Chapter 514 - A Different Team 2 (1/2)
The other day after the players were able to rest, it was announced that Bill Bertka would no longer be the main coach of the team in the next game and would return to be the assistant coach, who is the main coach was Kurt Rambis who was also an assistant coach of the team.
What was announced was that this time Kurt Rambis would be the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers team until the end of the season, this calmed the players who would be unsure if the team changed the main coach several times in a season.
The next game for the Los Angeles Lakers team would be again in Los Angeles, with the Lakers team being the team that would play at home this time, it would be again against the Los Angeles Clippers team and the players would not underestimate the opponent in that game.
That game would be the debut of Dennis Rodman and coach Kurt Rambis too, Coach Rambis said in his first training that he intended to replace the starting players again to save them for the next games.
The Los Angeles Lakers team already had 13 games in the month of February and would have 2 more games before the month ended, so they would have an average of 1 game every 2 days, this month had fewer days and they had the first game on February 5th.
So it was natural for players to get tired after so many games and even to risk injury, that's why Jake was so impressive for being able to play every 48 minutes in every game.
After a few hours, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team went to the Great Western Forum, with the Lakers team playing at home the crowd was all around them in this game and that made the players more excited.
”Welcome everyone to another game this NBA season, we will once again have the game between the Los Angeles Lakers team and the Los Angeles Clippers team, in yesterday's game the Lakers team achieved a great victory with a good performance of Jake Smith and Robert Horry. ”
”So in this game, the Los Angeles Lakers team is the big favorite, especially with this performance of 12 victories in 13 games, this game also has the debut of Dennis Rodman who won 5 NBA title playing in two different teams and hopes to win one more NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers team.”
”In addition to Rodman's debut, we also have the debut of coach Kurt Rambis, the Lakers team changed coaches again after the victory in yesterday's game, now we hope that coach Rambis will stay until the end of the season.”
The Los Angeles Clippers team would start the game with the same starting players as the previous game, Derek Harper playing as PG, Eddie Jones playing as SG, Rodney Rogers playing as SF, Elden Campbell playing as PF, and Lorenzen Wright playing as Center.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with only one chance in the starting team, Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Robert Horry playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
Robert Horry showed that he had recovered from his health problem in the previous game and would start playing, Dennis Rodman would come in to play as a substitute, so Robert could rest for a few minutes and Rodman would make his debut.
Shaquille O'Neal won the first possession of the ball for the Los Angeles Lakers, Jake received the ball and advanced to organize the first attack of the game, Jake passed the ball to Kobe Bryant on the right.
Kobe received the ball and tried a feint to outwit Eddie Jones, Jones was not deceived so Kobe passed the ball to Rick Fox on the left, Rick received the ball and Rodney Rogers arrived to press on defense.
Rick managed to trick Rogers with a feint and advanced to the corner of the court on the left side, Rogers still tried to recover and come back to defend, but Rick tried a mid-range shot to make the first 2 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The Los Angeles Clippers team soon went on the attack and Derek Harper was arranging the play, Harper moved forward and passed the ball to Eddie Jones on the left, Jones received the ball and Kobe came to defend.
Jones tried to trick Kobe with a feint, but Kobe was not fooled, so Jones passed the ball to Rogers on the right, Rodney managed to get away from Rick and tried a mid-range shot to score 2 points for the Los Angeles Clippers team.
In this second game, the attack by the Los Angeles Clippers team was not as strong as in the previous game, but the attack by the Los Angeles Lakers team was fine, in this game Kobe Bryant wanted to play much better even though he had to play for fewer minutes.
In the last game, Kobe did not perform well in attack or defense, in this game, he was much better in attack and defense, Robert and Rick were not playing so well in attack because the defense of the Los Angeles Clippers team was defending better against them.