Chapter 486 NBA Season Begins 10
"That"s right, we can see that the players of the San Antonio Spurs team are having a difficult time playing in attack and defense, Tim Duncan, Avery Johnson, and David Robinson are managing to play well even with the strong defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"But Mario Elis and Sean Elliott are having a hard time making the attack and defense plays with Kobe Bryant and Jake Smith playing so well, and the Los Angeles Lakers team"s attack has been better in that game too."
"Jake Smith is making another great game with 15 points until the break of that game, he made two beautiful attacking plays and one of those plays came with a steal he made, Jake has an average in the two games he played this season of 5 steals per game."
"Yes, if he continues like that he can break the record on average steals per game in one season in the NBA, and it has helped the Los Angeles Lakers team this season a lot."
In the third quarter the San Antonio Spurs team wanted the victory so the players started to put more pressure on the attack and defense, Coach Harris also wanted the victory and asked that the team also put more pressure on defense and attack.
In an attack move by the San Antonio Spurs Johnson team came with the ball and pa.s.sed it to Elis, Elis quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Duncan who moved away from Robert Horry who was defending very well against Duncan in that game.
Duncan tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team, even though Horry played well in defense and O"Neal tried to help in defense it was difficult to stop Duncan"s attack.
In this game, because David Robinson was being well defended by Shaquille O"Neal, it was Tim Duncan who had to work harder in the attack to score the points or try to get the rebounds over O"Neal, Bryant, and Jake from the Lakers team.
The Los Angeles Lakers team quickly reacted and Kobe Bryant made one for the individual play and tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing, Shaquille O"Neal caught the rebound and saw that he was pressured by the defense of the opposing players and pa.s.sed the ball to Jake through left.
Jake received the ball and the defense concentrated on him, so he made a high pa.s.s for Shaquille O"Neal to take the high and make the dunk by completing the alley-oop and making 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
O"Neal praised Jake again for the pa.s.s and they soon went back to defense, Jake made a lot of a.s.sists for O"Neal and Bryant and everyone knew that was his style of play, so Fisher didn"t mind not being the player who he was making a.s.sists because he knew he would soon be no longer a starting player for the Lakers team.
Coach Harris also knew he could leave the team and wanted to win several games before he had to leave the team, after all, he could coach other teams after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers.
The San Antonio Spurs team went for another attacking move and after a beautiful move Johnson received the ball further back, Jake was pressing in defense against Elliott, Steve Kerr had taken over from Mario Elis.
Kerr entered the game much better than Elis and Bryant were having difficulty defending against him, Johnson pa.s.sed the ball to Kerr from the left, Kerr received the ball and tried the shot from outside and scored with 3 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
In another move by the Los Angeles Lakers Fisher team, he came with the ball and pa.s.sed it to Kobe Bryant, Steve Kerr was defending against Bryant and O"Neal was resting on the reserve bench, so there was another player pressing in defense against Bryant.
Bryant pa.s.sed the ball to Jake who was on the left and already advanced to the inside area, Jake received the ball and this time he had two players defending against him, Jake made a bounce pa.s.s with the ball hitting the ground before reaching Kobe"s hands Bryant in the inner area and he dunks to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Bryant did not expect to receive a pa.s.s with the ball hitting the ground when Jake did not have a clear vision to make the a.s.sist, but that was better because the opponents did not wait for this move either.
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning and Jake again being one of the best players in the game, in that third quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and made 9 points, 4 a.s.sists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals.
"What a great third quarter for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the players on both teams had to rest for a few minutes and Jake Smith didn"t leave the court in that game again and played the 36 minutes so far."
"In this game, Jake Smith has received more pa.s.ses from his teammates and has made more good plays and it seems that he forgot that he is playing at the Alamodome which is home to the San Antonio Spurs team."
"That"s right, I rarely saw a rookie playing so well in the first games of a debut season, and even more playing improvised like SF and on a team that has stars like Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant."
"The San Antonio Spurs team is also doing a good game, Tim Duncan is playing as well as ever and the other players are also working hard, but the Los Angeles Lakers team looks stronger in that game."
In the last quarter of that game, the two teams decreased the intensity of the game even though they were still trying to win the game, this was because the Los Angeles Lakers team had a big advantage on the scoreboard and all players would have another game after two days.
Jake continued to play well and so the Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 95 points against 69 points for the San Antonio Spurs team, Jake played for 12 minutes in that last quarter and made 7 points, 3 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Jake got another triple-double in that game and left all his teammates and the sports media surprised by his performance, with the first three games of this season being great and making a triple-double in two of them it was impossible not to recognize Jake Smith"s talent.
"And so the game ends with another victory for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the first of them playing as a visitor and the third this season, in a shorter season like this a sequence of 3 victories is very important for any team."
"Jake Smith was once again the name of that game, he made another triple-double with 31 points, 13 a.s.sists, and 10 rebounds, this season Jake Smith has averaged a triple-double after that game."
"This is certainly incredible for any NBA player and Jake Smith is a rookie and plays on a team with Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant, many other rookies have been performing very well this NBA season, but Jake has been showing performance from another level."
"The San Antonio Spurs team played well in the game today, but against the strong attack of the Los Angeles Lakers team they could not defend well, and being able to defend the San Antonio Spurs team did not win."
"In addition to Jake Smith, Tim Duncan performed well for the San Antonio Spurs team, and alongside the Los Angeles Lakers team Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant played in that game too."
"That"s right, Smith gets the a.s.sists more easily because he can pa.s.s the ball to Bryant and O"Neal, the three together had 80 points and 34 rebounds, which shows how important the three players are to the Los Angeles Lakers."
"We will continue to follow the games of the Los Angeles Lakers team to see if they can win this season"s NBA t.i.tle with this strong team."
After this excellent game by Jake, the media started talking a lot about him, after all, Jake had an excellent debut in the NBA and his first games could make him the MVP of the season if he continued with these good averages in all games.
Jake talked to all his teammates and was always very humble, so team stars Shaquille O"Neal and Kobe Bryant were not bothered by Jake having more media attention than they were.
Coach Harris also had no doubts and would put Jake to play as PG in the next game, after all, he was not so happy with the performance of Derek Fisher in the last games, for him Fisher was the player who helped less in the victories.
Coach Harris liked how Rick Fox played and Fox was a player who helped in defense and had the quality to score more than 9 points per game, as the team didn"t have a lot of SF to put, it would be better to let Rick Fox play and Jake playing as PG he played better.
Players would travel to Denver, Colorado to play the next game, the Los Angeles Lakers team would have a day of rest and training before the next game, and players needed that day of rest with the intensity of the games.
Arriving in Denver the players went to rest at the hotel and Jake, who was not so tired, called his mother to talk, Jake talked to his mother every day after the games.
After all, Eva wasn"t always able to watch the game in Miami and so Jake called her to tell her about the game and also to talk to his mother, after all, even though he was so busy, Jake still worried a lot about Eva.
"Hi, mom, how are you today?"
"Is everything okay here, Jake, and how was your game?"
"It was great, we won that game and I did a triple-double, in the next game Coach Harris will put me to play in my PG position and if I continue playing well I can guarantee my place in the starting team."
"I"m glad to hear that, Jake, I know that your dream since the age of 10 has always been to play in the NBA, and now you are making that dream come true even though you don"t need that money anymore."