Chapter 514 A Different Team 2
The other day after the players were able to rest, it was announced that Bill Bertka would no longer be the main coach of the team in the next game and would return to be the a.s.sistant coach, who is the main coach was Kurt Rambis who was also an a.s.sistant coach of the team.
What was announced was that this time Kurt Rambis would be the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers team until the end of the season, this calmed the players who would be unsure if the team changed the main coach several times in a season.
The next game for the Los Angeles Lakers team would be again in Los Angeles, with the Lakers team being the team that would play at home this time, it would be again against the Los Angeles Clippers team and the players would not underestimate the opponent in that game.
That game would be the debut of Dennis Rodman and coach Kurt Rambis too, Coach Rambis said in his first training that he intended to replace the starting players again to save them for the next games.
The Los Angeles Lakers team already had 13 games in the month of February and would have 2 more games before the month ended, so they would have an average of 1 game every 2 days, this month had fewer days and they had the first game on February 5th.
So it was natural for players to get tired after so many games and even to risk injury, that"s why Jake was so impressive for being able to play every 48 minutes in every game.
After a few hours, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team went to the Great Western Forum, with the Lakers team playing at home the crowd was all around them in this game and that made the players more excited.
"Welcome everyone to another game this NBA season, we will once again have the game between the Los Angeles Lakers team and the Los Angeles Clippers team, in yesterday"s game the Lakers team achieved a great victory with a good performance of Jake Smith and Robert Horry. "
"So in this game, the Los Angeles Lakers team is the big favorite, especially with this performance of 12 victories in 13 games, this game also has the debut of Dennis Rodman who won 5 NBA t.i.tle playing in two different teams and hopes to win one more NBA t.i.tle with the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"In addition to Rodman"s debut, we also have the debut of coach Kurt Rambis, the Lakers team changed coaches again after the victory in yesterday"s game, now we hope that coach Rambis will stay until the end of the season."
The Los Angeles Clippers team would start the game with the same starting players as the previous game, Derek Harper playing as PG, Eddie Jones playing as SG, Rodney Rogers playing as SF, Elden Campbell playing as PF, and Lorenzen Wright playing as Center.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with only one chance in the starting team, Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Robert Horry playing as PF, and Shaquille O"Neal playing as Center.
Robert Horry showed that he had recovered from his health problem in the previous game and would start playing, Dennis Rodman would come in to play as a subst.i.tute, so Robert could rest for a few minutes and Rodman would make his debut.
Shaquille O"Neal won the first possession of the ball for the Los Angeles Lakers, Jake received the ball and advanced to organize the first attack of the game, Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Kobe Bryant on the right.
Kobe received the ball and tried a feint to outwit Eddie Jones, Jones was not deceived so Kobe pa.s.sed the ball to Rick Fox on the left, Rick received the ball and Rodney Rogers arrived to press on defense.
Rick managed to trick Rogers with a feint and advanced to the corner of the court on the left side, Rogers still tried to recover and come back to defend, but Rick tried a mid-range shot to make the first 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The Los Angeles Clippers team soon went on the attack and Derek Harper was arranging the play, Harper moved forward and pa.s.sed the ball to Eddie Jones on the left, Jones received the ball and Kobe came to defend.
Jones tried to trick Kobe with a feint, but Kobe was not fooled, so Jones pa.s.sed the ball to Rogers on the right, Rodney managed to get away from Rick and tried a mid-range shot to score 2 points for the Los Angeles Clippers team.
In this second game, the attack by the Los Angeles Clippers team was not as strong as in the previous game, but the attack by the Los Angeles Lakers team was fine, in this game Kobe Bryant wanted to play much better even though he had to play for fewer minutes.
In the last game, Kobe did not perform well in attack or defense, in this game, he was much better in attack and defense, Robert and Rick were not playing so well in attack because the defense of the Los Angeles Clippers team was defending better against them.
In another attacking move Jake advanced the ball and pa.s.sed it to Rick from the left, Rick received the ball and Rogers came to press on defense, Rick held the ball for a while and pa.s.sed it to Jake further back.
Jake received the ball and Harper came to press on defense, Jake made a quick feint and managed to trick Harper and move forward using his agility, Jake advanced into the inside area and the Los Angeles Clippers team"s defense tried to stop him.
Jake was quick and pa.s.sed the ball to Kobe on the right while the defense was paying attention to him, Kobe received the ball and drive to the basket and scored two more points for the Lakers team with a layup.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a good point advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 4 a.s.sists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, in that first quarter only Shaquille O"Neal was replaced by more time, so the Lakers team still managed to attack well.
In the second quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to put pressure on the attack, coach Rambis started to replace the players seeing that the Lakers team had the advantage on the scoreboard.
So in the second quarter Dennis Rodman made his debut on the Los Angeles Lakers team replacing Robert Horry, everyone knew that Dennis Rodman came to the Los Angeles Lakers team to help defend and also help catch rebounds.
Jake knew that too, so he wouldn"t make as many a.s.sists for Rodman in the games, in another move the Los Angeles Lakers team went for the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Kobe on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Jones came to press on defense, Kobe tried to trick the opponent with a feint, but Jones was not fooled, so Kobe had to pa.s.s the ball to Rick from the left.
Rick received the ball and Rogers came in to press the defense, Rick held the ball a little and pa.s.sed it to Jake in the back, Jake received the ball and Derek Harris was pressing in the defense, Jake stepped back and tried the shot from outside to do more three points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake learned in his imagination training that against opponents who were good at defense, he had to be quick to try the three-point shot to avoid the block, so he was able to hit the three-point shots in his imagination training against opponents of rank SS and also managed in the NBA.
The Los Angeles Clippers team wanted to win that game and had to start putting pressure on the attack too, the players were not doing so well in the game and were missing many attacks, so Coach Rambis decided to put Dennis Rodman in the game.
Harper advanced with the ball and pa.s.sed to Jones on the left, Jones received the ball and Kobe was pressing in defense, Jones tried a feint, but Kobe was not fooled and pressed further in defense.
Jones realized this and pa.s.sed the ball to Rogers on the right, Rogers received the ball and Rick also came pressing on the defense, Rogers tried to use his speed to get rid of the defense, but Rick continued to follow and was firm in defense.
So Rogers had to pa.s.s the ball to Harper in the back, Harper tried a feint and managed to get away from Jake, so Harper had to try a shot from outside because the time of possession was running out.
Harper missed the shot from outside and Dennis Rodman arrived to catch the defensive rebound, with Shaquille O"Neal being replaced only Jake and Kobe could catch the rebounds, and with Rodman coming in it helped the team.
The Los Angeles Lakers team continued to play well throughout the game and ended the game with another victory, the Los Angeles Lakers team scored 114 points against 95 points of the Los Angeles Clippers team.
In that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 32 points, 15 a.s.sists, 7 rebounds, and 9 steals, it was another double-double for Jake and a good game for the Lakers team, Kobe returned to play well even though he was still replaced by a few minutes, and Shaq also played well with the little time he had in the game.
"The game is over, the Los Angeles Lakers team managed another victory this season, Dennis Rodman also had a great debut catching 12 rebounds and making 6 a.s.sists, everyone knows that the Los Angeles Lakers team wants him to catch the rebounds and he worked hard to do this even while playing for less time in that game."
"Kobe Bryant played well in this different from the previous game and helped the Lakers team, Shaq also performed well even playing for less than 25 minutes in that game, and Jake led the team to victory again with a great performance with 32 points and 15 a.s.sists."
"The Los Angeles Clippers team did not play as well in that game, Eddie Jones still performed well and Rodney Rogers also played well, but they missed a lot in attack and were unable to stop the Lakers" attack."