Be Happy With Sports - Chapter 525
Rick tried to deceive Mills with a feint, but Mills was not deceived and continued to defend, so Rick decided to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Bimbo Coles arrived to defend.
Jake tried a shot from outside and made 3 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, in that game the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were not very well, Kobe would still make a good game, but it was nowhere near the best he could do as in other games.
Rick also wouldn’t be doing very well in that game, luckily the players of the Golden State Warriors team wouldn’t play very well in that game either, so the Los Angeles Lakers team could still achieve victory without playing so well.
In another move, the Golden State Warriors team was on the attack, Coles advanced with the ball and passed to Mills on the right, Mills received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, Mills held the ball a little and passed to Starks on the left.
Starks received the ball and Kobe came pressing on defense, Starks tried a feint and managed to trick Kobe and tried a mid-range shot to score 2 points for the Golden State Warriors team.
The Los Angeles Lakers team continued to push in defense and Jake was leading the attack for the Lakers team, so the first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a good lead on the scoreboard.
In the second quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to push in the attack and the Golden State Warriors team was trying to defend how the players managed, in the third quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team had an even greater advantage in points.
In that game, coach Rambis decided that the opponent was not too difficult and replaced Shaquille O’Neal who played only 30 minutes, in this game Kobe was not replaced and still did not have a great performance.
Dennis Rodman played for a few minutes in that game because coach Rambis decided to let him rest for a longer time in that game, at the end of the game the Los Angeles Lakers team won the victory making 111 points against 74 points from the Golden State Warriors team.
In this game, Jake played for 48 minutes and had 43 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 8 steals, and 2 blocks, in this game Jake attacked more than in other games, but even if he defended well, the opposing team did not attack much and for this, he failed to make more than 8 steals.
Shaq had 20 points in that game and 17 rebounds playing very well even playing for fewer minutes, Kobe had 18 minutes and Rick had 14 points, the Los Angeles Lakers team managed another victory and that was what mattered most to the fans.
“The game with the Los Angeles Lakers team ends with another victory, with the weaker performance of the Lakers team attack Jake standing out with 43 points in that game and leading the team to victory.”
“The Golden State Warriors team did not attack much and focused more on pressing in defense, it worked against some players like Kobe and Rick, but it was not able to stop Jake’s attack.”
“After this game, the Los Angeles Lakers team will have a difficult streak of 6 games as a visitor, if the Lakers team still continues with the winning streak then they will surely be the biggest favorites to win the NBA title.”
With this victory more the players were more excited, but the sequence of games as a visitor was something that worried the players and the coach Rambis too, Jake was also concerned about this because he knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team would lose 3 games of those 6 games as a visitor.
The next day the players would have a day to rest, the team board decided it was best for the players to travel to Sacramento, California, which was where the Los Angeles Lakers team’s next game would be.
Fortunately, this would be a short trip for the Los Angeles Lakers team which would make players less tired, when the players arrived in Sacramento they went to the hotel chosen by the team’s board and the players were able to rest.
The next day the players could have the whole day to rest and coach Rambis would not give any training to the team, this was because the next games would be very tiring and the players had to rest as much as they could in order to play well in the games.
After resting well for a day, the day came for the next game for the Los Angeles Lakers team, for that game Coach Rambis had already warned that Dennis Rodman would not even be a substitute in the game and would not play.
Jake didn’t know if he had any reason for this to happen or if it was just so that Dennis Rodman could rest, but he didn’t talk to Dennis Rodman much in training and Dennis probably wouldn’t talk about it if he had a problem.
After a few hours, the players went to the ARCO Arena to face the opponent in this game that was the Sacramento Kings team, the Sacramento Kings team had the second-best attack this season after the Los Angeles Lakers team.
But unlike the Los Angeles Lakers team, Sacramento Kings had the worst defense this season in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers team had a good defense and with the best attack, they achieved many victories.
In the Sacramento Kings team, there was also the rookie Jason Williams who was a great player, unfortunately, this season there was Jake who was a better PG than he and also Mike Bibby among the rookies, so Jason did not have the recognition he deserved.
“Welcome to everyone who came to watch a game this NBA season, in today’s game the Los Angeles Lakers team faces the Sacramento Kings team, it is the confrontation of the two teams with the best attacks of this season.”
“The Sacramento Kings team has been having a regular season with 9 wins and 12 losses in 21 games, this team has good players like Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, and rookie Jason Williams.”
“The Los Angeles Lakers team has had an excellent season with 21 wins and just 1 loss this season, the Lakers team has all-stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and rookie Jake Smith who has been the best player on that team.”
“The Los Angeles Lakers team has been playing better this season, but this is a game in which we cannot know that they will win, especially since the Sacramento Kings team plays at home.”
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with 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.
The Sacramento Kings team would start the game with Jason Williams playing as PG, Tariq Abdul-Wahad playing as SG, Peja Stojaković playing as SF, Chris Webber playing as PF, and Vlade Divac playing as Center.
The game started with Shaquille O’Neal winning the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaq passed the ball to Jake who started organizing the attack, Jake advanced the ball and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Tariq Abdul-Wahad came in to press the defense, Kobe held the ball and passed it to Robert Horry ahead, Robert received the ball and Chris Webber came in to press the defense.
Robert protected the ball and passed it to Rick Fox further on the left, Rick received the ball and Peja Stojaković arrived pressing in defense, so Rick passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the free ball on the right and Tariq was not close to him.
So Kobe tried a mid-range shot to score 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the Los Angeles Lakers team started pressing in the attack even though they were the visiting team, the players knew they were better in the attack and the Sacramento Kings team didn’t have one good defense.
In another play the Sacramento Kings team was on the attack, Jason Williams advanced with the ball and passed to Tariq on the left, Tariq received the ball and Kobe came pressing on the defense.
Tariq held the ball and passed it to Peja on the right, Peja received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, Peja tried a feint and managed to trick Rick and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 points for the Sacramento Kings team.
Just as everyone thought the two teams started the game by pressing forward, so in that game, the team where the players had a better performance would win, luckily for the Los Angeles Lakers team Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were playing well in that game.
But Rick Fox and the other players were not doing so well, Jake was playing very well too and would try to help the Los Angeles Lakers team achieve that victory that they did not achieve in Jake’s past life.
In another move Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and Peja came pressing on the defense, Rick tried to trick Peja with a feint, but Peja was not fooled and Rick passed to Kobe on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Tariq came in pressing on defense, Kobe held the ball and passed it to Jake in the back, Jake received the ball and Jason arrived pressing in defense, Jake made a feint and stepped back and tried an outside shot to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake was paying a lot of attention on defense because Jason Williams was playing well in that game and Jake knew that Jason was a very skilled player, Jason also realized that Jake was pushing on defense and that made Jason tenser.
In another play the Sacramento Kings team was on the attack, Jason advanced with the ball and passed to Tariq on the left, Tariq received the ball and Kobe came pressing on the defense, Tariq tried to trick Kobe with a feint, but Kobe was not fooled.
So Tariq passed the ball to Jason further behind Jason received the ball and Jake arrived pressing on the defense, Jason held the ball and passed the ball to Chris Webber further on the left, Chris received the ball and Robert Horry arrived pressing on the defense.
Chris used his strength to move closer to the painted area, Robert could not defend well against Chris, so Chris moved forward and moved away to try a hook shot and make 2 more points for the Sacramento Kings team.