Chapter 485 - NBA Season Begins 9 (1/2)
Just as the commentators said everyone thought the same, the Los Angeles Lakers team had the advantage in that game and could get their third win in a row if they performed well.
Coach Harris was also looking for victory and finally put Robert Horry on the main team, so the Los Angeles Lakers team had Derek Fisher as PG, Kobe Bryant as SG, Jake Smith as SF, Robert Horry as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team had as initial players Avery Johnson playing as PG, Mario Elie playing as SG, Sean Elliott playing as SF, Tim Duncan playing as PF, and David Robinson playing as Center.
Certainly, the San Antonio Spurs team had a stronger team defensively and if they can stop the attack from the Los Angeles Lakers team they may be able to win that game, and Jake had to help in the attack so that it didn't happen.
The game started with the Sun Antonio Spurs team getting the first ball possession, so Johnson started to move forward to organize the first move for the San Antonio Spurs team.
Johnson came forward and passed the ball to Elliott on the right, Jake already arrived to press in defense and Elliott tried to do the feint and when he saw that he could not deceive Jake passed ahead to Robinson.
O'Neal was pressing in defense against Robinson and Robinson was unable to make the move and passed the ball to Tim Duncan, Duncan received the ball and Horry was well defending against him, but Duncan tried a hook and scored the first 2 points of the game for the San Antonio Spurs team.
The crowd at the Alamodome was excited about the first points in Duncan's game, the Los Angeles Lakers team players were already waiting for this and Fisher started to move forward, Fisher passed the ball to Jake on the left.
Jake received the ball and managed to get rid of Elliott and advanced to the inside area when other players of the San Antonio Spurs team tried to defend against Jake he passed the ball to O'Neal later on, O'Neal received the ball and made the layup to make 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team and tie the game.
From the beginning of the game Jake has already shown that he would go more into the attack, he wanted to attract the attention of the defense to him so that Bryant and O'Neal would have more freedom to make the plays, only attacking that his team would be able to win against the team defensive of the San Antonio Spurs.
In another play the San Antonio Spurs team went on the attack and Johnson passed the ball to Elliott on the right, Jake was pressing on the defense again and Elliott passed to Duncan on the left.
Duncan received the ball and Horry was also pushing in defense, O'Neal was defending against Robinson, but if Duncan tried to layup again he would try the block, Duncan knew he couldn't be the only one on the team to attack and made the pass to Mario Elie.
Elie received the ball and tried the mid-range shot to hit and score 2 points for the San Antonio Spurs team, the San Antonio Spurs team realized that this Lakers team was much more defensive than in other games and it would be difficult for them to attack too.
In another attack by the Los Angeles Lakers, the ball landed in the hands of Kobe Bryant, Bryant passed it to Horry who received the pass and Duncan pressed the defense, Horry passed it to Jake on the left who analyzed the move and passed it to Bryant who was free now.
Bryant received the ball and attempted the mid-range shot and hit it with 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the sports media already said that Jake was doing a lot more assists than Derek Fisher even playing as SF.
It wasn't because Jake wanted to show that he was better than Fisher, but Jake knew how to take advantage of opportunities to make assists at a time when his teammates could already attempt the shot to score.
Fisher did not have this vision of making the assists at the right time and when he made the assists, the Lakers players scored the same points, Fisher knew that and was not irritated that Jake had more assists than he.
The San Antonio Spurs team went for another attack and after a good move Duncan passed to Elliott, Jake was close to Elliott who attempted the mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
It was close to the end of the first quarter and Elliott did not risk many plays with Jake defending against him, so Jake had only managed one steal in that game, but with this pressure from the Lakers team players, Jake had already caught 3 rebounds in that first quarter.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a small advantage, the defenses of the two teams got in the way, but the Lakers team had the advantage in rebounds and making less of an attack.