West Conference Finals
Jake really thought that Zack could be a professional athlete and maybe even win marathons someday, so Jake thought that Jake had to run other marathons to gain more experience on different marathons and on different routes.
Of course, Jake thought that Zack knew that he could only win a marathon one day if Jake was not competing in the same marathon, otherwise it would be impossible for Zack to win him in a marathon.
Jake's goal in the marathons was no longer to win but to try to run in less than 2 hours, and Jake was very close to achieving that, of course, Jake still had to go back to training and he needed to gain more resistance stats and agility to be able to run the marathon in less than 2 hours.
"How was your last semester at the university, Haruto?"
"It was very good, I was looking forward to finally graduating from university and being able to start my life, now that I finished university I will be able to leave the house and I will be able to work with what I want."
"This is good, as I already told you, I want you to come to work with me now that you have graduated from university, when your vacation is over I will ask Emily to talk to you, Emily is the person responsible for all my business and she will find something for you to do to gain experience."
"Yes, as soon as my vacation is over I will talk to Emily, I will see with her what I will have to do at work, and then I will talk to my family before saying if I can accept the job, but I really want to work with you."
When Jake became friends with Haruto he already thought about hiring him after Haruto graduated from university, after all, Jake needed more people to trust him to help him take care of his business.
Jake was very lucky to have Emily to help him, Emily was nominated by Matthew and so Jake knew he could trust her, but after so many years Jake had a lot of business and had invested in many companies and Emily was no longer able to take care of everything on her own.
So Jake thought Emily had to teach Haruto some things she knew and then she could share her responsibilities with Haruto, Emily still didn't know about it, but Jake always thought about doing it.
Jake didn't know that Emily was already training some people she trusted, Emily thought about introducing these people to Jake in the future so that she would have people she trusted to help with her work.
Even though Jake trusted Emily he wouldn't trust anyone just because Emily recommended that person and Jake didn't have time to look for talented people, so he was lucky to meet Haruto while he was at university.
In fact, Jake also wanted to hire William to work with him, William wanted to work with the stock market, and Jake thought he could leave William working with Emily to take care of the stocks he invested.
But William wanted to try to find a company in New York to work after he graduated from university and then William wanted to use the money he would earn to invest in stocks and in the future open his investment company.
Jake didn't know if William could make his dream come true, Jake knew that William only had that dream after seeing how the shares of many technology companies have risen many in the past few years and so many new millionaires have emerged, but Jake knew it would last only until 2000.
After the bubble burst it would be much more difficult to find companies that would appreciate more than 100 percent in a few years, it was also difficult to find the right time to invest in these companies and some companies would also devalue and shareholders had to know the right time to sell.
Jake himself would not risk himself in the stock market if he did not know what the future would be like, of course, Jake hoped that William would succeed as an investor and could fulfill his dream of opening his own investment company.
But if William was unsuccessful for a few years, Jake thought about offering William a job again, so William could take care of Jake's actions and Emily would have even more tranquility to work.
William didn't know that Jake had ever thought of that and in fact, neither he nor Jake's other friends knew about the companies that Jake had and the investments he had and how much money Jake really had.
Jake had worked hard to keep the media from discovering his true wealth, of course, all of this was possible because of Jake's good fortune, but next year Jake knew that not even his luck would help him hide his wealth.
Jake knew well that the people at Forbes magazine had tried to find out some information about him in recent years, but with Jake's strategies of putting some companies on Emily's and his mother's behalf, they helped him not to stand out too much.
The next year when Jake was going to sell the shares of the Cisco company, he would pass all of his investments and companies to his name so that everyone would know what his real financial assets were.
Jake knew that Haruto wanted to work with him, but the truth was that Jake hadn't told Haruto much about the investments and companies he had, so Haruto would have to find out when he went to talk to Emily.
Furthermore, even though Haruto had no chance of taking the job that his father had, Haruto still had to talk to his father before saying that he did not want to work at the factory and that he wanted to work with Jake.
"Okay, I'm sure you will enjoy the job and that your father will allow you to work with me, next year you will have to learn as much as you can from Emily, and only after that will you start working hard."
After that, Jake talked to his university friends about various things that had happened at the university after Jake left, and Jake also told us a few things about the NBA and talked about some players he met.
Jake spent the whole afternoon talking with his friends and he convinced them to stay at his house while they were in Los Angeles, after all, Jake had a very large house with many rooms that was not used by anyone.
"Are you guys interested in watching every game on the Los Angeles Lakers team that I'm going to play?"
"Yes, but we decided that we are just going to watch the games here in Los Angeles, we want to take the opportunity to visit the city and we don't want to worry about getting plane tickets and booking rooms at various hotels to follow their games in other cities."
"This is not a problem, my mom is staying here at home while the playoffs continue, so I rented a helicopter for her and booked a hotel room in all the cities that I will play when the Los Angeles Lakers team is visiting."
"So you can go with her on the helicopter to keep her company and I can book more hotel rooms for you."
William and the others were surprised to learn that Jake had rented a helicopter so that his mother could watch the Los Angeles Lakers team games in other cities, yet they still didn't want to go because they thought they were taking advantage of Jake's friendship if they did that.
"Even so, we won't be going, like I said, we're going to stay here in Los Angeles and enjoy the city for a bit in the coming weeks. If you want us to stay here in Los Angeles for longer, you should make it to the NBA Finals so we can watch more. games of the Los Angeles Lakers team."
Jake no longer insisted on inviting his friends and was happy because his friends had come to Los Angeles to support him, Joseph had also called Jake saying that if the Los Angeles Lakers team made it to the NBA Finals he would go to Los Angeles to watch to the games and cheer for Jake.
Jake didn't know if his other friends would have time to go to Los Angeles just like Joseph, but he understood if they couldn't, after all, it would be at least 4 games and could even be 7 games if the opponent was too difficult.
Jake talked to Matthew who was very busy and Matthew said that neither he nor Oliver could go to watch his games in those playoffs, Matthew also said that he talked to Clara and Tiffany and the two were busy with their companies.
Even after the two companies stopped sponsoring Jake, customers who tried their products at the time their companies sponsored Jake still bought the products, so Clara and Tiffany earned more money to improve the companies' products and production capacity.
From what Jake talked to Clara, she intended after investing more in the company and improving the production line the company would start investing more in advertising to get more customers, of course, the amount that Clara and Tiffany's companies could invest was much more than it was in the past.
Jake can have a lot of fun with his friends and then he can sleep well, the next day Jake left his friends alone so they could visit more Los Angeles and Jake went to train with the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The players were still tired after those 5 games against the Portland Trail Blazers team, yet they knew they still had another 2 days to rest before the next game, Coach Rambis also knew that and did an intense training even though the players were tired.
Today the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team would know who the next opponent would be or would have to wait until the next game if the Utah Jazz team won, so Coach Rambis knew that the players had to train more intensively.
Jake thought the next opponent would be the San Antonio Spurs team, fortunately, Jake knew that no player on the Los Angeles Lakers team underestimated the San Antonio Spurs team because they knew how the San Antonio Spurs team improved and was the second-best team of the season.
Coach Rambis was concerned that if the San Antonio Spurs team were the opponent team in the next game it would be a tough opponent, after all, Tim Duncan and David Robinson were excellent players and were having a great performance this season and in those playoffs.
So coach Rambis was concerned that Shaq and Dennis would have a hard time defending against the best-attacking players on the San Antonio Spurs team, in addition, Shaq would have a harder time attacking in the next games.
Coach Rambis was also concerned that the San Antonio Spurs team would also make the Hack-Shaq strategy of making many fouls to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from scoring more points with Shaq and Jake.
So, coach Rambis decided to do more intense training for the players, in the next games the Los Angeles Lakers team would continue with the strategy of attacking intensely in the first two quarters to prevent the opponent from using the Hack-Shaq strategy.
Of course, that would only work if the Los Angeles Lakers team could score a lot and open up a big point advantage, but luckily with Jake, Kobe, and Shaq in the attack, this was not difficult to do even playing against the San Antonio Spurs team that was a strong team in defense.
The training ended with the tired players, the next day Coach Rambis had given the Los Angeles Lakers team another day of rest so they could rest for the next game.
Jake came home and talked with his friends until later, Jake stayed awake because he had to know if the San Antonio Spurs team would win the sixth game against the Utah Jazz team and advance to the next stage.
Just as Jake hoped the San Antonio Spurs team was playing better in that sixth game, in the other games that the San Antonio Spurs team lost it was because some players did not perform well and also because of John Stockton and Karl Malone who had a great time performing.
Karl Malone was not performing as well as was expected in those playoffs, if he played so well maybe the Utah Jazz team would have already won all 4 games and advanced to the next stage.
In that game Tim Duncan and David Robinson were the highlights of the San Antonio Spurs team, both were well offensive and on defense and defended well against Karl Malone and thus prevented the Utah Jazz team from attacking.
The game ended with the San Antonio Spurs team achieving victory and advancing to the next stage with 4 victories, so the next game would be between the San Antonio Spurs team against the Los Angeles Lakers team on May 29th.
So Jake knew that the next game would be in 2 days, he and the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team could rest the next day to be ready for the game that would be on the 29th and they had to get the victory in the first game in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Lakers team was the favorite to win because the players would be more rested and because the Los Angeles Lakers team played better all season, Jake hoped that the Lakers team would win that game and advance to the NBA Finals and so they would have the opportunity to win the NBA title.
William and the others watched the San Antonio Spurs team play with Jake and then said everyone went to sleep, the other day Jake woke up early and he left with William and the others because Jake was going to show some things from Los Angeles to his friends.
It had been a long time since Jake had gone out to have fun with his friends and so he took the opportunity to go to some places he couldn't go with his mother and other things that William and the others wanted to do.
Jake took William and his friends first to do a go-kart race, when Jake asked if William and the others wanted to, everyone agreed that it would be cool to do a go to a kart race.
Jake was very fond of watching races and always wanted to go to a kart racing with his friends, but in his past life, he didn't have the opportunity to do that when he was younger, much less after the accident.
Fortunately, all his friends also liked to watch races and they liked cars, so they also wanted to know what a kart race was like, Jake knew a place he could go with William and the others even without booking anything before.
As it was the first time for Jake and his friends, a kart instructor taught them how they could run, so they went running together with other people who went several times to go-karting, they did a race with several laps and Jake stayed among the first 3 even competing with several people who had a lot of experience.
William and the others were in the last positions and they were happy to see that Jake had done well in the race, Jake was not so surprised because he had more dexterity and thought faster than the others because of his agility statistics.
Even so, they had a lot of fun in the kart race, and afterward Jake took his friends to visit the Warner Bros. studios, this was something that not even Jake had done and so he had fun too.
Jake preferred to visit Warner Studios after the Harry Potter films were released, but he still enjoyed the tour and knew he could return to visit London in the future, after which Jake took his friends to visit the stars on the walk of fame.
Walking the walk of fame was not as fun as many imagined, but doing things together with friends always made things more fun, after they walked the walk of fame William started talking to Jake about his career as an actor.
"Jake, we saw the movie The Matrix that you acted in, we were really surprised because you looked like someone else playing that Jev character."
"It's true, I also thought that you performed as well as the other actors, we didn't know that you knew how to fight so well."
"I'm happy to know that you liked it, I was very nervous because I thought I wouldn't be able to play the character Jev as well, I don't fight as well as you think, it was just choreographed fight scenes, the merit was Yuen Woo-ping who taught me and the other actors and also choreographed the fight scenes."
Jake was being sincere saying that he didn't fight as well as he looked in the movies, but the truth was that he learned how to fight really to be able to do those choreographed fight scenes, so he could with his strength and agility fight very well even with people trained.
William and the others also thought that Jake was just being modest in saying that, they also knew that several film critics praised Jake's performance in this film and they expected him to continue acting.
"Jake, are you going to make more films in the next few years?"
"I don't know, I want to make more films, but with the NBA games and the other things I have to do, it's hard to find a film that I can participate in because I have little free time to participate in the filming."
Jake was only sure that he would be invited to participate in the sequences of the film The Matrix, his character had gained importance in the story and the audience very much liked to see Jake playing this character.
The Matrix had been a huge success and raised a lot of money, the film was still going to be in the cinema for a few more months and the film was very popular, Jake thought that the Wachowskis brothers thought he was responsible for the success of the film.
That was easy to understand, after all, one of the things the audience liked the most in the film was the fight scenes and Jake was the best in the fight scenes and in the next films he would be even more important, so Jake thought that maybe the Wachowskis brothers would try to schedule filming for the next movie when Jake could participate.
Of course, Jake knew that it was possible for the Wachowskis brothers to decide to invite another actor to play the character of Jev because they knew that Jake would be busy, but neither Warner Bros nor the public would like this change.
After visiting the city Jake went to a restaurant with his friends and they were able to eat a good meal before returning to Jake's house, Jake took advantage of that day to go out with his friends because he wouldn't have much time to do it in future with William, Haruto, and Zack.
Even though his friends would be staying in Los Angeles at his place until the end of this season, Jake would be busy training and playing and would not have much time to hang out with his friends, after a few hours Eva arrived in Los Angeles too.
Eva had gone to Miami to stay at the restaurant for the past few days to help Anna and Jake knew she would be back on the 28th which was the day before the next game, Eva would do that because Jake had already warned her that by the end of the playoffs she would have no way back to Miami.
If the Los Angeles Lakers team won 4 games against the San Antonio Spurs team and advanced to the NBA Finals then Eva would not have time to return to Miami, and if the Los Angeles Lakers team lost in that playoff phase then Eva would return to Miami and Jake I could go back with her.
"Hi mom, how's Anna and the restaurant?"
"It's okay, Anna has a lot more experience than me and all I learned was she who taught me, luckily the restaurant is already full of reservations for the next month."
"Anna is also fine and just more tired because of the restaurant, Anna said to tell you that she is rooting for you and is following the results of the Los Angeles Lakers team games."
Jake was happy to know that he was not disturbing his mother and Anna too much, he had the idea of calling Anna to help Eva with the restaurant, so Anna was no longer alone and Eva had gotten a great friend and a trusted advisor.
"I'm happy to know that Anna is rooting for me, I know how tiring looking after the restaurant can be, it's a shame that she can't watch my games in the playoffs, but I know how she wanted to be here."
"Yes, Anna wanted to be here too to watch your games, Jake, who are your friends that I saw when I arrived?"
"These are the friends I was lucky enough to make while I was at university, William and Zack were my roommates in the university dormitory, and Haruto is a friend I met at the university and he will be working with me next year."
"William studied at the same course as me at the university and Zack also likes to run and trained with me and ran some marathons with me, you met them at the university, mom."
Eva didn't remember Jake's friends because she only saw them a few times, that was normal because she didn't have as good a memory as Jake's memory, besides, Jake didn't remember, but at the university, there were always a lot of people around him when he played on the Tar Heels team.
Even though Jake had told her who his friends were, Eva met hundreds of people every month at her restaurant, so she couldn't remember Jake's friends, especially since she didn't see them often.
Eva chatted for a while with Jake's friends and she was happy listening to William and the others just praising Jake, Eva was also happy that Jake had more friends with him than Joseph who was the only friend Jake talked to after finishing school.
Jake was smart and even more after he became famous he had many people who approached him, but it was only after a few years that Eva would know who Jake's real friends would be who would continue talking to him after they were away.
Jake was more relaxed after going out with his friends and seeing his mom coming home, he felt good and went to sleep early to be ready for the important game the Los Angeles Lakers team would have the next day.
The other day Jake woke up early and when he went to the kitchen he saw that Eva had prepared breakfast for him, Eva had to cook for Jake knowing that he would have an important game that day, so William and the others also woke up and ate breakfast together with Jake.
"You're really lucky, Jake, you told us that your mom owns a restaurant, but I didn't know that she cooked so well even though she made breakfast."
"I told you that my mother is also a chef, in the beginning, her restaurant gained fame by making breakfast for customers, there are many hotels near her restaurant and so the people who stayed in the hotels went to my mother's restaurant to eat."
William and the others were curious and Eva told them what breakfast was like in her restaurant and how it still is, after all, they kept making breakfast every day, of course, Eva said that there was also Anna and Julius who made the desserts and was responsible for the loaves.
"Jake, are you ready for today's game?"
"Yes, I have to be, after all, the game is in a few hours."
"I know that, what I wanted to know is whether you think the opponent is going to be easy or difficult to win?"
"It will be a tough opponent, you also saw the sixth game of the San Antonio Spurs team against the Utah Jazz team, with the Twin Towers Tim Duncan and David Robinson the San Antonio Spurs team has a very strong defense and attack."
"They had the third-best defense of the season and that is because in the first 20 games of the season they were not performing well and lost 8 games."
Zack could understand what Jake was saying, he also thought that this would be an easier game because the Los Angeles Lakers team won 2 games out of the 3 games that the two teams faced, but hearing Jake says that he understood that it was more complicated than he thought.
William and Haruto also understood more about basketball after becoming friends with Jake and could understand what Jake was saying, even so, they thought the Los Angeles Lakers team would win that game and that Jake would be the best in the game again.
Eva thought the same thing as Jake's friends, Jake couldn't even understand how the teams he played won the most games, of course, that was because he always chose teams with great players to participate, but he became a starting player in these strong teams showed how skillful he was.
Jake was prepared for the game and he was confident that the Los Angeles Lakers team would win, if the Lakers' team performed well Jake was confident that they would win because they had the strongest team.
Although the San Antonio Spurs team won the NBA title this season, they didn't have the strongest team this season, what happened was that the other teams didn't seem to try very hard in this reduced season and so the San Antonio Spurs team that had everyone the players having a good performance managed to win the NBA title.
Jake thought that the Utah Jazz team and the Los Angeles Lakers team were stronger than the San Antonio Spurs team in his past life, now that he was also on the Los Angeles Lakers team the team was even stronger.
Eva and Jake's friends went before him to the Great Western Forum and Jake left shortly thereafter, Jake many fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team arriving and thought they would fill the Great Western Forum that day again.
Jake went to the locker room and after a while, the players went to the court to start the game, Jake saw that his teammates were also excited about this game and if they were well the Los Angeles Lakers team would win.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with Jake playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Dennis Rodman playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team would start the game with Avery Johnson playing as PG, Mario Elie playing as SG, Sean Elliott playing as SF, Tim Duncan playing as PF, and David Robinson playing as Center.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch another NBA playoff game, today is the first game between the Los Angeles Lakers team and the San Antonio Spurs team in this playoff phase, whoever wins 4 games in this phase will be the Western champions and will advance to the NBA Finals."
"It is true, the next games will be the most important games of the season for both teams and I am sure we will see great games."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team was the best team in the regular NBA season and so they will play the first 2 games at home and have the advantage in that game, the Los Angeles Lakers team has the best attack with Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and rookie Jake Smith."
"The San Antonio Spurs team has been having a great game sequence and was one of the best teams in the second half of the regular season, with the Twin Towers Tim Duncan and David Robinson the San Antonio Spurs team has great chances of achieving victory in this game."
"We will have to follow this game to know who will be the best team in that game and who will have the best chance of winning the 4 games in this West Conference Finals."
Just as commentators said the two teams had a chance of winning that game, even so, Jake felt that the Los Angeles Lakers team had a better chance of winning because the players were more rested and because they had the best attack.
The game started with the San Antonio Spurs team winning the first ball possession and going on the attack, the San Antonio Spurs players were excited and thought they had a great chance of winning this and the next games and advancing to the NBA Finals.
After all, even though the San Antonio Spurs team had a hard time advancing to that stage and had to play 6 games against the Utah Jazz team, they thought they only had difficulty because they had games in which Karl Malone, John Stockton, and the other team players Utah Jazz had excellent performances when they won.
But the players of the San Antonio Spurs team thought that if the opponent were the Portland Trail Blazers they would win much more easily, coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs team thought that if they could defend well against Shaquille O'Neal and not let the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team made plays in the painted area of the defense so that they could stop the attack of the opposing team.
What coach Gregg Popovich realized was that the Los Angeles Lakers team depended on Shaq, Kobe and catching the rebounds to have a better chance of winning, and the San Antonio Spurs team had the ability to stop the Los Angeles Lakers team from achieving this.
Of course, coach Gregg Popovich knew that the San Antonio Spurs team couldn't do much to defend against Jake who was the best player on the Los Angeles Lakers team, but from what he realized Jake couldn't bring victory to the Los Angeles Lakers team if Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant did not perform well either.
Jake also knew that this was the weakness of the Los Angeles Lakers team, in fact, Jake knew that this season the San Antonio Spurs team would be the worst opponent that the Lakers team could face.
If Jake wasn't playing for the Los Angeles Lakers this season, the San Antonio Spurs team would be the favorite to win this game as it did in Jake's past life, but with Jake on the team, it would be different.
The Los Angeles Lakers team had a hard time winning against opponents if Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were playing poorly when the opponents also had a good attack and even then the opponents had to have 1 great player or 2 players to defend against Jake.
But in the San Antonio Spurs team's strategy to defend they would have to focus on defending against Shaquille O'Neal and preventing opposing players from attacking in the painted area of their defense, so they planned to prevent Kobe and Shaq from making many points.
With this strategy from the San Antonio Spurs team, they could not put more than one player to defend against Jake, so Jake would have more freedom to attack and was confident of making as many points as he could with three-point plays.
The San Antonio Spurs team did not have one of the best attacks this season and so if Jake managed to score a lot in that game it could be important to guarantee victory for the Los Angeles Lakers team even if Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant could not make many points.
Furthermore, Jake was confident that Shaq could still score many points even with David Robinson and Tim Duncan defending against him and Kobe could score many points even just trying mid-range shots without attacking in the opposing painted area.
At the beginning of the game, the San Antonio Spurs team started well in the attack and pressed in defense as if they wanted to show that they were not afraid to attack at the opposing team's home, this was what Coach Rambis expected and trained the Los Angeles Lakers to defend well from the beginning of the game.
In one of the plays, Avery Johnson advanced the ball and passed it to Mario Elie on the left, Elie received the ball and Kobe Bryant arrived pressing the defense, Elie held the ball a little and passed it to Sean Elliott on the right.
Elliott received the ball and Rick Fox came pressing on defense, Elliott tried to deceive the opponent with a feint, but Fox was not deceived and kept defending, so Elliott decided to pass the ball to David Robinson upfront.
Robinson received the ball and Shaquille O'Neal arrived pressing in defense, Robinson received the ball with his back to the basket and turned away making a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
From the start of the game as in most games, the San Antonio Spurs team relied on Robinson and Duncan to do most of the San Antonio Spurs team attacks, Shaq and Dennis Rodman were trying to defend, but Duncan and Robinson were performing very well in that game.
Fortunately, even though the San Antonio Spurs team managed to score a lot, the Los Angeles Lakers' attack was also very good and the Lakers team had the advantage since the beginning of the game.
In another play Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and Elie came pressing on the defense, Kobe tried to advance on the right with a feint, but Elie remained firm in defense.
Kobe held the ball for a while and passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Johnson came to defend, Jake was quick and tried a shot from outside and made 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
It was the second three-point ball that Jake hit in that game and so he already had 6 points, just as Jake hoped the Lakers team was still fine in the attack with Kobe and Rick making some mid-range shots and so the Los Angeles Lakers team had the advantage in points even without trying to make layups and dunks.
Coach Rambis of the Los Angeles Lakers team had already prepared the players for a difficult game like this and if Jake, Kobe, and Rick were performing well, the Los Angeles Lakers team had great chances of winning the game.
The first quarter continued with both teams attacking and defending well and the Los Angeles Lakers team continued with the points advantage thanks to the three-point attacks that Jake was able to make.
Soon the first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team with a good advantage in points, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 12 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal, Jake made a good performance in the attack and was having difficulty in defense because the San Antonio Spurs team attacked more with Duncan and Robinson who attacked far from where Jake defended.
"The first quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning with a good point advantage, the Lakers team seems to be taking advantage of the support of the fans playing at home and Jake Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Rick Fox had a good performance in that first quarter."
"The San Antonio Spurs team also tried to press in attack and defense, but they scored fewer points than the Lakers team and made more mistakes in attack, in defense they managed to prevent the Lakers team from attacking with Shaquille O'Neal and Dennis Rodman."
"It's true, even though Tim Duncan and David Robinson are performing well, the San Antonio Spurs team did not get the advantage in the first quarter because of Jake Smith's 3-point play in the first quarter."
"If the game continues like this, the Los Angeles Lakers team's point advantage will only increase, but I don't think the San Antonio Spurs team can do anything to change that, they are doing very well to prevent the Lakers team's attack from to count on Shaq who has been the second-best player in the Lakers team and who scores a lot of points in every game."
Just as commentators said the San Antonio Spurs team was doing a good job of defending in that game, they managed to prevent Shaq from scoring too many points and also managed to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from getting too many rebounds in that game.
The San Antonio Spurs team couldn't change their defense just to defend against Jake, Kobe, and Rick and prevent them from trying outside shots and mid-range shots, so they could just keep playing like that and hope that Jake, Kobe and Rick miss more attacks in the rest of the game.
The second quarter continued in the same manner as the first quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to attack with mid-range shots and Jake's three-point shots and they continued to increase their points advantage.
Even with the San Antonio Spurs team's good defense Jake still managed to make some assists for Shaq who also scored some points, the Los Angeles Lakers team also sometimes managed to prevent Duncan and Robinson from making the points and thus the Lakers team's point advantage it just increased.
Jake knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team was getting a good lead on points because Kobe and Rick were performing very well in that game and were hitting a lot of mid-range shots, but it would be difficult to expect that to happen in every game.
Even so Jake knew that the San Antonio Spurs team would not change the way of defending just because of this game, after all, if they gave Shaq more freedom to attack it would also be even more difficult for them to win the next games.
Soon the second quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with an even greater advantage in points, Jake and the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were more relaxed with this advantage in points and knew that they were more likely to win this game.
The crowd that filled the Great Western Forum was also more excited to see the Los Angeles Lakers team winning, in the interval Jake could see where his mother and his friends were sitting and saw that they were happy to see the Lakers team winning the game.
Jake was also happy to be performing well in that game and he was more confident knowing that Eva was watching the game, and Jake was more excited knowing that his friends could also see the Los Angeles Lakers team winning that game.
The game continued and the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to win the game until the end of the last quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 106 points against 82 points for the San Antonio Spurs team.
In this game, Jake played for 48 minutes and had 52 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals, Jake double-double in that game and this was the game where Jake scored the most points in the NBA, this was also the game that Jake tried more three-point shots, Jake tried 21 three-point shots and that's why he made so many points just missing 5 of the 21 three-point shots he tried.
It was coach Kurt Rambis who told Jake that he would be very important in that game too and that he try as many three-point shots as possible whenever he got the chance, and the result was the best possible for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
"The game ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team got the victory in that game with an advantage of more than 20 points, that was a great result for the Lakers team that won the first game at home and thus got the first victory and is closer to advance to the NBA Finals."
"The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team had a great performance in that game and with Jake Smith having one of his best performances this season making 52 points, this was the second game of the season in which Jake scored more than 50 points and was the new record of Jake's points in the NBA."
"Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox also had a great performance in that game, Kobe had 22 points and Rick had 16 points, Shaquille O'Neal and Dennis Rodman who was well defended didn't get many points in that game, but they also helped in defense and attract the attention of the San Antonio Spurs team's defense."
"In this game, the San Antonio Spurs team did well the strategy that coach Gregg Popovich prepared for the players, the San Antonio Spurs team lost because of the great performances of Jake, Kobe, and Rick from the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"That's right, I think Coach Gregg Popovich's strategy may be the best strategy that the San Antonio Spurs team can use against the Los Angeles Lakers team, after all, they prevented Shaquille O'Neal who is one of the best players in the Lakers team score more than 10 points in that game."
"If in the next games Kobe and Rick do not perform as well as in this game, I think the San Antonio Spurs team can win, but even this great strategy has a big flaw."
"This failure is the best player of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season Jake Smith, in this game Jake had a lot of freedom to attack what he didn't have in the last games, so in this game, he tried 21 shots from three points and hit 16 shots from three points and scored 52 points."
"I think that no team can face the Los Angeles Lakers team without first trying to prevent Jake from being free to try to do so many three-point shots, the San Antonio Spurs team cannot expect Jake to perform poorly in the next games, if they keep doing it they can lose."
Just as commentators have said, coach Gregg Popovich tried the best strategy the San Antonio Spurs team could do in this game which was to take advantage of the strong defense with Tim Duncan and David Robinson to prevent Shaquille O'Neal from scoring too many points.
But that strategy would not work against the current Los Angeles Lakers team, coach Gregg Popovich had to find a way to prevent Jake from playing freely, otherwise, he could not prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from having the advantage.
Perhaps in games that Kobe and Rick were playing badly, the San Antonio Spurs team could still win the victory even if they didn't defend against Jake, but that was something very difficult to happen and the San Antonio Spurs team could not depend on luck in this phase of the playoffs.
After the game was over the reporters came to interview the Los Angeles Lakers team players and the San Antonio Spurs team players, the first person the reporters were able to interview was the San Antonio Spurs team coach Gregg Popovich.
"Coach Popovich, in that first game between the San Antonio Spurs team and the Los Angeles Lakers team, their strategy of defending more against Shaquille O'Neal and in the paint area to prevent the Lakers team from making points for layups and dunks and catching rebounds. it didn't work out well, do you think about changing your strategy for the next game?"
"I do not agree that our strategy in this game did not work, I think we were successful in preventing the opposing team from attacking in our painted area, the Lakers team also did not have many rebounds in that game."
"What happened was what we already knew, Jake Smith has a lot of freedom to attack with our team defending like that, in this game he did as well as always and also Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox played very well and that's why we lost that game."
"A player like Jake who has more than 70% accuracy of three-point shots and is also fast and knows how to advance to the inside area needs at least two players defending against him, but unfortunately against the Los Angeles Lakers team that has Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, I can't put two players to defend against Jake."
"So I have to continue with this strategy and hope that in the next games the San Antonio Spurs team will be able to score more points and that the opponents will not play as well as they did today."
Coach Popovich looked sad after doing this interview, with the players that the San Antonio Spurs team had he knew he had no players who could prevent Jake from attacking by putting only one player to defend against him, but with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant made it impossible for him to put two players to defend against Jake.
The reporters also went to interview Jake who had scored more than 50 points in a game for the second time, in addition, it was in a playoff game and this was also the game in which Jake scored the most points since entering the NBA.
"Jake, congratulations on your victory today and congratulations on scoring more than 50 points once again in the NBA and even more in a playoff game, what do you think about that?"
"I think it's a great honor to be one of the few players who have scored more than 50 points in a playoff game, I'm even happier because I did it in a victory, if the Lakers team can win I don't mind not doing it no point in a game. "
"In addition to making more than 50 points, which is rare, you also managed to a double-double with 10 assists, but speaking of the game, you are confident that the Los Angeles Lakers team will be able to continue winning and advance to the next stage?"
"Yes, I am confident that we will be able to advance to the NBA Finals, I know that the next games will be even more difficult, but our team is prepared for those next games and I think we can win."
Soon the interviews ended up showing that after that game the Los Angeles Lakers team was more confident and the San Antonio Spurs team was more concerned with the next games, so Jake went where the players were so they could leave.
After the end of the interviews, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team celebrated this important victory at home, Jake went to where his mother and friends were, all praising Jake's good game and talking about how they expected the Los Angeles Lakers team to continue winning.
Jake was much more relaxed after the Los Angeles Lakers team won the first game, of course, he still felt that the Lakers team had an obligation to win the next game at home too if they wanted to have any chance of making it to the NBA Finals.
The other day the Los Angeles Lakers team did light training for the players to be more prepared for the next game, but the coach Rambis did not give heavy training for fear that some players could be injured.
Jake realized that the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team were focused on the next game knowing that they had an obligation to win that game at home, but Jake could also see that his teammates were more relaxed after the first victory.
The other day, Jake went to the Great Western Forum after his mother and his friends had already arrived, Jake went to the locker room after seeing that the fans were filling the Great Western Forum again.
The Los Angeles Lakers team had not won an NBA title for many years and fans were very excited that year because they knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team was the favorite this season with Jake joining the team.
Some fans who knew the NBA well also knew that it was impossible for Jake, Shaquille, and Kobe to play together for many seasons because of the quality they had and the high salary that Jake and Kobe would receive in the years to come.
So they wanted the Los Angeles Lakers team to win the NBA title this season and maybe win it in the coming seasons as well because they didn't know how many years the Los Angeles Lakers team would stay that way.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game with Jake playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Dennis Rodman playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The San Antonio Spurs team would start the game with Avery Johnson playing as PG, Mario Elie playing as SG, Sean Elliott playing as SF, Tim Duncan playing as PF, and David Robinson playing as Center.
The two teams would play with the same players from the last game, after all, they were the best players that the two teams had that were not hurt, so the fans were more excited waiting for another victory.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch the second game at this stage of the playoffs between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs here at the Great Western Forum."
"In the first game between these two teams, the Los Angeles Lakers team won the victory with a memorable performance by Jake Smith who doubled up with 52 points and 10 assists."
"The San Antonio Spurs team tried a strategy trying to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers team from catching rebounds and being able to make layups and dunks and that strategy worked because Shaquille O'Neal didn't score much in that game."
"But that strategy was not enough to bring victory for the San Antonio Spurs team, coach Gregg Popovich said in an interview after the game that he would not change the Spurs team's strategy for this game, let's see if in this game they can achieve victory."
Just like the commentators said, the doubt in this game was whether Jake, Kobe, and Rick would play as well in this game as they did in the first one when the Los Angeles Lakers team won if they can't play as well the San Antonio Spurs team can be more likely to advance to the next stage if you win a game as a visitor.
Jake looked at his teammates and the San Antonio Spurs team players, Jake looked to see where Eva and his friends were watching the game at the Great Western Forum, so Jake concentrated again because he knew that victory in that game depended on him too.