Chapter 517 A Different Team 5
Chapter 517 A Different Team 5
The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team went to the locker room and after some time they went to the court to prepare for the start of the game, the players of the Phoenix Suns team already looked at Jake in a different way after he was chosen as player of the month.
"Welcome everyone who came to watch one more game this NBA season, today's game is between the Phoenix Suns team that plays at home and the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"The Phoenix Suns team had a bad start to the season winning 7 games and losing 6 games, in most games the players of the Phoenix Suns played well, what it seems is that the Phoenix Suns team needs some great players to have a team winner."
"The highlight of the Phoenix Suns team is Jason Kidd who is one of the best PG in the NBA today, Jason Kidd has been playing good games with a lot of assists at the beginning of the season, Tom Gugliotta is also another good player on this team."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team is a favorite to win this game with a season with 14 wins and only 1 loss in 15 games, the Los Angeles Lakers team has a team with excellent players and has a chance of winning the NBA title this season."
"There's all-star Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Dennis Rodman who joined the team recently and Jake Smith who was chosen as the player of the month and rookie of the month."
"Certainly, the Los Angeles Lakers team is the favorite to win this game, and Jake being chosen as the player of the month was well deserved and a correct decision for the great performance he had at the beginning of the season."
"We will see in this game two great PG playing in different teams, Jason Kidd who is one of the best PG in the NBA and has the experience, and Jake Smith who is a rookie who has made one of the best seasons starts in NBA history."
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Robert Horry playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The Phoenix Suns team would start this game with Jason Kidd playing as PG, Rex Chapman playing as SG, George McCloud playing as SF, Tom Gugliotta playing as PF, and Luc Longley playing as Center.
As commentators said, the Los Angeles Lakers team was a favorite to win that game, but that could change because coach Kurt Rambis intended to replace the top players for a long time so they could rest.
The game started and Shaquille O'Neal won the first ball for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake received the ball and went on the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Rick Fox on the left.
Rick received the ball and George McCloud arrived to press on defense, Rick held the ball for a while and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Kobe received the ball and Rex Chapman arrived pressing on defense.
Kobe tried to make a feint, but Chapman was not fooled, so Kobe passed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Jason Kidd came in to press on the defense, Jake made a feint and step back and tried an outside shot to make 3 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Kidd did not expect Jake to attempt a three-point shot early in the game and was not prepared to defend, Kidd received the ball and began to organize the attack for the Phoenix Suns team, Kidd advanced with the ball and passed to Chapman through the left.
Chapman received the ball and Kobe came to press on defense, Chapman held the ball and passed it to McCloud on the right, McCloud received the ball and Rick arrived to press on defense.
McCloud tried a feint, but Rick was not deceived, so he decided to pass the ball to Luc Longley later on, Longley received the ball and Shaquille O'Neal came pressing on the defense, Longley tried to advance using his strength, but Shaq pushed Longley away close to the painted area.
Longley made a spin away from Shaq and tried a hook shot to score 2 points for the Phoenix Suns team, at the beginning of the game the two teams were balanced, Kobe was not playing well in that game and the Phoenix Suns team defense did not let the Lakers team attack make many points.
In another play Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and Chapman arrived to press in defense, Kobe did not attempt an individual play and passed to Rick on the left.
Rick received the ball and McCloud came pressing on the defense, Rick managed to trick McCloud with a feint and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Rick was playing very well in the last games and was helping the team Lakers winning games.
Coach Rambis started to replace players for a few minutes since the first quarter, this would leave the Phoenix Suns team with more opportunity to try to win the game, in another move Kidd started to organize another attack for the Phoenix Suns team.
Jake was having an easy time defending against Kidd because Kidd was not a player who scored many points in games, but it was difficult for Jake to get the steals by intercepting Kidd's passes who, knowing Jake's skill, were more careful.
Kidd advanced with the ball and passed to McCloud on the right, McCloud received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, McCloud decided not to try the individual play and passed to Chapman on the left.
Chapman received the ball and Derek Fisher arrived on defense, Kobe had been replaced and in the last games, the coaches started to put Fisher playing as SG when Kobe had to be replaced.
Chapman passed the ball to Tom Gugliotta later on, Gugliotta received the ball and Robert Horry came up to press the defense, Gugliotta managed to spin and advance to make 2 more points with a layup for the Phoenix Suns team.
With the substitutions of coach Rambis and Kobe not playing very well in that game, the Los Angeles Lakers team still managed to finish the first quarter by winning, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 11 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.
"The first quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to finish that quarter by winning with a small lead on the scoreboard, the Phoenix Suns team performed well, but only Jason Kidd, Luc Longley, and Tom Gugliotta played better."
"Jake was again the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers team, Kobe was not playing well in that game and was replaced for a few minutes by coach Rambis, Rick is playing well in that game and Shaq is also performing well when he was on the court."
"Jake is playing very well even with Jason Kidd defending against him, and Kidd is also managing to perform well with Jake defending, the two have not tried many infiltration moves, so we don't know how it will be in the rest of the game."
Just as the commentators said Jake and Kidd were playing very well, they respected each other a lot and didn't try to infiltrate plays, yet both were playing very well in that game.
In the second quarter the Phoenix Suns team started to put more pressure on defense and attack because they saw that they could have a chance to win the game, Kidd advanced with the ball and passed to Chapman on the left.
Chapman received the ball and Kobe came in pressing on defense, Chapman passed the ball to McCloud from the right, McCloud received the ball and Rick came in pressing in defense, McCloud tried an individual play, but Rick continued to press in defense.
So Chapman passed the ball to Kidd further back, Kidd received the ball and took advantage that Jake was not so close and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Phoenix Suns team, Kidd did not try many mid-range shots, but when he tried it was because he thought he had a chance to get it right.
In another move the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack and Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and tried a feint and managed to trick Chapman, Kobe tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing.
Rodman managed to catch the rebound and passed the ball to Shaq, Shaq received the ball and scored 2 more points with a dunk for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Rodman was playing his best game for the Lakers team since his debut.
The game continued with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning and with a good lead on the scoreboard even with the substitutions of coach Rambis and Kobe not playing very well, Jake was the highlight of the Lakers team and it was the game in which he scored the most points.
At the end of the game, the Los Angeles Lakers team ended up winning 119 points against 86 points for the Phoenix Suns team, Jake played in that game for 48 minutes and had 46 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals.
In this game, because Jason Kidd, Jake was unable to make many steals, and because his teammates were not playing very well he only managed 9 assists in that game.
So even though this was the game where Jake scored the most points he was not happy with his performance, Jake broke the record that was his own this season of hitting 12 shots from three points in one game.
"The game is over, another Los Angeles Lakers team win with Jake Smith making the most points of him this season and in the NBA, Jake scored 46 points and broke his own record of more shots of 3 points hit in one game."
"Jake hit 14 3-point shots and made 42 points in that game with just three-point shots, and he only tried 19 3-point shots in that game, so in Jake Smith's first game against Jason Kidd, Jake managed to score more points."
"In that game, we also saw Jake making fewer assists and less steals too, with coach Rambis replacements the main players were replaced, Kobe Bryant did not play well and played for only 25 minutes in that game."