Chapter 534 - Sequence of Difficult Games 4 (1/2)

Jake can rest well and soon the day of the next game arrived, Jake went to the Great Western Forum and saw that the Los Angeles Lakers team fans had come to see the game, Jake went to the locker room and met the other players and everyone went to the court.

In that game, the Los Angeles Lakers team would return to play at home after the difficult sequence of games as a visitor, of the 6 games that the Lakers team had as a visitor were 5 victories and only 1 defeat.

This was very good for the Los Angeles Lakers team that now had 26 wins and 2 losses in 28 games this season, Jake was also happy because he remembered that the Los Angeles Lakers team would have lost 3 games in that 6-game streak as a visitor.

In this game Robert Horry would not play because coach Rambis decided to let him rest, Dennis Rodman would start the first game as a starting player with the confidence of coach Rambis after playing well in the last game.

The opposing team in that game was the Phoenix Suns team that had one of Jake's idols, PG Jason Kidd, the Phoenix Suns team had 13 wins and 13 losses this season in 26 games and they were having an average season.

Jake was worried about this game because he remembered that the Los Angeles Lakers team would lose that game, so he had to play very well to try to prevent this defeat from happening, at the beginning of the game the Los Angeles Lakers team started pressing in the attack.

In that first quarter, Jake realized that Shaquille O'Neal was more tired than in other games and was not playing as well as he normally played, yet he was still one of the players who scored the most points in the game.

The Phoenix Suns team was also playing well, the Phoenix Suns team was a team with one of the best attacks of this season and that was bad for the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team that was not doing so well.

Soon the first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, in the second quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to press in the attack, and the Phoenix Suns team was also pressing in the attack.

It looked like this would be a game in which the team with the best attack would win, in the second quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team was playing very well and managed to further increase the advantage in points.

Coach Rambis started to replace Shaq for a longer time in that quarter because he also noticed how tired Shaq looked, yet the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to play well and ended the second quarter by winning.

In the third quarter the game looked very different, the players of the Phoenix Suns team came back with a desire to win and was playing much better and made much less in attack and the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team could not stop their attack.

So at the end of the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns team managed to tie the game and in the last quarter, the two teams started with equal chances of winning the game, in that game Dennis Rodman was playing very well taking several rebounds and helping the Lakers team.

Rick Fox was not playing as well, but he still managed to help the team in attack and defense as in other games, in the last quarter the two teams were pressing in attack and were balanced.

Jake started to work even harder in the game by hitting several three-point shots and making steals and blocks trying to stop Jason Kidd, this helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to end the game with the victory.

In this game the Los Angeles Lakers team won making 112 points against 101 points of the Phoenix Suns team, in that game, Jake scored 43 points and 10 steals getting another double-double, at the end of the game Jake was very applauded because the crowd saw how Jake struggled in the last quarter.

In that game Shaquille O'Neal played less than 30 minutes and scored 24 points and had 10 rebounds, Kobe Bryant scored 25 points in that game and played well helping the Los Angeles Lakers team to win.

Dennis Rodman also played well in defense and managed to catch 13 rebounds, these rebounds helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to prevent the Phoenix Suns team from having more chances to attack.

After the end of the game the players were able to return to their home and Jake went to his home, David called Jake because he had asked David to do this after the game, Jake had asked David to try to organize the commercial recordings for very early in the morning and David said he would try.

”Hi, Jake, congratulations on winning that last game, it seemed like a difficult victory.”

”Thanks, David, it was a really tough win, in fact, I expected it to be a tough game and with the fatigue of my teammates the game just got tougher.”

”It's true, but you have to think that the players of the opposing teams are also tired and you who have a good resistance can take the opportunity to attack more as you did at the end of that game.”