Chapter 507 - Change in Los Angeles Lakers Team 5 (1/2)

With the possession time gone Payton tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing and Kobe Bryant got the rebound, in another dispute between Jake and Gary Payton, Jake showed that he also knew how to defend well.

Bryant advanced with the ball and passed to Jake further back after passing from the middle of the court, this game was well balanced and therefore Jake could not keep the game pace as slow as he liked and the Los Angeles Lakers team had to press on the attack to try to win the game.

Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Schrempf arrived pressing on defense, Fox held the ball and soon passed to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and Hawkins arrived pressing on defense.

So Bryant passed the ball to Jake further back who tried a feint against Payton, Payton was not fooled and kept pressing in defense, Jake made another quick feint and then advanced using his speed.

Payton reacted quickly, but Jake was even faster and Payton could not keep up, Schrempf approached to do the double-team defense together with Payton, Jake realized this and passed the ball to Fox on the left.

Fox who was free tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake had a very high basketball IQ and could always analyze the play and the position of all the players on the court.

This could be a consequence of his high intelligence statistics, Jake once asked the system why Basketball IQ did not appear on his statistics list and the system said it was because Basketball IQ was something that was not possible to measure.

It was almost like intelligence, but intelligence was something that the system could measure using all humans as a reference, but for basketball, only players had it, and even among the best players Basketball IQ was different.

Payton was having a hard time defending against Jake who was smart, fast, strong, and didn't try many moves going to layup or dunk, most of the points that Jake often made were three-point shots and Payton had a harder time defending against such a player.

In another move the Seattle SuperSonics team went on the attack, Payton advanced with the ball and passed it to Schrempf on the right, Schrempf received the ball and Fox arrived to press on defense, Schrempf passed the ball to Polynice later on.

Polynice received the ball and O'Neal came pressing on the defense, Polynice tried a strong shot, but O'Neal remained firm in defense, so Polynice made a feint and moved away from O'Neal and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Seattle SuperSonics team.

The second quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to recover and ended the second quarter by winning by 2 points, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.

”The second quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to recover in the game and are now winning by 2 points, the two teams remain balanced and the two teams are playing very well.”

”Yes, maybe this is the most difficult game that the Los Angeles Lakers team had this season, they lost a game, but it was because Shaquille O'Neal wasn't playing, now they have the full team and they're still having a hard time on the scoreboard.”

”Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant are playing very well as they have done throughout this season, Rick Fox is also performing well and mainly Jake Smith is playing very well.”

”Yes, even though he's doing fewer steals in that game, Jake Smith is focusing on defending against Gary Payton who is one of the best PG the NBA has today.”

”Jake Smith is still playing as well as in other games this season, and he is defending very well against Gary Payton who is having a hard time making the shots and missed many mid-range shots in that game.”

In the third quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to push forward, in a game like this, Coach Harris did not think of replacing the main players of the team for a long time and only replaced when O'Neal, Bryant and the others were tired.

The coach of the Seattle SuperSonics team also did not think about replacing the players, this made the dispute between Jake and Payton even more interesting since Jake always played in the 48th minute and Payton also endured playing for a long time.

Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Schrempf arrived pressing on the defense, so Fox passed the ball to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and held it for a while before passing it to Jake further back.