Chapter 568 - West Conference Semifinals 8 (1/2)
After a few minutes of the first quarter has passed, Jake can see that in this game Kobe and Shaq were performing well, so he could be more relaxed and focus on assists and tentative three-point shots in some moves.
Even though the Portland Trail Blazers team was making a double-team defense on Jake, the Los Angeles Lakers team's strategy of pushing forward in the first quarter and second quarter continued.
The Los Angeles Lakers team had the best attack of the season and with Jake drawing the attention of the Portland Trail Blazers defense it was easier for Rick, Kobe, and Shaq to attack, in addition, Dennis seemed to be performing well in that game too and was helping with some offensive and defensive rebounds.
So in this game with all the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team having a good performance, it was difficult for the players of the Portland Trail Blazers team to defend the attack of the Lakers team.
Jake knew this and concentrated on continuing to assist, if the Portland Trail Blazers team continued to do this double-team strategy they would not be able to stop the Los Angeles Lakers team from scoring a lot and opening up a big point advantage.
If the Portland Trail Blazers team stopped making this double-team defense on Jake, he would start attacking as he was supposed to do at the start of the game and would make lots of three-point shots to make as many points as he could.
The Portland Trail Blazers team was also trying to put pressure on the attack so as not to let the Los Angeles Lakers team increase the advantage in points, but the Lakers team was defending well in this game with Dennis taking several defensive rebounds and Jake helping with the steal defense and pressing on defense.
With the support of the fans, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team really looked like they wanted to win this game to advance to the next stage, after all the San Antonio Spurs team and the Utah Jazz team also had to play the fifth game and they would still have to play another game to advance to the next stage.
The Portland Trail Blazers team was on the attack in another play, Stoudamire advanced the ball and passed it to Ryder on the left, Ryder received the ball and Kobe came pressing on the defense, Ryder held the ball and passed it to Wallace ahead.
Wallace received the ball and Dennis came pressing on the defense, Wallace advanced using his strength and Dennis was unable to stop Wallace, so Wallace advanced and tried a hook shot to make 2 more points for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Soon the first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a good point advantage, only Jake being well defended with the Portland Trail Blazers making a double-team defense against him, the Lakers team still managed to do the same as in the last game.
Jake played for 12 minutes and made 6 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, and 3 steals, Jake still managed to hit 2 shots from three points and made many more assists in that first quarter, if the Portland Trail Blazers team continued to make this double defense. -team against him the Los Angeles Lakers team would still be able to increase the points advantage in the second quarter.
”The first quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team is achieving victory with a good advantage in points, with the advantage of being playing at home the Lakers team is dominating this game even with the Portland Trail Blazers making a double- team in Jake Smith who was the best player on the Lakers team in the previous game.”
”It's true, coach Mike Dunleavy tried to use this strategy of making a double-team defense against Jake Smith because Jake did very well in the last game and scored 20 points in the first quarter only and was very important in the defense too.”
”Furthermore, coach Dunleavy knew that he would have to stop Jake from scoring a lot if he wanted to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from making a big point advantage early in the game.”
”Unfortunately for the Portland Trail Blazers team, all the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team seem to be performing well in this game, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal seem to be doing really well in attack and Dennis Rodman is getting a lot of offensive and defensive rebounds.”
”Even with the Portland Trail Blazers double-team defense, Jake still managed to help a lot with assists and making 6 points and Rick Fox is also very good in attack.”
”What it looks like in this game is that the players on the Portland Trail Blazers team are not performing as well as in the last games, so it will be difficult for the Portland Trail Blazers team to win.”
Just as commentators said the Portland Trail Blazers team players were not performing well in that game, it seemed that the defeat in the last game, the fatigue, and the pressure of having to win was affecting the Portland Trail Blazers players.
The Los Angeles Lakers team players also realized this and were happy with the advantage of the good points they got in the first quarter, so they knew they had to keep pushing in the attack in the second quarter.