Chapter 485 NBA Season Begins 9
Just as the commentators said everyone thought the same, the Los Angeles Lakers team had the advantage in that game and could get their third win in a row if they performed well.
Coach Harris was also looking for victory and finally put Robert Horry on the main team, so the Los Angeles Lakers team had Derek Fisher as PG, Kobe Bryant as SG, Jake Smith as SF, Robert Horry as PF, and Shaquille O"Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team had as initial 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.
Certainly, the San Antonio Spurs team had a stronger team defensively and if they can stop the attack from the Los Angeles Lakers team they may be able to win that game, and Jake had to help in the attack so that it didn"t happen.
The game started with the Sun Antonio Spurs team getting the first ball possession, so Johnson started to move forward to organize the first move for the San Antonio Spurs team.
Johnson came forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Elliott on the right, Jake already arrived to press in defense and Elliott tried to do the feint and when he saw that he could not deceive Jake pa.s.sed ahead to Robinson.
O"Neal was pressing in defense against Robinson and Robinson was unable to make the move and pa.s.sed the ball to Tim Duncan, Duncan received the ball and Horry was well defending against him, but Duncan tried a hook and scored the first 2 points of the game for the San Antonio Spurs team.
The crowd at the Alamodome was excited about the first points in Duncan"s game, the Los Angeles Lakers team players were already waiting for this and Fisher started to move forward, Fisher pa.s.sed the ball to Jake on the left.
Jake received the ball and managed to get rid of Elliott and advanced to the inside area when other players of the San Antonio Spurs team tried to defend against Jake he pa.s.sed the ball to O"Neal later on, O"Neal received the ball and made the layup to make 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team and tie the game.
From the beginning of the game Jake has already shown that he would go more into the attack, he wanted to attract the attention of the defense to him so that Bryant and O"Neal would have more freedom to make the plays, only attacking that his team would be able to win against the team defensive of the San Antonio Spurs.
In another play the San Antonio Spurs team went on the attack and Johnson pa.s.sed the ball to Elliott on the right, Jake was pressing on the defense again and Elliott pa.s.sed to Duncan on the left.
Duncan received the ball and Horry was also pus.h.i.+ng in defense, O"Neal was defending against Robinson, but if Duncan tried to layup again he would try the block, Duncan knew he couldn"t be the only one on the team to attack and made the pa.s.s to Mario Elie.
Elie received the ball and tried the mid-range shot to hit and score 2 points for the San Antonio Spurs team, the San Antonio Spurs team realized that this Lakers team was much more defensive than in other games and it would be difficult for them to attack too.
In another attack by the Los Angeles Lakers, the ball landed in the hands of Kobe Bryant, Bryant pa.s.sed it to Horry who received the pa.s.s and Duncan pressed the defense, Horry pa.s.sed it to Jake on the left who a.n.a.lyzed the move and pa.s.sed it to Bryant who was free now.
Bryant received the ball and attempted the mid-range shot and hit it with 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the sports media already said that Jake was doing a lot more a.s.sists than Derek Fisher even playing as SF.
It wasn"t because Jake wanted to show that he was better than Fisher, but Jake knew how to take advantage of opportunities to make a.s.sists at a time when his teammates could already attempt the shot to score.
Fisher did not have this vision of making the a.s.sists at the right time and when he made the a.s.sists, the Lakers players scored the same points, Fisher knew that and was not irritated that Jake had more a.s.sists than he.
The San Antonio Spurs team went for another attack and after a good move Duncan pa.s.sed to Elliott, Jake was close to Elliott who attempted the mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
It was close to the end of the first quarter and Elliott did not risk many plays with Jake defending against him, so Jake had only managed one steal in that game, but with this pressure from the Lakers team players, Jake had already caught 3 rebounds in that first quarter.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a small advantage, the defenses of the two teams got in the way, but the Lakers team had the advantage in rebounds and making less of an attack.
In that first quarter, Jake played for 12 minutes and made 6 points, 3 a.s.sists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal, it was a good game for Jake who was trying to leave the Lakers team with the advantage in the game and did not focus on making many points.
"What a good game we have been following so far, we have the Los Angeles Lakers team that has one of the best attacks this season against the San Antonio Spurs team that has one of the best defenses."
"For the time being, the two teams don"t seem to try their hardest to win, the Los Angeles Lakers team"s attack was not as strong and the defense surprised, even though they still have the advantage in the game."
"The attack by the San Antonio team is not very strong and besides Tim Duncan, the other players seem to be having a hard time attacking, we will follow in the second quarter if the two teams try harder to achieve victory."
Commentators said the two teams did not seem to want the victory, but the truth was that the teams were choosing the best path to attack, the Lakers team was not trying to attack with Horry and Fisher and the San Antonio Spurs team was trying more to attack with Duncan.
The Los Angeles Lakers team had to put more pressure on the defense to make the opposing team"s players miss the attacks so that they could get the rebounds to attack and the San Antonio Spurs team had to try the same.
But with Jake in the Lakers team, they had more of an advantage for making less of an attack and could also get more rebounds with him, in one play the San Antonio Spurs attempted the attacking play and Avery Johnson pa.s.sed the ball to Sean Elliott on the right.
Elliott caught the ball and Jake soon pressed in defense, Elliott tried to get away and managed, Mario Elis moved and Elliott tried the pa.s.s to Elis, but Jake was attentive in the play and managed to intercept the pa.s.s getting the steal and ran for the attack.
Elliott who missed the pa.s.s and Johnson were further behind and went back to defense when Jake got the steal, Jake was quick and soon pa.s.sed Elliott, so only Johnson was within the three-point line to try to defend against Jake.
Jake continued to advance with speed and made his characteristic move at the university, he took a step to the right and made the body move that would go to the right to deceive the opponent, then Jake did the spin and ended the move with a dunk.
That move was LeBron James" unstoppable Spin Move, even fans of the San Antonio Spurs team had to applaud Jake"s beautiful play and dunk, Jake"s teammates also praised him as they went back to defense.
Jake was fine in that game and after two games he was already drawing more attention from the opposing team"s defense and giving Bryant and O"Neal more s.p.a.ce to play and score points, the San Antonio Spurs team still wanted victory and went on the attack again.
Elliott was more attentive to making the moves so Jake would not make another steal, but that puts even more pressure on him to make the moves correctly, after a while of the game the plays were all with Duncan and Robinson.
Elliott pa.s.sed the ball to Johnson further back, Johnson received the ball and attempted the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team, Avery Johnson was also able to make some attacks because Fisher was unable to defend well against him.
The Los Angeles Lakers team attacked again and Fisher pa.s.sed the ball to Jake on the left, Jake received the ball and held it just before pa.s.sing it to Bryant on the right, Kobe Bryant tried a feint and seeing that Elis had not been tricked he pa.s.sed it on to Jake again from the left.
Jake tried another speed shot and this time Elliott followed, so Jake did a crossover and a step back, and Elliott who was trying to follow Jake"s movements ended up falling to the ground, Jake tried an outside shot to make 3 more points for the team Los Angeles Lakers.
The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team again praised Jake for this beautiful move, they couldn"t imagine how Jake was not an SF after playing as well as other great NBA players.
The second quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team with the lead on the scoreboard, a good game from Jake, Bryant, and O"Neal who was making the game more difficult for the San Antonio Spurs" defense.
In that second quarter of the game Jake played for 12 minutes and made 9 points, 3 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, Jake was getting a lot more pa.s.ses from his teammates and so he could make a lot more plays helping the team to win more easily.
"What a beautiful game we have followed up until that break, the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning the game so far and the Lakers players are clearly better than the San Antonio Spurs players."