Chapter 579 - West Conference Finals 9 (1/2)
With the San Antonio Spurs team attacking so well they managed to lead the score again with a small points lead, Jake couldn't do anything as he had to defend against Avery Johnson who only managed to get 2 points into the second quarter.
The Los Angeles Lakers team continued to attack well, but Jake couldn't make a lot of three-point plays using his speed, it was difficult to get rid of two opposing players and still have the precision to hit three-point shots.
Rick Fox wasn't performing as well as the first two games and even though he was free he still missed some mid-range shots, luckily for Jake, the other players were doing well and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were making a lot of points.
Even with Tim Duncan and David Robinson defending against Shaq, he was one of the best players on the Los Angeles Lakers team and still managed to find opportunities to score points with Jake's good plays, after all, Shaq adapted to playing with two players defending against him after two games.
Soon the second quarter ended with the San Antonio Spurs team winning the game by just one point ahead, Jake tried again to score several points on three-point shots, but with the good defense of Avery Johnson and Sean Elliott, Jake ended up missing 2 attempts and scored 9 points in that second quarter.
In addition to several plays where Jake tried to shoot from the outside and failed and had to pass the ball before the possession time expired, with Jake's ability to make three-point shots he knew when he had a chance to hit and if he didn't have confidence he would pass the ball.
”The second quarter ends with the San Antonio Spurs team managing to recover and now they are winning the game, the San Antonio Spurs team's good defense is paying off and Jake is not having the freedom to try so many three-point shots in this quarter.”
”It's true, the San Antonio Spurs team is defending very well and besides, it's attacking very well and making fewer mistakes in attack than in other games, if they continue like this, the San Antonio Spurs team can win this game.”
”But it won't be so easy for the San Antonio Spurs team to get the win, even if Rick Fox isn't performing well in this game, Shaquille O'Neal is making a lot of points even with Tim Duncan and David Robinson defending against him.”
As commentators said, the game wasn't that hard for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win again, even though Rick Fox was performing poorly, Shaquille O'Neal was performing well even with Duncan and Robinson defending against him.
What really changed in this game is that the San Antonio Spurs players were doing great, it felt like the crowd was helping the players to play even better.
In the third quarter, the game continued the same, but just as in every game there was a moment when Jake had more opportunities to attack, Jake played every 48 minutes in every game, but the other players couldn't do it.
So at least 9 minutes per game Jake was playing while Johnson and Elliott were resting, normally Jake also didn't have many opportunities because when the reserves came in he became the main target of the opposing defense.
But in this game, Jake was determined to win, so he took advantage of Duncan and Robinson resting and started making plays near the painted area using his speed.
So in 3 minutes in the third quarter, Jake managed to get 8 points with layups in 4 attacks, plus, because the San Antonio Spurs team players tried to stop Jake from scoring they fouled 2 plays, so Jake got the 2 points with the layup and still got one more opportunity to make 2 more points in a free throw.
In another play, Jake managed to get 2 more points with a dunk before Duncan and Robinson returned to the game, so the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to get back the advantage in points and was winning the game again.
In that third quarter, Jake scored an incredible 18 points and the Los Angeles Lakers team finished the third quarter with 3 points ahead, even with Jake's great performance in that quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team still had a way to win this game in the last quarter.
In the last quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team continued to try to regain the advantage in the game, moreover, after what happened in the third quarter the San Antonio Spurs team players were taking turns when the reserves entered the court so Jake wouldn't have as much freedom.