Be Happy With Sports - Chapter 580

The next morning Jake had a good breakfast with his teammates, everyone was excited after the third win and everyone was confident they could advance to the NBA Finals.

After everyone was finished eating coach Kurt Rambis told everyone they would have the day to rest because he wanted all the players in top physical condition for the next game.

Coach Rambis also gave another motivational speech for the players, coach Rambis knew how in these playoff games the emotional and psychological part was as important as the physical preparation for the players, in addition, it was not very difficult to cheer up the players with three wins.

“You need just one more win to reach the NBA Finals, I know how you all trained as hard as you could and tried hard to get here, and that effort paid off, we got 3 wins and we only need one more win.”

“In the next game, even though we’re playing at the Alamodome which is home to the opponents the pressure will be all on the San Antonio Spurs team, they need four more wins to advance to the NBA Finals and we only need one more win.”

“Think of the Los Angeles Lakers fans in the next game, they’ve been 11 years without seeing the team be NBA title champions, now we’re very close to giving that joy to our fans.”

That was a good speech that served to motivate the players and also to relieve some of the pressure that all players felt knowing they were favorites to advance to the NBA Finals and win this season’s NBA title.

Jake was also more motivated after hearing Coach Rambis’ speech, of course, Jake knew that victory in the next game wouldn’t just depend on his performance if Rick Fox, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal performed well in the next game to victory would be theirs.

What Jake didn’t know was that all the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team thought like him, they all knew that Jake always played well in every game and so if they lost the next game it would be their fault.

Jake had no way of knowing this, but after he made it to the Los Angeles Lakers team and had a great season he managed to get rid of most of the problems other players had because of their ego as players.

That didn’t mean that other players like Shaq and Kobe didn’t have a lot of self-confidence that bordered on arrogance anymore, but they knew that as long as they were on the same team as Jake they would never be the main player on the team.

Also, they couldn’t get mad at Jake because they knew how modest Jake was and didn’t have any of the arrogance that most top players had, so they just respected Jake and hoped to win the NBA title this season to comfort themselves for not being the best player on the team.

Jake didn’t know what Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant thought of him, the truth was that Jake wasn’t arrogant because he was over 50 years old of mental age, Jake had a lot of trouble when he spent years not being able to walk just dealing with the pity that other people felt for him.

Also, Jake who came from the future knew very well what Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant meant to basketball years after they retired, so it was hard for him to become arrogant being on the same team playing only the first season of the NBA.

After talking a little with Shaq and Kobe, Jake decided to go out to the hotel where Eva was staying, coach Rambis wanted to give this day of rest so that the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team had the best physical condition for the game in the next day.

Jake liked this break and understood how important it was, after all even he who had a body reinforced by the system was very tired after that last game, after all, all playoff games were very intense.

So Jake could imagine how tired the other players must be after the last game, it was really lucky that in these playoffs the Los Angeles Lakers players didn’t have any injuries.

So Jake spent the whole day with his mother going to know the city of San Antonio, Jake also called Kate in the afternoon to talk to her about the latest victory, even Eva spoke a little with Kate when they were talking.

Eva knew how Jake liked Kate and knew that Jake was putting extra effort in the last few games because of the promise to meet Kate at the NBA Finals games, Eva was also very fond of Kate and knew she was very fond of Jake too.

After a relaxed day Jake dropped Eva off at the hotel she was at before heading back to the hotel the Los Angeles Lakers team was to rest well before the next game, Jake went to rest early because he knew the next game would be maybe the most intense of these playoffs.

Soon the day of the next game arrived, Jake woke up early as well as all the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake also noticed that everyone was much tenser than the last day because they knew that this game was important.

Jake knew the pressure from the San Antonio Spurs side should be much higher, but the Los Angeles Lakers players were also tense because they knew they were favorites to advance to the next round.

After a few hours, the Los Angeles Lakers players headed to the Alamodome for the next game, when Jake arrived he realized that the San Antonio Spurs fans still came to support the San Antonio team even though they knew they would advance to the NBA Finals would be nearly impossible.

The Los Angeles Lakers players put on their uniforms in the locker room and then went out on the court to warm up, when they arrived on court Jake saw that the San Antonio Spurs team players looked a lot tenser than they did and so he relaxed a little.

The San Antonio Spurs team would start the game with Avery Johnson playing PG, Mario Elie playing SG, Sean Elliott playing SF, Tim Duncan playing PF, and David Robinson playing Center.

The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with Jake playing PG, Kobe Bryant playing SG, Rick Fox playing SF, Dennis Rodman playing PF, and Shaquille O’Neal playing Center.

The two teams were the same as in the last games, after all these were the best players the two teams had for this game, Jake started to get tenser before the start of the game, he hoped he could help the Los Angeles Lakers team more in this game.

“Welcome to everyone who came to watch this Conference Finals four-game, today will be the Conference Finals game four between the Los Angeles Lakers team and the San Antonio Spurs team and the last chance for the San Antonio Spurs team to keep dreaming of the NBA Finals.”

“The Los Angeles Lakers team won the first three games of this Conference Finals and is virtually guaranteed to advance to the NBA Finals in those playoffs, even if the Los Angeles Lakers team loses today they still have three more chances to win and advance to the NBA Endings.”

“It’s true, the Los Angeles Lakers team comes as favorites to advance to win the NBA title this season after making the best campaign of the regular season, they remain favorites after playing great games in these playoffs.”

“Shaquille O’Neal has been making one of the best seasons of his career, Kobe Bryant is making perhaps his best season since he debuted in the NBA, Dennis Rodman also managed to come back this season showing that he is still one of the best players of the NBA.”

“Rick Fox remains one of the 5 starting players on the Los Angeles Lakers team in his second season on the team, he has been having one of the best seasons in his career and has shown that he can also be one of the best players in the NBA by being on the best team in the NBA.”

“Also, the Los Angeles Lakers team has Jake Smith, the most likely player to win the MVP award this season, Jake has definitely been making the best season of a rookie player and I would say it’s a performance close to Michael Jordan did at the height of his career.”

“On the other side, we have the San Antonio Spurs team who have all the pressure to win this game at home, after all, that’s the only thing they can do if they still want to dream of advancing to the NBA Finals.”

“The San Antonio Spurs team also has incredible quality players, but against the Los Angeles Lakers team I think it’s hard that they made it to the NBA Finals.”

Game commentators talked about all the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team praising the players because they certainly expected the Lakers team to advance to the NBA Finals after the final game.

Tim Duncan, who was known as a calmer player, was still nervous in this game, in this game, the fans who supported them made the pressure he felt become even greater, after all, he and the players of the San Antonio Spurs team knew they were they needed to win this game if they still wanted to stay alive in the playoffs.

Soon the game started and the San Antonio Spurs team started pressing in attack with everything they had, after all, they knew that in this game just attacking they had a chance to win.