Chapter 575 - West Conference Finals 5
"In this game, the San Antonio Spurs team did well the strategy that coach Gregg Popovich prepared for the players, the San Antonio Spurs team lost because of the great performances of Jake, Kobe, and Rick from the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"That"s right, I think Coach Gregg Popovich"s strategy may be the best strategy that the San Antonio Spurs team can use against the Los Angeles Lakers team, after all, they prevented Shaquille O"Neal who is one of the best players in the Lakers team score more than 10 points in that game."
"If in the next games Kobe and Rick do not perform as well as in this game, I think the San Antonio Spurs team can win, but even this great strategy has a big flaw."
"This failure is the best player of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season Jake Smith, in this game Jake had a lot of freedom to attack what he didn"t have in the last games, so in this game, he tried 21 shots from three points and hit 16 shots from three points and scored 52 points."
"I think that no team can face the Los Angeles Lakers team without first trying to prevent Jake from being free to try to do so many three-point shots, the San Antonio Spurs team cannot expect Jake to perform poorly in the next games, if they keep doing it they can lose."
Just as commentators have said, coach Gregg Popovich tried the best strategy the San Antonio Spurs team could do in this game which was to take advantage of the strong defense with Tim Duncan and David Robinson to prevent Shaquille O"Neal from scoring too many points.
But that strategy would not work against the current Los Angeles Lakers team, coach Gregg Popovich had to find a way to prevent Jake from playing freely, otherwise, he could not prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from having the advantage.
Perhaps in games that Kobe and Rick were playing badly, the San Antonio Spurs team could still win the victory even if they didn"t defend against Jake, but that was something very difficult to happen and the San Antonio Spurs team could not depend on luck in this phase of the playoffs.
After the game was over the reporters came to interview the Los Angeles Lakers team players and the San Antonio Spurs team players, the first person the reporters were able to interview was the San Antonio Spurs team coach Gregg Popovich.
"Coach Popovich, in that first game between the San Antonio Spurs team and the Los Angeles Lakers team, their strategy of defending more against Shaquille O"Neal and in the paint area to prevent the Lakers team from making points for layups and dunks and catching rebounds. it didn"t work out well, do you think about changing your strategy for the next game?"
"I do not agree that our strategy in this game did not work, I think we were successful in preventing the opposing team from attacking in our painted area, the Lakers team also did not have many rebounds in that game."
"What happened was what we already knew, Jake Smith has a lot of freedom to attack with our team defending like that, in this game he did as well as always and also Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox played very well and that"s why we lost that game."
"A player like Jake who has more than 70% accuracy of three-point shots and is also fast and knows how to advance to the inside area needs at least two players defending against him, but unfortunately against the Los Angeles Lakers team that has Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant, I can"t put two players to defend against Jake."
"So I have to continue with this strategy and hope that in the next games the San Antonio Spurs team will be able to score more points and that the opponents will not play as well as they did today."
Coach Popovich looked sad after doing this interview, with the players that the San Antonio Spurs team had he knew he had no players who could prevent Jake from attacking by putting only one player to defend against him, but with Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant made it impossible for him to put two players to defend against Jake.
The reporters also went to interview Jake who had scored more than 50 points in a game for the second time, in addition, it was in a playoff game and this was also the game in which Jake scored the most points since entering the NBA.
"Jake, congratulations on your victory today and congratulations on scoring more than 50 points once again in the NBA and even more in a playoff game, what do you think about that?"
"I think it"s a great honor to be one of the few players who have scored more than 50 points in a playoff game, I"m even happier because I did it in a victory, if the Lakers team can win I don"t mind not doing it no point in a game. "
"In addition to making more than 50 points, which is rare, you also managed to a double-double with 10 a.s.sists, but speaking of the game, you are confident that the Los Angeles Lakers team will be able to continue winning and advance to the next stage?"
"Yes, I am confident that we will be able to advance to the NBA Finals, I know that the next games will be even more difficult, but our team is prepared for those next games and I think we can win."
Soon the interviews ended up showing that after that game the Los Angeles Lakers team was more confident and the San Antonio Spurs team was more concerned with the next games, so Jake went where the players were so they could leave.
After the end of the interviews, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team celebrated this important victory at home, Jake went to where his mother and friends were, all praising Jake"s good game and talking about how they expected the Los Angeles Lakers team to continue winning.
Jake was much more relaxed after the Los Angeles Lakers team won the first game, of course, he still felt that the Lakers team had an obligation to win the next game at home too if they wanted to have any chance of making it to the NBA Finals.
The other day the Los Angeles Lakers team did light training for the players to be more prepared for the next game, but the coach Rambis did not give heavy training for fear that some players could be injured.
Jake realized that the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team were focused on the next game knowing that they had an obligation to win that game at home, but Jake could also see that his teammates were more relaxed after the first victory.
The other day, Jake went to the Great Western Forum after his mother and his friends had already arrived, Jake went to the locker room after seeing that the fans were filling the Great Western Forum again.
The Los Angeles Lakers team had not won an NBA t.i.tle for many years and fans were very excited that year because they knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team was the favorite this season with Jake joining the team.
Some fans who knew the NBA well also knew that it was impossible for Jake, Shaquille, and Kobe to play together for many seasons because of the quality they had and the high salary that Jake and Kobe would receive in the years to come.
So they wanted the Los Angeles Lakers team to win the NBA t.i.tle this season and maybe win it in the coming seasons as well because they didn"t know how many years the Los Angeles Lakers team would stay that way.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with Jake playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Dennis Rodman playing as PF, and Shaquille O"Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team would start the game with 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 two teams would play with the same players from the last game, after all, they were the best players that the two teams had that were not hurt, so the fans were more excited waiting for another victory.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch the second game at this stage of the playoffs between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs here at the Great Western Forum."
"In the first game between these two teams, the Los Angeles Lakers team won the victory with a memorable performance by Jake Smith who doubled up with 52 points and 10 a.s.sists."
"The San Antonio Spurs team tried a strategy trying to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from catching rebounds and being able to make layups and dunks and that strategy worked because Shaquille O"Neal didn"t score much in that game."
"But that strategy was not enough to bring victory for the San Antonio Spurs team, coach Gregg Popovich said in an interview after the game that he would not change the Spurs team"s strategy for this game, let"s see if in this game they can achieve victory."
Just like the commentators said, the doubt in this game was whether Jake, Kobe, and Rick would play as well in this game as they did in the first one when the Los Angeles Lakers team won if they can"t play as well the San Antonio Spurs team can be more likely to advance to the next stage if you win a game as a visitor.
Jake looked at his teammates and the San Antonio Spurs team players, Jake looked to see where Eva and his friends were watching the game at the Great Western Forum, so Jake concentrated again because he knew that victory in that game depended on him too.