Chapter 499 - The NBA Season Continues 7 (1/2)
”The first quarter ends with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a good point advantage, the Dallas Mavericks team was unable to attack well and defend in that first quarter and the Los Angeles Lakers team dominated.”
”Yes, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal played well both in attack and defense and Jake Smith played well too, but in that first quarter he seemed to want to help his teammates score more than he did more points himself.”
”We really still have to understand Jake Smith's style of play as PG, we have already seen that he is very skilled at scoring with an average of 80 percent in Field Goal Percentage and an average of 82 percent in 3-Point Field Goal Percentage.”
”Just because of that we can see how Jake Smith is an excellent offensive player, in addition, he has an average of 11.7 assists per game in these first 7 games of this season, he is currently the highest average of assists this season and that is making an average 31.4 points per game.”
”We could see an average like that maybe if Jake Smith was on a weaker team wherein the entire game he ran his team on almost every point, but Jake Smith plays on the Los Angeles Lakers team that has players like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.”
”Yes, Magic Johnson got an average of assists like that, but in points, he was nowhere close to what Jake has been getting this season, John Stockton could also get more assists than him.”
”We have to note that we are talking about two players who were some of the best PGs of all time and we are putting a rookie on that list.”
After Michael Jordan's retirement and the NBA lockout, the media really wanted to find a player to stand out and that basketball fans could really have as an idol, players like Shaquille O'Neal and Karl Malone would always be fans' idols.
Players who were SG like Michael Jordan could only be compared to him, but the media knew they could probably never get over what Michael Jordan represented to the NBA and basketball around the world.
So what they could do was choose a player from another position who also had a great ability to be praised and placed for fans to say that that person could be their new idol and they would not compare much with Michael Jordan for being from another position.
Of course, the sports media and basketball fans didn't think that Jake would maintain this incredible average of points and assists throughout the season, they thought that when the games got tougher and Jake got tired he would start making more mistakes.
The second quarter started with the Los Angeles Lakers team still pressing in the attack, in the first quarter Coach Harris took Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal for a short time, but from that second quarter, he would start to leave them out of court for longer.
Jake advanced to the attack with the ball and passed to Kobe Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and tried to deceive Finley, but this time Finley was not deceived and was pressing on defense, so Bryant passed the ball to Fox on the left.
Fox received the ball and Ceballos was pushing in defense, Fox had a good performance in the previous game and was also playing well in that game, he was one of the players who most liked Coach Harris to replace the main players.
Jake did not need to be replaced and he still managed to play longer than the others, even though he was also replaced, Fox tried the move and Ceballos pressed on defense and so Fox had to pass to Jake further back.
Jake received the ball and advanced using his speed, Steve Nash tried to keep up on defense, but Jake was faster, watching Jake move forward Finley approached to do double-team defense on Jake.
Jake realized this and decided to pass the ball to Kobe Bryant who was free, Bryant tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Bryant was happy to see that Jake was passing the ball more and helping him to make the stitches.
The Dallas Mavericks team went on the attack to try to diminish the advantage in points of the Los Angeles Lakers team, Nash advanced with the ball and passed to Ceballos on the right, Ceballos received the ball and Fox pressed in defense.
Ceballos made a feint and tricked Fox and drive to the basket to make 2 more points for the Dallas Mavericks team, it was a good move by Ceballos taking advantage of an opening in the Los Angeles Lakers defense.
After a few minutes Coach Harris removed Kobe Bryant from the team and added Tyronn Lue, Lue was happy to have more opportunity to play, so the Los Angeles Lakers team went on the attack.