Chapter 566 - West Conference Semifinals 6 (1/2)

”The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team got another victory, even though the Portland Trail Blazers team won the last game and playing at home, the Los Angeles Lakers team played a great game and won the third game of this phase of the playoffs.”

”Now the Los Angeles Lakers team has 3 wins and the Portland Trail Blazers team has 1 win, if the Los Angeles Lakers team wins the next game playing in Los Angeles, the Lakers team will advance to the next phase of the playoffs and will reach West Conference Finals.”

”In this game, the Los Angeles Lakers team changed the game strategy and started to press the attack with great intensity since the first quarter, Jake led the attack with 20 points only in the first quarter hitting 6 shots from 3 points in 7 attempts and also making 4 assists.”

”The Los Angeles Lakers team did this because in the last games the Portland Trail Blazers team was having the advantage by making a strategy of making fouls in the last 2 quarters and thus preventing the Lakers team from making many points.”

”It's true, that was a smart strategy because the Portland Trail Blazers team can't try to foul the entire game, so even if they decided to use the foul strategy in the first 2 quarters, the Los Angeles Lakers team would push the attack in the last few quarters and Portland Trail Blazers team players could not make fouls not to be expelled.”

”Shaquille O'Neal, Rick Fox, and Dennis Rodman had an excellent performance in that game too, Shaq had 32 points and 11 rebounds, Rick had 19 points and Dennis managed to get 17 rebounds helping the Los Angeles Lakers team a lot in defense.”

”Even so the highlight of the Los Angeles Lakers team was Jake who scored 46 points, 13 assists in that game helping a lot in the attack, Jake attracted 2 players from the Portland Trail Blazers team who had to make a double-team defense to prevent Jake from continuing making 3-point plays.”

”In defense, Jake was the best player also making 11 steals and 3 blocks, in that game Jake made the fifth triple-double in a row in these playoffs showing how important he was to this victory for the Los Angeles Lakers team playing as a visitor.”

”The next game will be in 2 days in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Lakers team will be playing at home and needs just 1 more win to get the 4 wins and advance to the next phase of the playoffs.”

The Los Angeles Lakers team managed to win this difficult game against the Portland Trail Blazers team and so they could advance to the next stage if they won the next game in Los Angeles, the players and coach Rambis were very happy with this victory.

Even more, because they managed to find a way to win even with the opponent trying to use the strategy of making faults against them, so they would have more chances of winning even if the opponent tried to use a strategy of making faults in the next stages of the playoff.

The players acknowledged that Jake was currently the best player on the team this season, it was very difficult to find a player who managed to make 5 triple-double in playoff games, even more so as Jake who always scored more than 30 points.

If it weren't for Jake the Los Angeles Lakers team knew they would lose that game and maybe even other games, Jake didn't know what his teammates were thinking, he was just happy that the Lakers team got the win and that his effort was rewarded.

Jake looked at the stands again at the end of the game and saw that his mother was looking proud of him after that victory, Eva was happy that the Los Angeles Lakers team had won and was even happier that she heard the Portland Trail crowd. Blazers praised Jake a lot in that game.

Eva was also happy that she could finally return to Los Angeles, even if Jake chose a 5-star hotel Eva did not like having to stay in hotels for many days, she was much more comfortable at Jake's home in Los Angeles.

Jake returned to Los Angeles shortly after the game with the other players and Jake knew that Eva would also use the helicopter to go to Los Angeles because he had warned her that they could come home after that game.

Jake worked hard in the first quarter for the Los Angeles Lakers team to get a good point advantage, because of that he got very tired at the end of the game, luckily he can rest a little in the other quarters because the Portland Trail Blazers team did double-team defense on it.

Jake could still score a lot even though he had a double-team defense against him, but Jake came to the Los Angeles Lakers team this season because he wanted good teammates who could help the team win even if he couldn't attack much.

Jake didn't want to be known as a player who didn't know how to play as a team even though he could score more than 50 points in all games, that's why he decided to be a PG and with his assists, Jake helped the Lakers team a lot more than doing 50 points alone and giving no assistance.