Chapter 576 - West Conference Finals 6
Soon the game started and the San Antonio Spurs team won the ball to make the first attack of the game, soon everyone could see that the San Antonio Spurs team decided to start the game under pressure in the attack.
Just as coach Gregg Popovich said the San Antonio Spurs team had to do the defense team well and also score more points than the Los Angeles Lakers team if they wanted to win, so the more points the Spurs team managed to make, the easier it was for they get the victory.
As soon as the Los Angeles Lakers team started to focus more on defense to try to prevent the San Antonio Spurs team from starting to dominate the game, Shaq and Dennis Rodman had to focus more on defense to defend against Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Jake also wanted to help in defense, but the San Antonio Spurs team knew that he was one of the best players in defending the Los Angeles Lakers team and so Avery Johnson was not partic.i.p.ating in attacking plays much more than giving pa.s.ses.
So Jake could not approach Duncan and Robinson to attempt a robbery, it is clear that even so in the first game Jake managed a lot of thefts by intercepting Johnson"s pa.s.ses and stealing b.a.l.l.s.
The San Antonio Spurs team continued on the attack and managed for a moment to open a small advantage on the scoreboard, but the Los Angeles Lakers" team also attacked even if they concentrated more on defense.
Just as coach Gregg Popovich said that the San Antonio Spurs team would continue with the same strategy as the first game, just as Shaquille O"Neal was not able to score many points and Kobe Bryant also did not make points in the painted area of the Spurs team.
Coach Kurt Rambis seeing this decided to send the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team to attack only to do mid-range and with shots from outside, after all, it was Coach Rambis who asked the players to test whether a San Antonio Spurs team would continue with the same strategy as the first game.
So Jake started trying more individual shots in the first quarter and realized that in that game only Avery Johnson was defending against him again, so Jake confidently started making individual shots and trying three-point shots.
To the sadness of the San Antonio Spurs team players, it seemed that Jake was doing very well in that game too and he hit the first four shots from three points in the first quarter and thus caused the Los Angeles Lakers team to tie the game.
Seeing this, Coach Popovich decided to take a chance and asked Sean Elliott to defend against Jake as well, so Rick Fox would be left with no one to defend against him, after all, Coach Popovich could not leave Kobe Bryant without anyone to defend against him and he could not change the strategy the painted area too.
So Jake started pa.s.sing the ball over to Rick Fox and Kobe Bryant too, luckily for the Los Angeles Lakers team in that game the two were very well too and managed to hit some mid-range shots, and thus the Lakers team"s lead on the scoreboard increased.
"The first quarter ends with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a good lead on the scoreboard, the San Antonio Spurs team put a lot of pressure on the attack, but unfortunately for them, the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team was very good in that first quarter."
"It is true, the players of the San Antonio Spurs team also missed many attacks and this cannot happen in a game like this, coach Gregg Popovich decided to try the same strategy as the first game, and again they were unable to maintain the advantage on the scoreboard."
"Jake Smith is playing very well in that game and managed to hit four shots from three points in a row in that first quarter, then coach Popovich decided to ask Sean Elliott to also defend against Jake, but with Rick Fox and Kobe Bryant having good performances the Los Angeles team Lakers still got the advantage. "
"It seems that the Los Angeles Lakers team has a better chance of winning this game at home, the San Antonio Spurs team has to hit most of the attacks and hope that Kobe and Rick start making more mistakes."
In the second quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team continued to press in the attack and trying to press in the defense using the same strategy as the first quarter, but Kobe and Rick continued to hit the attacks and so the Los Angeles Lakers team kept the advantage on the scoreboard.
When Sean Elliott tried to go out to defend against Rick, Jake took advantage and tried more shots from three points and further increased the advantage of the Los Angeles Lakers team, so Elliott tried only when Rick was close to attempting the mid-range shot.
In fact, Jake managed to keep attacking even with Elliott and Johnson defending against him, but Jake realized that it was easier for the Lakers team to score more points if he pa.s.sed the ball, after all, Jake knew he was more likely to miss three shots points if two players were defending against him.
The game continued like this and ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning, the Lakers team had 112 points, against San Antonio Spurs" 95 points, with this victory the Los Angeles Lakers team will arrive with confidence for both games as a visitor.
In that game Jake played for all 48 minutes and had 45 points, 14 a.s.sists, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals, it was another good game in which Jake was very important for the Los Angeles Lakers team"s victory, unfortunately, because of the team"s strategy, San Antonio Spurs Jake failed to steal and rebound.
"The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team gets a second very important home win to advance to the NBA Finals, if the Lakers team gets a victory as a visitor they have to win just one more home game to advance to the next stage."
"In this game, the San Antonio Spurs team tried the same strategy as the first game to prevent Shaquille O"Neal from scoring too many points and the Los Angeles Lakers team from getting too many rebounds, in addition, coach Gregg Popovich had two players defend against Jake in that game."
"Unfortunately for the San Antonio Spurs team, Rick Fox and Kobe Bryant had another good performance and that is why the Los Angeles Lakers team got the advantage from the first quarter and the game remained the same in all quarters."
"Now the Los Angeles Lakers team has two victories and needs only two more victories to go to the final, the next two games will be in the home of the San Antonio Spurs team, if the Lakers team gets one more victory in those two games they will be favorites to advance to the NBA Finals."
After that game the players of both teams did not want to speak to the reporters, the players of the San Antonio Spurs team were disappointed with the defeat and the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were very happy, but as they knew that the next games would be at home from the Spurs team, they thought it was best not to say anything.
So right after the game was over, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team left, Jake met his mother and his friends and they left for his house together, the next game would be in 4 days and so Jake knew that I had time to rest and stay with Eva and his friends before traveling to San Antonio.
"Congratulations on your victory, Jake, I am very happy to see that you are very close to playing the NBA Finals in your first year in the NBA."
"Thank you, William, I am very happy with this victory too, but it only happened because I was lucky to have great teammates, it was to play with Shaq, Kobe, and the others that I wanted to come to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
"It"s true, Jake, but without you, I don"t think your team had a chance to win the NBA t.i.tle this season, I see how long the Los Angeles Lakers team hasn"t had a PG as good as you do."
"That"s why I wanted to come to the Los Angeles Lakers team, I knew they needed a good PG this season, and I know I can be one of the best PG this season."
It was hard for Jake to talk to his friends about what the NBA would be like if he weren"t playing, after all, he knew exactly what things would be like if he wasn"t on the Los Angeles Lakers team, but if he spoke up he seemed to be sure people could find him very arrogant.
Eva didn"t know what Jake was thinking and was happy to see how humble Jake looked talking to his friends, even though she rarely saw Jake talking like he was the best even with many people in the media saying he could be this season"s MVP.
After Eva, Jake, and his friends got home they were able to relax and Jake asked Mary to make a sandwich for all of them and so they talked for some more time before everyone went to sleep.
The other day in the morning, Jake woke up and saw that Eva had already prepared pancakes for him and his friends, Jake went to read the newspaper while waiting for his friends and saw the news about yesterday"s game and also about the economy.
Many economists already talked every day in the newspaper and on television programs about the stock market bubble, everyone who studied the stock market knew it was strange that the bubble had not yet burst, so they could just speculate what day the bubble burst.
Of course, some also tried to warn ordinary people that they began to invest money in stocks even though they mortgaged their homes that it was not the time to invest and that it was better for everyone who had invested in stocks to sell the shares.
Some economists only cared about fame and some feared the repercussions of what would happen after the market crashed, after all, dozens of companies could go bankrupt and this would greatly weaken the world economy.