Chapter 496 The NBA Season Continues 4
The Charlotte Hornets team players soon felt the strength of the Los Angeles Lakers team"s attack that had the best attack this season in the NBA, as the Charlotte Hornets team players were not good at defense, they had to try to attack more to try to get the victory.
The Charlotte Hornets team went on the attack with B. J. Armstrong organizing the play, B. J. Armstrong came forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Phills who was on the left, Phills received the ball and Kobe Bryant soon came to defend against him.
Phills held the ball and pa.s.sed it to Reid on the right, Reid received the ball and Fox soon came to press on defense, Reid managed to spin and tried a hook to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team and tie the game.
Both teams had no strong defenses so they had to rely on the attack to win the game, so the Los Angeles Lakers team had the advantage in this type of game for having the best attack of all NBA teams this season.
In another move, the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack and Jake was organizing the move, Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed it to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Reid was already pressing in defense.
After the play in which Reid left Fox alone and he made the 2 points, Reid defended well against Fox in all plays, the Charlotte Hornets defense with Derrick Coleman and Charles Shackleford was managing to defend well against Shaquille O"Neal.
Fox held the ball and then pa.s.sed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and pa.s.sed it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and managed to get rid of Phills" defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for Los Angeles Lakers team.
In another move the Charlotte Hornets team was on the attack, Armstrong advanced with the ball and made a pa.s.s to Reid on the right, Reid received the ball and Fox came to press on defense, Reid pa.s.sed the ball further to Shackleford.
Shackleford received the ball and Shaquille O"Neal came to press on defense, so Shackleford held the ball a little and pa.s.sed it to Phills on the left, Phills received the ball and managed to get rid of Bryant"s defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team.
In another move towards the end of the first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team went on the attack again, Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and tried to trick Phills with a feint, but failed.
Thus Bryant pa.s.sed the ball to Fox from the left, Fox received the ball and Reid pressed again in defense, so Fox pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was coming from the left as well Jake advanced and Armstrong was defending against him.
Jake did a feint and a step back and fooled Armstrong and managed to try a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers in that game, Jake was attacking more in that game because the Charlotte Hornets defense was defending better against Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with several points of advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 2 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal, Jake played well in that first quarter, but it was more difficult defend with the team thinking more about attacking.
"The first quarter ends, the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning the game with a good point advantage, both teams were thinking more about attacking and the Los Angeles Lakers team that has the best attack got the advantage."
"Yes, the Los Angeles Lakers team made fewer mistakes in attack with Jake Smith organizing the attacks well, in this game Jake Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Rick Fox are having a good performance, and Shaquille O"Neal also even though he was well defended by the team Charlotte Hornets."
"If the Charlotte Hornets team continues to play just thinking about the attack it will be difficult for them to win that game, the only team that beat the Los Angeles Lakers this season used defensive tactics to achieve victory."
"It"s true, the biggest problem is that the Charlotte Hornets team is without two major players who are injured, Glen Rice and Anthony Mason, so coach Dave Cowens is still looking for the ideal team for this season."
"Yes, Jake Smith is having another great performance so far in this game, it looks like it will be another good game this season and with that, we can see that Jake Smith can be considered more of an NBA star."
Coach Cowens of team Charlotte Hornets was really looking for the best team to have this season, moreover, he had to worry about the players" fatigue and so he replaced some players for a few minutes in each quarter.
This could be a good advantage for the Los Angeles Lakers team, but Coach Harris realized that the game was favorable for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win easily, so he decided that he would also start in the second quarter to replace the important players.
Coach Harris thought about doing this so that the players would not get too tired from this intense sequence of games, but in doing so the team would be weaker in the minutes that the main players on the team had to leave.
Fortunately, he didn"t think about taking Jake out of the team because after 6 games playing every 48 minutes of the games, Coach Harris believed that Jake had a lot more stamina than most other players.
In the second quarter, the Charlotte Hornets team continued to put pressure on defense only against Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant, luckily Rick Fox was playing very well in that game so it was easier for Jake to make the attacking moves.
In one of the Los Angeles Lakers team"s moves, Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and held on with Phills pressing against him in defense.
Bryant did not attempt an individual move and pa.s.sed to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Reid started to press on defense, so Fox had to pa.s.s back to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Armstrong was defending against him, but no so close to him.
Jake advanced with the ball using his speed and managed to get rid of the opposing defense, Jake advanced with speed towards the inside area and took the Charlotte Hornets team"s defense by surprise.
Coleman tried to defend against him, but Jake realized that and pa.s.sed the ball to Shaquille O"Neal who received the ball and soon tried a dunk to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, that was a move that Jake and O"Neal had trained in team training.
With Jake breaking the Charlotte Hornets defense with quick moves, the Charlotte Hornets defense couldn"t handle the Los Angeles Lakers" attack, so they tried to attack more when Coach Harris replaced a starting player.
In another move the Charlotte Hornets team went for another attack, Armstrong advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Phills on the left, Phills received the ball and Bryant soon pressed in defense, so Phills pa.s.sed the ball to Reid on the right.
Reid received the ball and Fox pressed further in defense to hinder Reid in the attack, realizing this Reid pa.s.sed the ball to Coleman, Coleman received the ball and Travis Knight was defending against him.
Coleman managed to make a spin and tried a hook to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team, Knight could not defend well against Coleman and the Charlotte Hornets team was taking advantage of that in the attacking plays.
In another attacking move by the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake advanced the ball and pa.s.sed it to Bryant from the right, Bryant received the ball and Phills came to press on defense, so Bryant pa.s.sed the ball to Knight later on.
Knight received and the ball and Coleman were already pressing in defense, so Knight pa.s.sed to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and with a feint, he deceived Armstrong and advanced into the area, this time it was Reid who tried to defend against Jake.
Jake was quick and pa.s.sed the ball to Fox from the left who was free, Fox received the ball and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the Los Angeles Lakers team was managing to increase the lead on the scoreboard.
But after a few minutes in the second quarter that the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to increase the lead on the scoreboard, Coach Harris decided to make some subst.i.tutions at some points during the game, taking players out of the team.
Fortunately, he took only one player at a time and didn"t affect the team that much, yet it was harder for Jake to make the attacking moves when Shaquille O"Neal or Kobe Bryant left the team.
In one of the moves when Kobe Bryant had been replaced, the Charlotte Hornets team went for another attack, Armstrong came with the ball and pa.s.sed to Phills on the left, Phills received the ball and Tyronn Lue pressed in defense and Phills was unable to deceive Lue this time and pa.s.sed it to Coleman ahead.
Coleman received the ball and held it up a little before pa.s.sing it to Reid on the right, Reid received the ball and Fox soon pressed for defense, Reid decided not to attempt the individual play and pa.s.sed it to Armstrong further back.
Armstrong had only scored 4 points in that game because he knew Jake"s defensive skills, so Armstrong tried a pa.s.s to Phills, but Jake antic.i.p.ated that move and intercepted Armstrong"s pa.s.s making the steal.
Jake stole the ball and advanced for the attack, Jake ran for the attack and only Armstrong who missed the pa.s.s managed to accompany Jake in defense because he was further back in defense.
Jake made a crossover and with a beautiful play he deceived Armstrong and continued advancing towards the inner area, Armstrong was unable to follow Jake after Jake"s move and so Jake dunk to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.