

Certainly nothing wrong with that, Walton maintains.

"Whatever your team, that's who you're trying to win with," the Laker sub said. "That's your family right then.

"You know, we go play Dallas — I hear (ex-Laker) Devean George screaming out all the plays we're calling," Walton said. "So, we're not the only guys do it. Whatever team you're with, you try to help that team win."

And winning, Jackson suggested, is what the Fisher story is all about.

"Derek is a student of the game. He's a leader," the Lakers' coach said of Fisher, who along with Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal won three NBA title rings during his first stay in L.A. "He's not gonna play heavy (regular-season) minutes, (but) we're gonna use him at the right time.

"This," Jackson added, "is the right time for him to step into the role that we've anticipated he would have all the way through this season — playoff time."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com