Chapter 546 The New NBA Star 6
The opponent in that game was the Portland Trail Blazers team, who were a tough opponent in two games this season and beat the Los Angeles Lakers team once, the Portland Trail Blazers team was one of the best this season.
The Portland Trail Blazers team had 34 victories and 15 defeats this season, the Portland Trail Blazers team had one of the best attacks and one of the best defenses of the season and that's why they got those good results.
Jake was not concerned about that because the Portland Trail Blazers team had also qualified for the playoffs as well as the Los Angeles Lakers team and would therefore also replace the top players for many minutes.
Jake would play the 48 minutes in that game and he would have an easier time attacking and defending in that game, Jake knew that in the past the Los Angeles Lakers team won that game and so he was confident that the Lakers team would win with him on the team too.
"Welcome to everyone who came to accompany what will be the last game of these two teams this season, in this game the Los Angeles Lakers team faces the Portland Trail Blazers team, the Portland Trail Blazers team was one of the few teams this season that managed to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"The Portland Trail Blazers team had 34 wins and 15 losses this season, even in this season that had fewer games it was an impressive result, so the Portland Trail Blazers team qualified for the playoffs."
"The Portland Trail Blazers team finished second in the Pacific Division and 3 in the Western Conference, it was a great result and that made the Portland Trail Blazers team more confident to win the playoff games and win the NBA title this season."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team playing at home today had one of the best seasons in the team's history that unfortunately cannot be compared to other seasons for having only 50 games."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team has had 43 wins and only 6 losses in 49 games so far, with that result the Los Angeles Lakers team ranked first in the Pacific Division and first in the Western Conference."
"With excellent players like Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Dennis Rodman, Rick Fox, Robert Horry the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to be the team with the best attack, with a good defense, one of the teams that gets more rebounds per game, and also that he makes more steals per game."
"In addition to these excellent players we also have Jake Smith who debuted this season as a rookie and became one of the biggest NBA stars, Jake was chosen 3 times as the rookie of the month and was chosen 3 times as the player of the month."
"The other rookies like Vince Carter who also played very well had no chance of competing with a player who was also chosen as the player of the month every month of this season."
"Jake will definitely be chosen for the NBA All-Rookie First Team and also for the All-NBA Second Team because he is a rookie, otherwise he would be chosen for the first team, and Jake deserved everything he achieved."
"After that game, the Los Angeles Lakers go into the playoffs as the best team and as the favorite team to win the NBA title this season."
Just as commentators said Jake debuted in the NBA this season and was now certainly one of the best NBA players today, Jake helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to be the favorite team to win the NBA title.
If the Los Angeles Lakers team manages to win the NBA title this season it will surely be because of Jake's entry and he will become one of the greatest idols in the history of the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The Los Angeles Lakers team will start this game with Jake Smith 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 Portland Trail Blazers team will start this game with Damon Stoudamire playing as PG, Isaiah Rider playing as SG, Walt Williams playing as SF, Rasheed Wallace playing as PF, and Kelvin Cato playing as Center.
The game started with Shaquille O'Neal winning the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake received the ball and started organizing the first attack for the Lakers team, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick Fox on the left.
Rick received the ball and Walt Williams came pressing on defense, Rick held the ball a little and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Kobe received the ball and Isaiah Rider came pressing on defense.
Kobe made a feint and tricked Rider, Rider still kept defending and Kobe made a crossover to advance to the inside area, Kobe drive to the basket and scored 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Kobe and Shaq knew they would play for a few minutes and so they started the game trying to score, of course, they understood that the playoffs would soon start and these would be the most important games.
Even the Portland Trail Blazers coach would replace the top players in that game because he wanted to advance in the playoffs, so Jake would be more important in that game where he would not be replaced and would play many minutes against substitute players.
In another move, the Portland Trail Blazers team went on the attack, Damon Stoudamire advanced the ball and passed it to Rider on the right, Rider received the ball and Rick arrived pressing the defense, Rider held the ball a little and passed it to Williams on the right.
Williams tried to deceive Kobe with a feint, but Kobe was not deceived, so Williams passed the ball to Rasheed Wallace later on, Wallace received the ball and Dennis Rodman came in to press the defense.
Wallace managed to outwit Rodman with a feint and stepped away to try a hook shot to score 2 points for the Portland Trail Blazers team, the Portland Trail Blazers team was a tough opponent with players who were good at attacking and defending.
Coach Rambis knew this and also knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team had to rely on the strong attack to try to win by scoring more points than the opponent, that was something that the Los Angeles Lakers team had to resolve next season.
Coach Rambis did not know if he would continue as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers team next season, he thought he would not continue as head coach even if the Los Angeles Lakers team won the NBA title this season.
In the sports media, there were already rumors that the Los Angeles Lakers team board was talking to Phil Jackson, with the Los Angeles Lakers team having excellent players could get Coach Jackson's attention.
Even so, coach Rambis was already thinking of hiring other players to improve the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team, of course, Shaq, Kobe and Jake had guaranteed places in the main team next season.
In another move Jake was organizing another attack for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and Williams arrived pressing on defense.
Kobe tried to deceive Williams with a feint, but Williams was not deceived, so Kobe passed the ball to Rick from the left, Rick received the ball and held it a little before passing it to Jake further back.
Jake received the ball and Stoudamire came pressing on the defense, Jake held the ball and waited to see how his teammates moved before making the pass, after a while, Jake saw the move he would make.
Jake made a high pass to Shaq who took the ball high and made the dunk to complete the alley-oop and make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team were excited about this attack.
In that first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team was dominating the game and putting a lot of pressure on the attack, Jake was playing very well and when the main players of the two teams were replaced he played even better in the attack.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a good point advantage, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals.
"The first quarter ends with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game, the Los Angeles Lakers team is playing very well in that game and the Portland Trail Blazers are not playing well in attack and are not able to defend well."
"Jake is being the highlight of the Los Angeles Lakers team in that first quarter, Shaq, Kobe, and Rick are playing well, but they are playing for a few minutes and so they are not going to play as well as in the last games."
"Dennis is also helping a lot with rebounds in that game as well and it can help the Los Angeles Lakers team get the win more easily."
"We will continue to follow up to see if the Los Angeles Lakers team this season, so they can start the playoffs with more confidence."
Just as commentators said the Los Angeles Lakers team players were playing well in that game, the Portland Trail Blazers team coach knew this, but he needed to spare his team's top players for the playoffs.
The biggest difference between the two teams was that Jake who was the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers team could play the full 48 minutes in the game and the best player on the Portland Trail Blazers team had to rest half that time.
Even so, the Portland Trail Blazers tried to start the second quarter by pressing in the attack, Stoudamire advanced with the ball and passed to Williams from the right, Williams received the ball and Kobe arrived pressing in defense.
Williams held the ball a little and passed it to Rider on the right, Rider received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, Rider tried to trick Rick with a feint, but Rick was not fooled and continued to press on defense.
Rider decided to pass the ball to Stoudamire further back, Stoudamire received the ball and Jake was on defense, Stoudamire saw that Jake was away from him and attempted a mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the Portland Trail Blazers.