Chapter 486 - NBA Season Begins 10 (1/2)
”That's right, we can see that the players of the San Antonio Spurs team are having a difficult time playing in attack and defense, Tim Duncan, Avery Johnson, and David Robinson are managing to play well even with the strong defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team.”
”But Mario Elis and Sean Elliott are having a hard time making the attack and defense plays with Kobe Bryant and Jake Smith playing so well, and the Los Angeles Lakers team's attack has been better in that game too.”
”Jake Smith is making another great game with 15 points until the break of that game, he made two beautiful attacking plays and one of those plays came with a steal he made, Jake has an average in the two games he played this season of 5 steals per game.”
”Yes, if he continues like that he can break the record on average steals per game in one season in the NBA, and it has helped the Los Angeles Lakers team this season a lot.”
In the third quarter the San Antonio Spurs team wanted the victory so the players started to put more pressure on the attack and defense, Coach Harris also wanted the victory and asked that the team also put more pressure on defense and attack.
In an attack move by the San Antonio Spurs Johnson team came with the ball and passed it to Elis, Elis quickly passed the ball to Duncan who moved away from Robert Horry who was defending very well against Duncan in that game.
Duncan tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team, even though Horry played well in defense and O'Neal tried to help in defense it was difficult to stop Duncan's attack.
In this game, because David Robinson was being well defended by Shaquille O'Neal, it was Tim Duncan who had to work harder in the attack to score the points or try to get the rebounds over O'Neal, Bryant, and Jake from the Lakers team.
The Los Angeles Lakers team quickly reacted and Kobe Bryant made one for the individual play and tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing, Shaquille O'Neal caught the rebound and saw that he was pressured by the defense of the opposing players and passed the ball to Jake through left.
Jake received the ball and the defense concentrated on him, so he made a high pass for Shaquille O'Neal to take the high and make the dunk by completing the alley-oop and making 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
O'Neal praised Jake again for the pass and they soon went back to defense, Jake made a lot of assists for O'Neal and Bryant and everyone knew that was his style of play, so Fisher didn't mind not being the player who he was making assists because he knew he would soon be no longer a starting player for the Lakers team.
Coach Harris also knew he could leave the team and wanted to win several games before he had to leave the team, after all, he could coach other teams after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers.
The San Antonio Spurs team went for another attacking move and after a beautiful move Johnson received the ball further back, Jake was pressing in defense against Elliott, Steve Kerr had taken over from Mario Elis.
Kerr entered the game much better than Elis and Bryant were having difficulty defending against him, Johnson passed the ball to Kerr from the left, Kerr received the ball and tried the shot from outside and scored with 3 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
In another move by the Los Angeles Lakers Fisher team, he came with the ball and passed it to Kobe Bryant, Steve Kerr was defending against Bryant and O'Neal was resting on the reserve bench, so there was another player pressing in defense against Bryant.
Bryant passed the ball to Jake who was on the left and already advanced to the inside area, Jake received the ball and this time he had two players defending against him, Jake made a bounce pass with the ball hitting the ground before reaching Kobe's hands Bryant in the inner area and he dunks to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Bryant did not expect to receive a pass with the ball hitting the ground when Jake did not have a clear vision to make the assist, but that was better because the opponents did not wait for this move either.
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning and Jake again being one of the best players in the game, in that third quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and made 9 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals.
”What a great third quarter for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the players on both teams had to rest for a few minutes and Jake Smith didn't leave the court in that game again and played the 36 minutes so far.”
”In this game, Jake Smith has received more passes from his teammates and has made more good plays and it seems that he forgot that he is playing at the Alamodome which is home to the San Antonio Spurs team.”
”That's right, I rarely saw a rookie playing so well in the first games of a debut season, and even more playing improvised like SF and on a team that has stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.”
”The San Antonio Spurs team is also doing a good game, Tim Duncan is playing as well as ever and the other players are also working hard, but the Los Angeles Lakers team looks stronger in that game.”