Chapter 565 West Conference Semifinals 5
Jake was smart in that play, and Shaq was also very good, and so the Portland Trail Blazers players still didn"t know about the Los Angeles Lakers" strategy in that game, so the Lakers team had the advantage.
Soon after, the Portland Trail Blazers tried to attack to reduce the advantage in points that the Los Angeles Lakers had, but Rider missed the mid-range shot and Dennis Rodman caught the first defensive rebound that was very important for the Lakers team.
In the next play, Jake made another individual play and pa.s.sed the ball to Shaq again who added 2 more points to the Los Angeles Lakers team, so the Lakers team increased the advantage by 8 points and the Portland Trail Blazers team would have to fight to be able to turn the game.
Coach Dunleavy realized that the Los Angeles Lakers team had changed the strategy to attack more in that first quarter, but Coach Dunleavy knew that the Portland Trail Blazers team could not begin the strategy of making fouls early in the game.
In another move Jake went forward and made another three-point shot and thus managed to make 12 points in 4 attempts and that in less than 8 minutes of play, the Portland Trail Blazers team still did not realize that Jake intended to make several three-point shots because he made 2 a.s.sists for Shaq.
Even so, Stoudamire started to put more pressure on the defense so that Jake would not have so much freedom to try the three-point shots, Jake also realized that he had better pa.s.s the ball over to Shaq, Kobe, and Rick since he had already scored 12 points.
Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Kobe on the right, Jake told Kobe that he could start attacking normally now, Kobe received the ball and Rider came pressing on the defense, Kobe started doing low dribble trying to make the individual move.
Kobe tried to deceive Rider with a feint, but Rider was not deceived and continued to press on defense, coach Dunleavy told the Portland Trail Blazers players that the Los Angeles Lakers team had changed their strategy and wanted to press forward and score a lot in that first quarter.
Kobe decided not to try the individual play and pa.s.sed the ball to Rick from the left, Rick was free when he received the ball and tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
In that first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team put a lot of pressure on the attack and the Portland Trail Blazers team was not able to put pressure on the attack to balance the game, it seemed that in this game all the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were performing well.
Soon the first quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team was winning with a good advantage on points as coach Rambis planned, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and made 20 points, 4 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals.
This was the best first quarter that Jake has had since debuting in the NBA and it was also the quarter that he scored the most points in, Jake scored more points in that first quarter than many players did in an entire game, it showed how he was trying in that game.
"The first quarter ends with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a big point advantage, the Lakers team changed the strategy in that first quarter to try to win against the Portland Trail Blazers team and got a big advantage for the rest of the game."
"It"s true, we can see that the Portland Trail Blazers players are no longer as confident of winning as they were at the beginning of the game, even the Portland Trail Blazers fans that filled the Rose Garden Arena are so confident of victory."
"The highlight of the Los Angeles Lakers team in that first quarter was certainly Jake Smith, making 20 points and hitting 6 shots from three points from 7 attempts, Jake seems to really want the victory in that game and is looking to make his best game in these playoffs this game."
"In addition to Jake, the other players on the Los Angeles Lakers team are also performing well in that game, Shaquille O"Neal had 8 points and 3 rebounds, and Dennis Rodman had 5 rebounds in that first quarter."
"The Portland Trail Blazers team will have to put a lot more effort into defense and attack if they want to try to diminish the advantage in points that the Los Angeles Lakers have."
Jake was happy with the first quarter that the Los Angeles Lakers team had and with his performance in that game, Jake received praise from his teammates and Jake can look more proudly at his mother who was in the stands, Eva was very happy with the compliments she overheard the Portland Trail Blazers fans doing for Jake.
Coach Rambis was the happiest with the Los Angeles Lakers team"s start of the game, Jake and Shaq were very good in the game and even Dennis and Rick were performing well in that game, so the Lakers team would be more likely to win this one. I play as a visitor.
The second quarter started with the Los Angeles Lakers team continuing to press on the attack, the players knew that they could not let the Portland Trail Blazers team reduce the advantage in points they had because in the last quarter they could start with the strategy of making fouls.
Coach Mike Dunleavy had realized that Jake was performing very well in that game and so he ordered Stoudamire and Grant to double-team in defense against him as soon as they could.
Even though Rick and the other players on the Los Angeles Lakers team had more freedom to attack, the biggest problem in that game was Jake who had scored 20 points in the first quarter, so Coach Dunleavy thought the Lakers team would attack less if Jake didn"t have the freedom to organize the moves.
Jake soon realized that the Portland Trail Blazers team was making a double-team defense on him if Jake wanted he could attack even though he had 2 players defending against him, but Jake knew he could count on his teammates and he didn"t want to tire in that game even more and risk being replaced.
After a few minutes, Jake realized that Kobe was not performing well in that game, luckily Shaq was playing very well and Rick was also, in addition, Dennis was having a great performance catching the rebounds and this was better in this game for the Los team Angeles Lakers.
Fortunately, it was the player who was defending against Rick who was defending in the double-team against him, so Jake was pa.s.sing the ball over to Rick who was performing well, the Los Angeles Lakers team was managing to score fewer points than in the first quarter, but still managed to increase the advantage in points.
Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and held it a little before pa.s.sing the ball to Rick on the left, Rick received the free ball and stepped forward to try the mid-range shot and make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Rick was having a lot of freedom in that second quarter and Grant was more focused on defending against Jake than defending against Rick, certainly, Rick was more likely to miss the attacks than Jake, not to mention that if Rick tried to advance to the painted area, Coach Dunleavy ordered Rasheed Wallace to defend against him.
Rick realized this in other plays and so he tried to make the mid-range shots, after all with the freedom he was more likely to hit than usual, besides, Shaq was also very well and Jake, Rick, and Kobe pa.s.sed the ball to him.
The Los Angeles Lakers team was very good in the attack and the Portland Trail Blazers team could not press the attack and diminish the advantage that the Lakers team had in the game, so the second quarter ended with the Lakers team winning the game.
In that quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and even though he had 2 players defending against him he still had 8 points, 4 a.s.sists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block, Jake attacked less often and only tried to attack when Grant went to defend against Rick.
In the third quarter, the Portland Trail Blazers team could finally start making the foul strategy, so at least they could prevent Shaq who was having a great performance from making more points.
But at the beginning of the third quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team had a 14 point advantage, so even if they tried to make the strategy of making fouls they still would not be able to turn the result of that game.
Even so, the Portland Trail Blazers team had to try to do this to try to win this game at home, otherwise playing as a visitor they would have even more difficulty winning against the Los Angeles Lakers team.
So the third quarter was more balanced with the two teams attacking and not making many points, even using the strategy of making fouls the Los Angeles Lakers team still managed to make the points in most attacks.
In addition, with Jake playing very well in defense and Dennis and Shaq catching a lot of rebounds, the Portland Trail Blazers team had even more difficulties in attacking, so the third quarter ended with the Portland Trail Blazers team reducing the Los Angeles team"s points advantage Lakers.
In the last quarter the Portland Trail Blazers team could not make many fouls because many players could be expelled, Jake started to attack with even more intensity even though he had 2 players defending against him, and Jake also tried some shots from very far.
Thus the Portland Trail Blazers team was unable to diminish the advantage that the Los Angeles Lakers team had and thus the Lakers team won the game making 125 points against 111 points of the Portland Trail Blazers team.
In that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 46 points, 13 a.s.sists, 8 rebounds, 11 steals, and 3 blocks, Jake managed another triple-double in those playoffs, this was his fifth triple-double followed in those playoffs.
With this performance of Jake in attack and defense when the Los Angeles Lakers team needed him most, he was being seen by the people who chose the player who would be chosen for the MVP award of the season, and with this performance, Jake was becoming an idol for the fans.