Chapter 560 - The Playoffs 10

Rider tricked Kobe and went outside the three-point line, in that game Rider was hitting a lot of 3-point shots just like Jake, after Jake's move, he wanted to make 3 points to decrease the advantage in points.

Rider stepped back and tried the shot from outside, but he didn't know that Jake expected Rider to do that and stop defending against Stoudamire and try to stop this attack, Rider jump to try the shot outside and Jake came right after and did the block.

Rider didn't expect Jake to make that block at the end of the game in a quick move like that, besides, Rider didn't even notice that Jake was approaching to try the block, Jake made the block and the ball went out.

The crowd was excited at the Great Western Forum with this block by Jake and realizing that the victory was close, the Portland Trail Blazers team still had possession of the ball, but it was only 6 seconds away and the pressure was even greater after this block by Jake.

Rider passed the ball to Stoudamire further back and the Portland Trail Blazers team had to decide to play before the end of possession, Shaq was playing again in that end game and Robert was playing as a PF.

Jake was defending against Stoudamire and the players of the Portland Trail Blazers team were attentive with Jake in this play, Stoudamire passed the ball to Grant who was on the right, Grant received the ball and has already advanced to the inside area.

Rick tried to defend and hinder Grant who was advancing, Grant advanced using force being careful not to make a mistake and passed the ball to Arvydas Sabonis later on, Sabonis received the ball and Shaq was pressing in defense.

The ball possession time was ending and Sabonis made the spin and tried the layup, Shaq who was defending jump and made the block rejecting Sabonis' attack, after this Shaq block the ball was still left for Jake who took the rebound and advanced with the ball to attack using his speed.

The defense of the Portland Trail Blazers team was unable to keep up with Jake's speed, who advanced for the attack alone, Jake advanced and scored 2 more points with a reverse dunk for the Los Angeles Lakers team cheering up the crowd.

With this sequence of 2 blocks made by Shaq and Jake, the Portland Trail Blazers players became discouraged, the game continued with the Lakers team attacking and ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the second game of this phase of the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 108 points against 98 points for the Portland Trail Blazers, in that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 35 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, 7 steals, and 1 block.

"The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to win that game and this is the Lakers team's second victory in 2 games of this playoff phase, with 2 more victories the Los Angeles Lakers team advances to the West Conference Finals."

"This game was much more balanced and the Los Angeles Lakers team only guaranteed victory at the end of the last quarter, the Portland Trail Blazers team was playing very well in this game with the great performance of Brian Grant and Isaiah Rider and without relying heavily on Damon Stoudamire."

"Throughout the season Stoudamire was the main player on the team and who has the most points, but with Jake Smith defending against him, Stoudamire did not play well in this game or in the last game, the Portland Trail Blazers team coach realized this and that game the attack was much better."

"Jake still defended well with a lot of steals, but it didn't help as much as in the last game and so the Portland Trail Blazers team almost managed to win differently from the last game in which the Los Angeles Lakers team won by almost 30 points."

"In the last quarter, the Portland Trail Blazers team tried to use the strategy of making fouls to disrupt the attack of the Los Angeles Lakers team and not give the opponent much time in possession of the ball."

"With this strategy, Shaquille O'Neal, who was doing well in the game, was replaced so as not to be the target of the opponent's fouls, so the Portland Trail Blazers team almost managed to win the game."

"But the Los Angeles Lakers team was also playing very well in that game, Kobe Bryant was the highlight of the team in the attack with 32 points until the last quarter, at the end of the game Jake made a beautiful shot of 3 points from 35 feet and then managed a block."

"Shaq made another block in the same play and Jake scored 2 more points with a reverse dunk, those 3 plays increased the Los Angeles Lakers team's advantage by 5 points and it was the final blow against the Portland Trail Blazers team that was tired."

"With the third triple-double in 3 games Jake Smith was again the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers team despite the excellent performance of Kobe Bryant, Jake is being instrumental in these Los Angeles Lakers team victories."

This difficult game ended with another victory for the Los Angeles Lakers team that the fans celebrated even more than the last victory, the fans were even more confident that this season the Los Angeles Lakers team could win the NBA title.

The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team and coach Rambis were happy with this victory and knew that they had fulfilled their role in the 2 home games of this playoff phase, now the mission was to win 2 more games against the strong Portland Trail Blazers team.

The next 2 games would be with the Portland Trail Blazers team playing at home and would be even more difficult, but if the Los Angeles Lakers team managed only 1 victory in those 2 games as a visitor they would play the fifth game of that phase at home and could have it easier winning the 4 games.

Jake was excited about this victory and was excited because everything that was happening was different from what he remembered in his past life, the Los Angeles Lakers team had won both home games and needed only 2 more victories to advance to the next phase.

At that end of the game, Jake had to try harder and only managed to play calmly because he knew that his mother was watching the game in the stands, in the next games Jake would also play with more confidence for what he did at the end of the game.

Jake left for his house with his mother after the game, the next game would be only after 3 days and the players would have 2 days to rest before the next game, that was good because the Los Angeles Lakers team didn't have to travel afterward of the game and could travel after 2 days.

The other day Jake woke up very early and soon saw the news in the newspapers about the last game, the sports media was commenting on how the Portland Trail Blazers team played much better in this second game than in the first game.

Even with Kobe Bryant doing his best in those playoffs and with Shaquille O'Neal playing well the Los Angeles Lakers team still struggled to win playing at home, Jake was important at the end of the game for the Lakers team to win.

This showed that the Portland Trail Blazers team was able to beat the Los Angeles Lakers team even though all the players were playing very well, so in these next games if Kobe or Shaq are not playing well the Lakers team can lose.

After seeing the news Jake called Kate to talk to her about the latest games, Jake didn't call after the game because Kate was doing a show and he had to wait another day to talk to her.

Jake was eager to be able to win the next games and advance to the NBA Finals so that Kate could watch his games together with his mother, so Jake would have even more confidence to have the best performance and be able to bring the NBA title to the Los team Angeles Lakers and for his career.

After the start of the playoffs, all the companies that had a contract with Jake had published the commercials that Jake recorded a few months ago, even Adidas did not wait and launched the 2 sneakers with the Jake brand.

Adidas' sales and marketing team realized that this was Jake's most popular moment in the NBA, so this would be a great time to launch the two sneakers he represented.

Just as it was expected when the JKS Velocity 1 and JKS 1 sneakers were released they were sold quickly, the Los Angeles Lakers fans who became Jake fans this season wanted to buy some product that Jake represented and could not find.

So with the launch of the JKS 1 sneaker, fans were finally able to buy a sneaker that Jake represented, many Tar Heels fans and NBA fans also bought these new sneakers that Jake represented.

Even those who didn't like basketball bought the JKS Velocity 1 because they were Jake fans, so Adidas was very happy with the investment of having a 52 million dollar contract with Jake, after all, the sales of these sneakers were just the beginning of the company's profit.

Because of Jake and Kobe Bryant, many fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team started to like Adidas more than Nike, this was significant for a big company like Nike to lose as many fans as the Los Angeles Lakers team had in the world.

In Europe and Asia, sales were higher than Adidas expected even though the NBA was not so popular on these continents when Nike realized that they would regret even more for not having signed with Jake and Kobe in the past.

Jake was happy that he had no commitment at the time of the playoffs when he needed to focus on the games, the deals he did were also settled and Jake didn't have to worry until the end of the year.

Even with the Los Angeles Lakers team not having to play in the next 2 days they would still have one day of training and another day of rest, Coach Rambis was concerned that Shaq and Kobe could be injured with this intense sequence of games.