Chapter 503 Change in Los Angeles Lakers Team 1
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start this game with the starting players Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Corie Blount playing as PF, and Shaquille O"Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team would start this game with the starting players Avery Johnson playing as PG, Mario Elie playing as SG, Sean Elliott playing as SF, Tim Duncan playing as PF, and David Robinson playing as Center.
The game started with the Los Angeles Lakers team pressing in the attack and the San Antonio Spurs team pressing in the defense, the Los Angeles Lakers team got the first ball possession and Jake advanced for the attack.
Jake came forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and Mario Elie came to press on defense, Bryant did not try to make the individual move and pa.s.sed the ball to Rick Fox on the left.
Fox received the ball and Sean Elliott came to press on defense, Fox held the ball a little and pa.s.sed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Avery Johnson pressed on defense, Johnson knew he couldn"t defend well against Jake, so he could at least press on defense to try to hinder Jake in that game.
Jake tricked Johnson with a feint and pa.s.sed him using his speed, Jake kept advancing towards the inside, Elie tried to defend and Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Bryant from the right, Kobe Bryant was free and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The San Antonio Spurs team defended very well, so Jake had to do more than just pa.s.s the ball in a few moves if he wanted to help his team win, then the San Antonio Spurs team went on the attack to tie the game.
Johnson advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed it to Elie on the left, Elie received the ball and Kobe Bryant came to press on defense, Elie held the ball for a while and pa.s.sed it to Elliott on the right.
Elliott received the ball and Fox came to press on defense, Rick Fox was happy that he was playing longer this season and was having good performance with Jake helping him make great a.s.sists.
With Jake, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O"Neal drawing the attention of the defense he had much more freedom to attack, Elliott tried the feint, but Fox was not fooled, so Elliott pa.s.sed the ball to Tim Duncan on the left.
Duncan received the ball and Corie Blount arrived to press in defense, Duncan made a dream shake and tricked Blount, so Duncan just turned and hooked to make 2 points and tie the game.
Jake didn"t understand why Coach Harris decided to put Corie Blount in that game and the team had gotten used to playing with Travis Knight on the team, after all, Jake didn"t think it was even good to give Blount an opportunity to play in a game he would play against Tim Duncan.
The Los Angeles Lakers team continued to press in the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Elliott arrived pressing in defense, Fox still held the ball a little before pa.s.sing to Kobe Bryant on the right.
Bryant received the ball and Elie came in the defense, Bryant held the ball and pa.s.sed it to Jake further back, Jake saw that Fox was freer and pa.s.sed the ball to him, Fox was out of the three-point line and decided to try the shot from outside and made 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
In another attacking move by the San Antonio Spurs team, Johnson forwarded the ball into the attack, Johnson pa.s.sed the ball to Elliott on the right, Fox pressed on the defense and Elliott still held the ball before pa.s.sing it on to Elie on the left.
Elie received the ball and Bryant was on the defense, Elie decided to try an individual play and tried a feint to deceive Bryant, Bryant was not fooled, so Elie tried a quick crossover and managed to move through the middle.
Elie managed to advance and Fox came to help the defense, Elie realized this and tried to pa.s.s it to Elliott on the right, but Jake realized this move and antic.i.p.ated and managed to intercept the pa.s.s making the steal.
Jake advanced with the ball quickly and only Johnson and Elie managed to get back to defend before Jake advanced, Jake advanced and pa.s.sed Elie using his speed and Elie was unable to keep up.
So only Johnson was the last player in the defense of the San Antonio Spurs team, Jake continued to advance at high speed and approaching Johnson he tried a quick crossover and Johnson was out of balance.
So Jake managed to advance on the left, but Johnson did not want Jake to make the points and still tried to defend, so Jake made a spin, and Johnson couldn"t keep up, so Jake tried to make a dunk and Elie who had recovered tried to make the block.
But Jake managed to make 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team and Elie only managed to make a foul on Jake, the crowd of the Los Angeles Lakers team celebrated this play a lot, Jake was a player who almost never made fouls and also hardly suffered fouls.
After all Jake tried most of his moves after getting rid of the opposing player who defended against him or he tried three-point shots and the players in the defense knew that if they tried the block and missed they would give Jake 3 free throw attempts.
So Jake had a chance to score 1 more point and hit the free throw and scored 1 more point for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake had almost 100 percent use in free throws, so the opponents preferred not to miss him.
The first quarter ended up with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a good point advantage, with Jake the Los Angeles Lakers team was very strong in the outside shots and got several steals which greatly improved their defense and made things difficult for opposing teams.
In that first quarter, Jake played for 12 minutes and scored 8 points, 3 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 3 steals, it was a good first quarter for Jake who managed to help his teammates score and also scored a few points.
"The first quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team is ahead on the scoreboard, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team are playing very well and even with the players of the San Antonio Spurs team also playing well, the home team has the advantage."
"Yes, in the last games of this season it has been like that, the players of the San Antonio Spurs team have a good game, but the San Antonio Spurs team cannot win most games."
"Maybe that"s the problem, some of the big teams lose when some players perform poorly if a team like the Los Angeles Lakers team has some players playing badly they lose, but if all the players are playing well the team wins."
"So maybe the San Antonio Spurs team is not a team with such good players this season, so even if they play very well they end up losing games."
"That may be, we will continue to monitor this game to see if the Los Angeles Lakers team wins."
Jake would laugh if he heard what the commentators were saying, he also didn"t know why the San Antonio Spurs team performed so poorly at the beginning of the season, but he knew they had a team with good players who played very well and so they managed to win that season"s NBA t.i.tle in Jake"s past life.
For the second quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team wanted to put more pressure on the attack and keep pressing on defense, the two teams did not plan to replace the main players for a long time and so it would be a more disputed game between the teams.
The San Antonio Spurs team went for another attack and Johnson was organizing the play, Johnson advanced to the attack and pa.s.sed the ball to Elie from the left, Elie received the ball and Bryant soon pressed in defense.
So Elie decided to pa.s.s the ball back to Johnson again, Johnson received the ball and Jake was close to him defending, so Johnson decided to pa.s.s the ball to Elliott on the right.
Elliott received the ball and Fox soon came to the defense, Elliott made a feint and managed to deceive Fox and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team, Elliott and Duncan were playing well in that game and taking advantage of the weakness of Blount and Fox"s defense.
The Los Angeles Lakers team soon went on the attack as well, Jake advanced the ball and pa.s.sed it to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and Elie came to press on defense, Bryant tried a feint, but Elie was not fooled.
Thus Bryant pa.s.sed the ball to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Elliott pressed in defense, so Fox pa.s.sed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and pa.s.sed the ball to Shaquille O"Neal further ahead.
Shaquille O"Neal was having more difficulty in this game because sometimes David Robinson and Tim Duncan double-teamed when he had the ball and it was very difficult for O"Neal to score.
In this play Jake pa.s.sed the ball when Duncan was further away from him and so O"Neal received the ball and used his strength to move closer to the hoop, Robinson was on defense, but he could not stop O"Neal"s advance, so O"Neal tried the hook to score 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
In that second quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team tried to put pressure on the attack and defense, but the Los Angeles Lakers team"s attack was very strong and even if they couldn"t hold on well in defense they still managed to increase the advantage in points.
In another play by the San Antonio Spurs team, Johnson advanced the ball and pa.s.sed it to Elliott on the right, Fox arrived pressing in defense so Elliott did not have s.p.a.ce to make the move.