Chapter 496 - The NBA Season Continues 4 (1/2)
The Charlotte Hornets team players soon felt the strength of the Los Angeles Lakers team's attack that had the best attack this season in the NBA, as the Charlotte Hornets team players were not good at defense, they had to try to attack more to try to get the victory.
The Charlotte Hornets team went on the attack with B. J. Armstrong organizing the play, B. J. Armstrong came forward and passed the ball to Phills who was on the left, Phills received the ball and Kobe Bryant soon came to defend against him.
Phills held the ball and passed it to Reid on the right, Reid received the ball and Fox soon came to press on defense, Reid managed to spin and tried a hook to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team and tie the game.
Both teams had no strong defenses so they had to rely on the attack to win the game, so the Los Angeles Lakers team had the advantage in this type of game for having the best attack of all NBA teams this season.
In another move, the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack and Jake was organizing the move, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Reid was already pressing in defense.
After the play in which Reid left Fox alone and he made the 2 points, Reid defended well against Fox in all plays, the Charlotte Hornets defense with Derrick Coleman and Charles Shackleford was managing to defend well against Shaquille O'Neal.
Fox held the ball and then passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and managed to get rid of Phills' defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for Los Angeles Lakers team.
In another move the Charlotte Hornets team was on the attack, Armstrong advanced with the ball and made a pass to Reid on the right, Reid received the ball and Fox came to press on defense, Reid passed the ball further to Shackleford.
Shackleford received the ball and Shaquille O'Neal came to press on defense, so Shackleford held the ball a little and passed it to Phills on the left, Phills received the ball and managed to get rid of Bryant's defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team.
In another move towards the end of the first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team went on the attack again, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and tried to trick Phills with a feint, but failed.
Thus Bryant passed the ball to Fox from the left, Fox received the ball and Reid pressed again in defense, so Fox passed the ball to Jake who was coming from the left as well Jake advanced and Armstrong was defending against him.
Jake did a feint and a step back and fooled Armstrong and managed to try a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers in that game, Jake was attacking more in that game because the Charlotte Hornets defense was defending better against Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with several points of advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal, Jake played well in that first quarter, but it was more difficult defend with the team thinking more about attacking.
”The first quarter ends, the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning the game with a good point advantage, both teams were thinking more about attacking and the Los Angeles Lakers team that has the best attack got the advantage.”
”Yes, the Los Angeles Lakers team made fewer mistakes in attack with Jake Smith organizing the attacks well, in this game Jake Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Rick Fox are having a good performance, and Shaquille O'Neal also even though he was well defended by the team Charlotte Hornets.”
”If the Charlotte Hornets team continues to play just thinking about the attack it will be difficult for them to win that game, the only team that beat the Los Angeles Lakers this season used defensive tactics to achieve victory.”
”It's true, the biggest problem is that the Charlotte Hornets team is without two major players who are injured, Glen Rice and Anthony Mason, so coach Dave Cowens is still looking for the ideal team for this season.”
”Yes, Jake Smith is having another great performance so far in this game, it looks like it will be another good game this season and with that, we can see that Jake Smith can be considered more of an NBA star.”
Coach Cowens of team Charlotte Hornets was really looking for the best team to have this season, moreover, he had to worry about the players' fatigue and so he replaced some players for a few minutes in each quarter.
This could be a good advantage for the Los Angeles Lakers team, but Coach Harris realized that the game was favorable for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win easily, so he decided that he would also start in the second quarter to replace the important players.
Coach Harris thought about doing this so that the players would not get too tired from this intense sequence of games, but in doing so the team would be weaker in the minutes that the main players on the team had to leave.