Chapter 504 - Change in Los Angeles Lakers Team 2

Elliot still tried to feint and outwit Fox, but Fox was not deceived and remained steady in defense, so Elliott passed the ball to Robinson later on, Robinson received the ball and O'Neal was pushing in defense.

Robinson tried to hook and ended up missing, Duncan was quick and got the rebound and made the dunk to make 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team, the biggest strength of the San Antonio Spurs team was having two great post players who played in the paint area.

So they were more likely to catch rebounds and teams that had only one Center or a better PF suffered playing against the San Antonio Spurs team, and those who had none of these quality players suffered even more.

In another move the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Fox on the left, Elliott came to press on defense, Fox held the ball and passed it to Bryant on the right.

Kobe Bryant received the ball and passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Johnson soon pressed in the defense, Jake tried a feint and managed to get rid of the defense, Jake did not try to advance and tried the shot from outside and made 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.

The second quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team maintaining the advantage on the scoreboard, in that second quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, Jake performed well and helped the Los Angeles team Lakers to stay ahead in the second quarter.

"What a good second quarter we had in that game, the San Antonio Spurs team really tried to recover in the game, the players defended well and attacked well, but they only managed to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from increasing their points advantage."

"That's right, the Los Angeles Lakers team is having a very strong attack after Jake Smith's arrival, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have more freedom to play and with Jake Smith making the assists they have been playing even better."

"Jake Smith is really doing a great rookie season so far, I don't think we've ever seen a rookie start so well in the NBA, so the Los Angeles Lakers team really have a chance of winning the NBA title this season."

"I agree with that, last season we had Tim Duncan doing an excellent debut season and this season Tim Duncan is already one of the main players in the NBA, now we have Jake Smith this season."

With coach Harris deciding not to make substitutions during the game, the San Antonio Spurs team did not have much hope of recovering in the game, but they were really playing well as in the last few games.

Kobe Bryant had also realized this after the conversation he had with Jake, if the San Antonio Spurs team learned to use Tim Duncan and David Robinson better in the attack they could certainly play even better and the Los Angeles Lakers defense couldn't stop them.

The third quarter started and the Los Angeles Lakers team still pressing in the attack, as the defense of the Lakers team was not so strong, attacking was their way of maintaining the advantage in the game, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Bryant on the right.

Kobe Bryant received the ball and tried a feint and managed to trick Elie, Bryant advanced to the paint area and drive to the basket making 2 more points with a layup, Kobe Bryant was playing well in that game and as he was passing the ball more, his individual moves were more unpredictable.

The San Antonio Spurs team did not give up and still wanted to win that game, Johnson advanced with the ball and Jake was on defense, with the steals that Jake made in that game and did in other games Johnson and the other players of the San Antonio Spurs team were worried every time they had to pass the ball.

With that they lost several chances of attacks that they would normally do, and even so Jake still managed to make some steals in all quarters, Johnson passed the ball to Elie from the left.

Elie received the ball and Bryant came to press on defense, so Elie held the ball and passed it to Duncan further on, Duncan was the best player on the San Antonio Spurs team and many attack plays were with him.

Duncan received the ball and made the spin and so he got rid of Blount's defense and advanced to the paint area, O'Neal saw that Duncan was going to make a layup and went to try to stop Duncan, Duncan saw O'Neal coming and passed the ball to Robinson who received the ball and scored 2 more points with a dunk for the San Antonio Spurs team.

The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team managing to slightly increase their points advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.

In the last quarter of the game the San Antonio Spurs team still tried to win, but at the end of the game the Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 118 points against 90 points for the San Antonio Spurs team.

In that last quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and made 8 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals, Jake made another triple-double in that game, his fifth triple-double in his debut season.

"The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team wins their eighth game this season, really the Los Angeles Lakers team is one of the teams that have the most victories this season, and with this game, the San Antonio Spurs team has 5 losses this season."

"Yes, the San Antonio Spurs team played well in that game with Tim Duncan and Sean Elliot being the best players, but it seems that something is missing for them to be able to start winning more games and it is good that they find what is missing soon or they will be out of the playoffs this reduced season."

"That's right, the Los Angeles Lakers team is really doing well this season, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant are playing very well in every game and Rick Fox has also been important in the games and is managing to score more than 12 points in almost All the games."

"But surely the highlight of this game and of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season is certainly Jake Smith, in this game he got another triple-double, he got 5 triple-double in 9 games and he also has another 2 double-doubles."

"With such a performance I have to say that we can no longer see Jake Smith as a rookie but as one of this season's MVP candidates, Jake Smith played 9 games this season and played 48 minutes in every game."

"In these 9 games Jake Smith has a Field Goal Percentage average of 81 percent, and in the 3-Point Field Goal Percentage the average is 80 percent, this is something incredible even for the best players in NBA history in shooting three points."

"Jake Smith still has an average of 32 points per game and 12 assists per game, any of those statistics would be enough for Jake Smith to be one of the MVP candidates of the season and Jake Smith has them all."

"I also agree, if Jake Smith continues to play like that and the Los Angeles Lakers team advance into the playoffs, I think it's quite possible that Jake Smith will even be chosen as the MVP of the season."

The commentators were excited after seeing Jake's first games of the season, they used to wonder if Jake could be the best rookie of the season and now they were wondering if he could be the best player of the season.

It was also noteworthy to see the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team at the Great Western Forum, with the passing of the games of this season more fans began to bring posters with the name of Jake and his nickname of Captain America.

It showed how Jake was becoming one of the Los Angeles Lakers fans' idols after only 9 games on the team, that was because Jake was playing very well and because the fans wanted to see the Los Angeles Lakers team win the NBA title again and they could see that Jake could help the team achieve that.

After that great game, the players went home happy, the Los Angeles Lakers team had lost just 1 game this season and the team played well in all games, so the players knew it would stay that way throughout the season.

The next game for the Los Angeles Lakers team would be in two days so players would have one day to rest before the next game, but as it was a game in which they would be the visitors the team would travel the next day.

Jake could return to Los Angeles just the day before the Grammy where he had to attend to support Kate, he was still sad that he couldn't go to the Grammy to cheer for Kate and had to attend at home.

Only when he was most upset about not going to the Grammys did he receive an unexpected call, Keanu Reeves who had become friends with him in the filming of the movie The Matrix called him, Jake was happy and surprised by Keanu's call.

"Hi, Jake, how are you?"

"I'm fine Keanu, we haven't spoken for a few months already, I wanted to call you, but I didn't want to disturb you."

"You can call me whenever you want, Jake, congratulations on your excellent performance in the first games of your NBA debut season, when I saw that you wanted to become an actor I thought you didn't play that well Hahaha."

"But from what I'm seeing in the media, you're the best rookie and can become an MVP candidate of the season, it really surprised me."

"I am also happy with my performance and with the Los Angeles Lakers team if we continue this way we can win this season's NBA title."

"That would be really amazing, what are you waiting for next month's premiere of our film?"