Chapter 557 - The Playoffs 7 (1/2)
Jake remembered that the Portland Trail Blazers team reached the West Conference Finals in his past life, the Portland Trail Blazers team won the 3 games against the Phoenix Suns team and easily qualified for the next playoff phase.
Then he had a tough game against the Utah Jazz team in which he lost 2 games and won the game with 4 wins after 6 games, then the Portland Trail Blazers team lost to the San Antonio Spurs team that won the NBA title 4-0.
So Jake didn't expect it to be easy to win all 4 games against the Portland Trail Blazers team to qualify for the next round, but Jake was confident that the Los Angeles Lakers team would win and qualify for the next round.
Jake also hoped that the San Antonio Spurs team would win the games against the Utah Jazz team and qualify for the West Conference Finals and face the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake thought that only in this way could he try to win the NBA title with pride that he won the stronger teams.
Soon more 2 days passed and soon the day of the first game came, it was on May 17 and the Los Angeles Lakers team was the favorite for playing better all season and also for not having lost 2 games against the same opponent throughout the season.
In addition, the Los Angeles Lakers team would play the first 2 games at home, so if they won those games as expected they would put all the pressure on the Portland Trail Blazers.
If the Portland Trail Blazers team won just one of the 2 games they would have at home, the fifth game would be decided in Los Angeles, so it was normal for the Los Angeles Lakers team to be the favorite to win those games.
Jake left the house and Eva had left a few minutes earlier to go to watch the game, Eva left before Jake and always arrived at the Great Western Forum, Jake arrived at the Great Western Forum and the crowd was arriving and it was expected that the Great Western Forum was full of fans.
Soon Jake arrived in the locker room and after a while, the players entered the court to see the Great Western Forum full of fans, Jake thought that the Portland Trail Blazers team would certainly feel pressure from the fans.
The names of the players of the two teams were called and when the names of the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were called the crowd got very excited and started to scream even more.
In that game the Los Angeles Lakers team would start with Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Dennis Rodman playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The Portland Trail Blazers team would start the game with Damon Stoudamire playing as PG, Isaiah Rider playing as SG, the Portland Trail Blazers team would have Brian Grant and Rasheed Wallace playing as PF, and Brian Grant would defend against Rick Fox, and Arvydas Sabonis playing as Center.
”Welcome to everyone who came to watch another game this season, this is the first game of the West Conference Semifinals of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers team will face the Portland Trail Blazers.”
”The two teams will compete to see which team will make it to the West Conference Finals and try to make it to the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers team is the favorite to be playing at home and to have the best performance this season.”
”But in this phase, teams need 4 wins to advance to the next playoff phase, so the Portland Trail Blazers team has a chance of winning 4 games and advancing to the next phase.”
”The Los Angeles Lakers team has another advantage, which is having the best attack with Jake Smith, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant playing, if the three of them play this and the next games, the Los Angeles Lakers team can certainly advance to the next one phase.”
”The Portland Trail Blazers team also has one of the best offenses and one of the best defenses this season, even though they are not stronger in the attack, they are a balanced team and managed to advance to the playoffs with the fourth-best campaign playing like this.”
The game started and Shaquille O'Neal won the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaq passed the ball to Jake who started to organize the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick Fox on the left.
Rick received the ball and Brian Grant came to press on defense, Rick held the ball a little and passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Damon Stoudamire arrived to press on defense.
Stoudamire was one of the best players on the Portland Trail Blazers team and he always had a hard time playing against the Los Angeles Lakers because he couldn't defend well against Jake and Jake managed to defend well against him.