Chapter 500 The NBA Season Continues 8
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team with a good point advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes and made 10 points, 3 a.s.sists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals, Jake was having a harder time stealing in that game because Steve Nash he didn"t try to attack often and knew how to pa.s.s the ball.
In the last quarter the team tried to put more pressure on defense and attack, so the Los Angeles Lakers team scored fewer points, but even so at the end of the last quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team had achieved yet another victory.
The Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 112 points against 82 points for the Dallas Mavericks team, Jake played in the last quarter for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 2 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal, it was another triple-double for Jake in season.
"The game ends with another Los Angeles Lakers team win this season, 7 wins in 8 games, a great start to the season showing the strength of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season."
"Yes, even with Coach Harris again replacing the best players on the Los Angeles Lakers team, the Dallas Mavericks team is unfortunately having a very bad team this season and the players are not playing very well."
"Jake Smith again was the highlight of the game playing all 48 minutes of the game and making another triple-double with points, a.s.sists, and rebounds, really Jake Smith has been showing that he is one of the best players at this beginning of the NBA season."
"Yes, Jake Smith managed this triple-double and also managed 7 steals in that game, he has been showing to be an excellent defensive player in this Los Angeles Lakers team, and managing to play the 48 minutes in all 8 games of this season that took place in 12 days, shows the great stamina he has."
"It"s true, Jake Smith is a key player in this Los Angeles Lakers team, just because of his steals and being able to play every 48 minutes in the game already makes him irreplaceable, and he still manages to do more than 10 a.s.sists per game and is an of the players who score the most points in games."
With this victory, the Los Angeles Lakers fans were very happy with the team this season, they were sure that with all the players they could have a great chance of winning the NBA t.i.tle this season.
Some fans and media people criticized Coach Harris for replacing the main players for many minutes in the last games, but several teams were also doing it because this very intense sequence of games could cause injuries and decrease the performance of the players.
The criticism just wasn"t greater because Jake was playing every minute in every game and it helped the team to always perform well even with the main players outside the court, as time went by Jake became more and more an idol for the fans.
The next day the players could rest for a day because there would be no game, even Jake was happy with that day of rest, just playing in the NBA he can understand how difficult it was to play every minute in every game.
Even more so for him to score points, defend, organize plays, make steals and still get rebounds, Jake had to run more than other players in all games to be able to stand out.
On that next day, they wouldn"t even have a light training because coach Del Harris thought about letting the main players play as long as they could in the next game, the players would be rested and the criticism against him would decrease.
Jake had overheard the players commenting that coach Del Harris could be fired in the next few days even though the team had won so many games, it seemed that it was not because of the team"s results, but because of what Harris did when the team was not there playing.
Jack thought that the Los Angeles Lakers team wins that he helped the team achieve could leave Coach Harris longer, but it looked like it was something that the Los Angeles Lakers team"s management had long thought about.
While Jake was thinking about staying home that day resting, Kobe Bryant called him so they could have lunch and talk, Jake talked a lot with Kobe Bryant on the team, but they weren"t very close because Jake respected Kobe Bryant a lot and saw him as an idol.
Jake had gone to lunch with Rick Fox only once, Jake knew Kobe Bryant better from what he"d heard the media talk about him than meeting him in person, but Jake was sure the subject of this lunch would be basketball.
Jake went to a restaurant he didn"t know taking his McLaren F1 this time, Jake had driven a few times with his new car just to try out the capacity of the car, but this was the first time he was driving the car to the city itself.
"Hi, Jake, thanks for coming even though I suddenly invited you."
"It"s okay, Kobe, when you want to talk, you can call me, I"m alone here in the city and besides training and playing I just stay at home."
"I"m glad to hear that, Jake, do you know why I asked you to talk to me here?"
"It must be to talk about basketball."
"Yes, we are players and teammates, I wanted to ask what do you think of our team this NBA season?"
"I think our team is doing really well this season, you and Shaquille O"Neal are excellent players, I think our team is a favorite to win the NBA t.i.tle this season."
"I agree, after you joined the team we really improved a lot, you are really an excellent player to be able to play so well even though you are still an NBA rookie."
"Thanks, I was lucky to be on a team with you and with Shaquille O"Neal on the team, it"s a team that was already strong before and I can play with all my skills, I was lucky to go to university too and playing on the Tar Heels team, there I learned a lot of things that are helping me in my season as a rookie."
"I wanted to ask you which teams do you think are favorites to win the NBA t.i.tle this season?"
"It is difficult to say, this is a different season because there are fewer games, so I believe that some teams can surprise and some teams that have more interaction between the players can be the favorites."
"There"s our team that is a favorite, the San Antonio Spurs team, the Indiana Pacers team, the Portland Trail Blazers team, and the New York Knicks team that can surprise in the playoffs."
Jake could confidently say these teams because he knew which teams would be the top four in the playoffs, but if he didn"t know the future he wouldn"t say these teams were favorites either.
Kobe Bryant was also surprised by the teams Jake had chosen, of those teams he thought maybe the Indiana Pacers team and the Portland Trail Blazers team could be in the top 8, but the other two teams he wouldn"t even think about talking about.
"What do you think our team is missing to win the NBA t.i.tle this season?"
"It"s hard to say, but I"ll be honest with you, our current team can really win the NBA t.i.tle this season, but for that Robert Horry has to recover, he could help our current team to improve a lot."
"But if I had to say what our team could improve, it was to have an SF who could score more and put more pressure on the opposing defense, to have a PF to help Shaquille O"Neal and to score and help in defense."
"And also a change in the coach maybe, because I heard rumors that coach Del Harris may be fired after a few games, after that we will not find another coach better and one of the a.s.sistant coaches will have to become the main coach until the end of the season."
Kobe was surprised to see the answer Jake had given, he thought Jake would try to avoid answering sincerely for fear that Kobe could tell other people what Jake was saying to him.
But Jake had given an answer in all sincerity, there were things he thought of himself and Jake even talked about Coach Harris that he also suspected that the coach might actually be fired.
So Kobe knew that Jake was sincere with him and so he decided to ask the most difficult questions for Jake to answer, because they were questions that were related to himself, and Jake might be afraid to annoy him.
"I agree with you, I want you to be sincere in answering my next question, who is currently the best player on our team? Who do you think is the main player?"
Jake didn"t answer quickly this time, he didn"t want Kobe Bryant to ask that question because he wouldn"t like the answer Jake would give him, but Jake learned to try to be always sincere, so he decided to speak the truth.
"The best player on our team and the main player is certainly Shaquille O"Neal, he is an experienced player and an excellent Center, as PG I can say that I prefer to be on a team with a skilled Center, so I have a reference in the attack."
"I think that the best NBA teams currently have a good PF or a good Center, teams that don"t have a good Center or a good PF don"t have much chance of winning an NBA t.i.tle, even if that team doesn"t have a Center or an All-Star PF who scores more than 20 points per game."
"At the very least a team has to have a Center or a PF that can defend well, catch rebounds or score a lot, so I think the San Antonio Spurs team that has Tim Duncan and David Robinson is the favorite team to win this NBA t.i.tle beyond our team."