Chapter 481 NBA Season Begins 5
After this attack by the Houston Rockets team, the game became more balanced and Pippen did not try so many more attacks in the game and make some mid-range shots when needed, in the attack the Los Angeles Lakers team was counting on Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O"Neal who were playing well like that Jake didn"t get many pa.s.ses.
Jake knew this could happen in a team with so many talented players, so he just played his part and made a.s.sists when he saw the opportunity, after a move by the Los Angeles Lakers team in the attack, the ball was left for Kobe Bryant.
He was playing well in the game and tried to make the three-point shot, the shot was very short and Jake who was attentive in the play managed to catch the rebound, Jake caught the ball and then hooked to make 2 more points for the team Los Angeles Lakers.
In another play, Fisher received the ball with a few seconds to end possession, and realizing these two players from the Houston Rockets" team went to press Kobe Bryant and Hakeem Olajuwon pressured Shaquille O"Neal in defense as well.
So Fisher pa.s.sed the ball to Jake from the left, Jake received the ball and tried the shot from outside even with Pippen very close to him, Jake managed to hit the first three-point shot in the NBA and that was his seventh point in the second quarter that was ending.
The Houston Rockets team still wanted to reduce the advantage to have a chance to win in the second half of the game, so Matt Maloney advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Charles Barkley who was being the best player of his team in the game.
Barkley easily pa.s.sed Blount and tried to advance to make the layup, but Shaquille O"Neal appeared to try the block, seeing that Barkley reacted quickly and pa.s.sed the ball to Olajuwon who was free in the play.
Olajuwon received the ball and when he thought about making the dunk Jake appeared and did the steal with great skill, it was a move that Jake made several times in the training of imagination playing several times against Centers that were high and had SS in various abilities as Olajuwon should have.
Jake couldn"t catch the ball after the steal and it was Kobe Bryant who took the ball and held the ball to calm the players, Bryant pa.s.sed the ball to Fisher and everyone went on the attack, the crowd was excited about this Los Angeles team defense Lakers and Olajuwon still did not believe that Jake steal him.
Fisher advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed it to Jake before the three-point line, this time Pippen pressed on defense not to let Jake make the move, Jake saw that Kobe Bryant had got rid of the defense and pa.s.sed the ball to him.
So Bryant received the ball and tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Bryant also thanked Jake for the good a.s.sistance after he made a steal.
The second quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team with a good lead on the scoreboard that only increased in that second quarter, Jake managed to make 7 points, 2 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal.
Coach Harris also realized this was happening, but he didn"t say anything to the other players because Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant were already making a lot of points for the team in that game.
"Thus ends the second quarter of the game, Jake continues to make a great debut game and has already scored 13 points in the first half of the game, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team are not pa.s.sing the ball so much to Jake and he is depending on the rebounds him to make the st.i.tches."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team is playing very well in this game with Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant already making 33 points together, so it is normal that they would rather pa.s.s the ball to both of them than to Jake who is a rookie and is playing in an improvised position."
"Of course, he would receive more pa.s.ses at the end of the game if the Los Angeles Lakers team secured the victory, but he has already made 13 points despite receiving few pa.s.ses, this shows the skills of Jake who is also very good in defense, not allowing Scottie Pippen make lots of points."
Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team were also enjoying Jake"s first game on the team, they had already realized that Coach Harris had put him to play as SF which was not his position, and even then Jake was having an excellent game.
The Houston Rockets team coach was in a difficult situation, Pippen who was one of the best defenders on the team was defending against Jake and even though he had scored 13 points in the game, it showed that Jake really had the skills.
In the third quarter, the Houston Rockets team tried to attack more to still fight for the victory, but even the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team was not very strong they still defended well with Jake, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O"Neal.
And the Lakers" team was also attacking and maintaining the advantage on the scoreboard with good plays from O"Neal and Bryant, Jake was never replaced after having a conversation with Coach Harris saying he could handle playing the entire game.
Coach Harris really had no one to put Jake in position with Rick Fox or being on the Lakers team"s bench, and Coach Harris naturally had plenty of time to watch Jake"s games in that lockout and knew Jake was never replaced in almost every game of his second season on the Tar Heels team.
The only thing that Jake"s coach and teammates didn"t understand was because he wasn"t trying to make three-point shots when he got the ball, he got few pa.s.ses, but if he hit three shots from the outside he would make 9 points in few minutes.
The truth was that Jake had a different thought for each position he played, as PG and as SG he would certainly try more shots from three points and receive more a.s.sists too, but as SF he was more within the three-point line.
In addition, Pippen was a very good player in defense and Jake preferred in his debut game to make more a.s.sists than trying several shots from three points and could suffer Pippen"s block, even more, because he did not receive many pa.s.ses and had O"Neal and Bryant playing so well.
In another Houston Rockets attack move, Bryce Drew joined the team playing as PG and made a pa.s.s to Pippen, Jake was close to Pippen pressing on defense and Pippen pa.s.sed the ball back to Drew.
After pa.s.sing the ball Pippen moved to get rid of Jake"s defense, but Jake did not continue defending against Pippen and realized that Drew was relaxed as Fisher was defending away from him.
So Jake moved quickly and made a steal taking everyone by surprise, Jake took the ball and ran to the attacking court, Drew was the last player in the Houston Rockets team"s defense and tried to chase Jake.
But Jake was very fast and ran up to the three-point line and jumped doing a reverse dunk to liven up the Lakers crowd at the Great Western Forum, the fans were excited to see that and Jake"s teammates greeted him.
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a big advantage on the scoreboard, Jake played for 12 minutes and made 6 points, 2 a.s.sists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals, even though he was not the player who made the most points Jake was being praised as the best player in that game.
The other players were also realizing that Jake was much more skilled than they thought before and could be playing at the same skill level as them, in the NBA a player could only receive more respect by playing well.
In the last quarter, the Houston Rockets team continued to press on defense and attack, but they already knew they could not win this game, even so, the players played well until the end.
The Los Angeles Lakers team won that game with 115 points against 84 points for the Houston Rockets team, Jake played for 12 minutes in the last quarter and had 7 points, 3 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.
"What a great game the Los Angeles Lakers team had, it was a great debut with victory and the good debut of Jake Smith who may be one of the main players in this team that already has Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant."
"For sure, the objective of the Los Angeles Lakers team is to win the NBA t.i.tle and with Jake Smith in this team they can achieve that, in this debut game he had 26 points, 9 a.s.sists, and 9 rebounds, and that was because he was playing improvised like SF."
"Yes, he was one of the best players in this game if not the best, Shaquille O"Neal had 34 points and 14 rebounds so he was also very important and Kobe Bryant had 27 points and 10 rebounds, so the whole team played very well."
"It"s true, as you said the three together scored 87 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team and got 33 rebounds, that"s impressive and shows the strength of this young Los Angeles Lakers team."
"The Houston Rockets team also played well, but Scottie Pippen ended up not having a good game because he had to defend against Jake Smith and Jake defended well against him, Hakeem Olajuwon also failed to play as well with Shaquille O"Neal playing so well."
"But Charles Barkley had a great game with 33 points and 15 rebounds, this was only the first game and even though this team has older players, they are some of the best players in the NBA."
Jake was also happy with his first game on the Los Angeles Lakers team, he managed to score more than 20 points which were his goal and made more a.s.sists than he expected to play as SF.
Jake hoped that when Rick Fox was in a position to play he could debut playing as PG and so he could show all his skill, Jake hoped that Robert Horry would recover and be able to play soon or that Dennis Rodman would be hired to play.
Because in that game it was clear that Corie Blount was not able to defend well or attack playing against the best NBA PFs, it is clear that against Charles Barkley he could not play as well, but Jake was sure that Horry or Rodman would play better.