Chapter 497 - The NBA Season Continues 5

Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team who were at the Great Western Forum celebrated Jake's beautiful move and points, with coach Harris replacing the starting players Jake had to make more attacking moves.

The second quarter ended the Los Angeles Lakers team slightly increasing the lead, Jake played for 12 minutes in that second quarter and had 13 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals.

"The second quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team goes to the break with a big advantage in points, even though Coach Harris decided to replace the main players for the Los Angeles Lakers team for a few minutes."

"Yes, Coach Harris seems to be trying to spare the main players so they don't get so tired in a game in which they have a big advantage, but the Charlotte Hornets team also didn't know how to take advantage of that because Coach Cowens also replaced the players from his team."

"The Charlotte Hornets team has been doing this a few times in the last few games because Coach Cowens seems to be looking for an ideal team to play even with some players that he counted injured."

"It's true, and the Los Angeles Lakers team only managed to increase the advantage even more because Jake Smith had an excellent second quarter and scored 13 points, Jake Smith has been showing that he is an excellent player even in this strong Los Angeles Lakers team."

The third quarter started and the Charlotte Hornets team started to press further in the attack to try to win, Coach Harris continued making substitutions because he saw that Jake could help the Los Angeles Lakers team to win.

The Charlotte Hornets team went on the attack with Armstrong organizing the play, Armstrong was perhaps the only player who wanted to be replaced on the Charlotte Hornets team, he could not attack well with Jake defending against him.

Jake had already managed to make 3 of the steals he got in that game by intercepting passes from Armstrong, all players knew that Jake was very different from other players with an average of more than 7 steals per game.

So Armstrong soon passed the ball to Reid on the right, Reid was playing well in that game pressing in the attack on Fox, and Fox was also playing well in the attack in that game, so the two were defending badly in that game.

Reid managed to trick Fox with a feint and advanced to the inside area, Knight realized that Reid wanted to make the layup and went to defend against Reid, Reid did not expect Knight to do that and passed the ball to Phills on the left.

Phills who saw the play better than Reid tried to pass it to Coleman who was free, but Knight had already returned to defend against Coleman, and Fox managed to recover and was defending against Reid.

Phills also failed to make the move with Bryant on defense and passed to Shackleford later, Shackleford received the ball and this time Shaquille O'Neal had been replaced and it was Corie Blount in defense.

Shackleford managed to spin and tried the hook to make 2 more points for the Charlotte Hornets team, the two teams managed to attack well against the weak defense of the teams, only Jake was helping in the defense, and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal defended well when they were on the court.

In another move by the Los Angeles Lakers team Jake charged forward and passed the ball to Kobe Bryant, Bryant received the ball and tried to make a feint to get rid of Phills, but Phills was not fooled and so Bryant passed the ball to O'Neal later in the attack.

Shaquille O'Neal received the ball and soon Shackleford and Coleman pressed in defense against him, O'Neal was unable to make the move with two Charlotte Hornets players defending against him.

So O'Neal passed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and saw that Fox was free from the left and passed the ball to him, Fox received the ball and took advantage that Reid was not defending against him and tried the mid-shot range to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.

Coach Harris also did not take Fox out for many minutes in that game and so Jake and he was playing well in attack, Jake continued to attack more when O'Neal or Bryant was replaced and Armstrong was unable to defend against him.

In another move the Charlotte Hornets team was on the attack again, the players were trying to attack to diminish the advantage on the scoreboard that the Los Angeles Lakers had, but even if the Los Angeles Lakers' defense was not so good, they still managed to defend in some plays.

After a good attacking move, the ball was left for Phills on the left, Bryant was defending against him and Phills could not get rid of Bryant's defense, so he passed the ball to Reid on the right.

Reid received the ball and Fox came to press on defense, Reid saw he could not make the move and passed the ball to Armstrong further back, possession was running out and Armstrong had to try the shot from outside.

Jake was not close to Armstrong, but it did not take long to react and approached Armstrong and jumped with him, with Jake's pressure, Armstrong ended up missing the shot and O'Neal caught the defensive rebound.

The Los Angeles Lakers team failed to increase the advantage in the third quarter because of the good defense of the Charlotte Hornets team and their intense attack, but with the advantage they had in points, it was difficult for them to lose the game in the last quarter.

Jake played for 12 minutes in that third quarter and had 10 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, in that game Jake was certainly the highlight of the team having the best performance, but at the end of the game, he would have more than 16 minutes to more playing than his teammates.

As expected, the Charlotte Hornets team tried to push forward in the last quarter, but the Los Angeles Lakers team still won the game with 122 points against Charlotte Hornets' 86.

Jake played for 12 minutes in that last quarter and made 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, with that, Jake managed to a double-double and was the best player of the Los Angeles Lakers team being important in the game when Coach Harris replaced the main players of the team for a few minutes.

"Another game ends this NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers team won another game this season, with this victory they have 6 victories and only 1 defeat in 7 games, the Los Angeles Lakers team has been showing more and more that it is favorite to win this season's NBA title."

"That's right, the Charlotte Hornets team tried to attack a lot and they made a defensive strategy to defend against Shaquille O'Neal who is the best player of that team, but it didn't work very well for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win with an advantage of more 30 points."

"Their defense strategy was good, they tried to stop Shaquille O'Neal who is the player who scores the most points in the Los Angeles Lakers team, but in that game Coach Harris decided to let Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant rest for a few minutes."

"So their defense strategy was avoided, even so, Shaquille O'Neal scored 20 points in that game playing for just over 25 minutes, Kobe Bryant scored 18 points playing for just over 30 minutes in that game."

"It's true, Rick Fox played more time in that game and managed to score 26 points and helped the team a lot, but the highlight was really the rookie Jake Smith who managed to double 39 points and 11 assists."

"Yes, we will continue to follow the games of the Los Angeles Lakers team to see if they remain favorites to win the NBA title and whether Jake Smith will continue to play thus being very important to the victories of the Los Angeles Lakers team."

After that game Jake was praised by his teammates, even though he was the main player in that game, it was because Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had not played more than 30 minutes.

Jake's teammates couldn't complain about this because Jake had more stamina than the other players, the other players were already a little more tired after playing 7 games that month.

After the game was over the players were able to return to their home to rest, after all the next game would be the very next day and the players would not have time to rest, so Coach Harris decided to let the main players play less time in that game.

After all, players would continue with this intense sequence of games that could make players more tired and even get injured because of that, the problem with the Los Angeles Lakers team was that they had no players to replace the top players at a high level.

If Coach Harris could, he would replace the main players again if the team was winning, especially now that he knew they could count on Jake to play the entire game.

Arriving at home Jake called his mother to tell him that his team had won this game more, Eva was very happy and she knew how in the NBA Jake would have opponents much more difficult than at university.

Even so, Eva was happy because Jake continued to win most of the games he played, just like it was at university, of course, Eva knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team was very good and it was the basketball team that Jake had always been a fan of as a child.

After Jake's years at College Eva was used to going several months without Jake around, that year at least Jake can stay in Miami until the beginning of the year and could return to Miami in July of that year.

Of course, Eva didn't know that Jake was thinking of going to the 1999 World Championsh.i.p.s in Athletics that would be in Seville, Spain in August of that year, so Jack didn't know if he could go back to Miami or have to do other things before the 1999 World Championsh.i.p.s in Athletics.