Chapter 516 A Different Team 4
Kobe received the ball and Pippen came pressing on defense, Kobe tried a feint to outwit Pippen, but Pippen was not deceived and Kobe had to pass the ball to Jake who came in the middle.
Jake received the ball inside the three-point line and advanced quickly for the attack, Brent Price and the Houston Rockets defense did not wait for this move and Jake managed to advance until Othella Harrington went to try to stop Jake's advance.
Jake continued advancing to the painted area and tried the tear drop even though Harrington tried to block and managed to make 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, it was a beautiful move that the Lakers fans at the Great Western Forum liked.
In fact, Jake hoped that Hakeem Olajuwon would try to stop him from going forward and he would pass the ball to Shaq who would make the points, but as it was Harrington who tried to stop him from going forward, Jake decided to end the play with the points.
In another move, the Houston Rockets team was on the attack, Price advanced with the ball and passed it to Pippen on the right, Pippen received the ball and Rick arrived to press on defense, Pippen did not attempt an individual move and passed to Olajuwon later.
Olajuwon received the ball and Shaquille O'Neal arrived to press on defense, Olajuwon managed to make a spin and tried the layup to make 2 more points for the Houston Rockets team, in the dispute between Olajuwon and O'Neal the two could not defend well opponent and for that the two made many points.
The two teams attacked a lot in the first quarter, but it was the Los Angeles Lakers that ended the quarter winning, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, it was a good start to his game and that of the Lakers team.
"The first quarter ends, the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning as expected, but it was a balanced game in which the Houston Rockets team is also strong in attack."
"Kobe is having a hard time making plays with Scottie's strong defense, yet Kobe still made a good first quarter and Scottie also did well in attack."
"Jake got off to a good start in that game by making some infiltrations and good plays which is confusing the Houston Rockets team defense."
In the second quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers continued to press in the attack, the Houston Rockets also continued to press in the attack and the game was very balanced between the two teams.
In another move the Houston Rockets team was on the attack, Price advanced with the ball and passed to Pippen on the right, Pippen received the ball and Rick arrived to press on defense, Pippen made a feint and managed to trick Rick and go to the painted area.
Pippen came forward and Rodman arrived to try to stop him from going forward, so Pippen passed the ball to Othella Harrington who was free in the painted area, Harrington went to make the layup, but Shaq was waiting for it and made the block.
Shaq made the block and Dickerson managed to catch the ball soon after and tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing with Kobe pressing in defense, Rodman got the rebound and the Lakers team managed to stop the Houston Rockets attack.
The two teams continued to put pressure on the attack, in this game the Houston Rockets team coach was replacing the players to let Olajuwon rest and to put Charles Barkley to play, so the Lakers team had a bigger advantage.
Coach Rambis also made substitutions, but he only took the main players for a few minutes and put Dennis Rodman on the team, which only helped the Lakers team to get more rebounds and have a good defense.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and Dickerson arrived pressing on the defense, Rick held the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and managed to deceive Pippen with a feint and advanced to the area painted.
Pippen still tried to defend against Kobe, but Kobe was faster and advanced to make 2 more points with a layup for the Los Angeles Lakers team, even with difficulty Kobe still managed to make the plays with Pippen pressing in defense.
The game continued with the Los Angeles Lakers team with the advantage on the scoreboard, until the third quarter the Houston Rockets team still managed to keep the game balanced even with the Lakers team winning the game.
But in the last quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team started to dominate the game and the Houston Rockets team seemed to have given up on winning the game, so the Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 118 points against Houston Rockets' 86 points.
In that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 32 points, 13 assists, 7 rebounds, and 8 steals, Jake managed another double-double in that game and helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to win another victory.
"Another game ends this season, the Los Angeles Lakers team get another victory and won against the strong Houston Rockets team."
"The Houston Rockets team managed to keep the game balanced until the last quarter when the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to guarantee victory with a big point advantage."
"That's right, the Houston Rockets team managed to maintain a balanced game, but with Charles Barkley still not being able to play many minutes and the Houston Rockets coach also replaced Hakeem Olajuwon and that made it more difficult for the Houston Rockets team to win."
"In that game, Jake played very well again and led the team to victory, Kobe performed well, but it seems that with strong pressure on the defense that Scottie Pippen made Kobe did not play as well as he could have played."
"Shaq played well in that game and was replaced for a few minutes in that game and Rick played very well again with 25 points and hitting all three-point shots he tried in the game."
Another game ended and the players were able to return home tired, this was the last game in February and the season of the Los Angeles Lakers team could not have been better, Robert Horry's illness and the change of coaches was not a good thing, but the team's performance was great.
With the end of February, which was the first month of this NBA season, sports media journalists were talking in more detail about Jake's NBA debut, especially since he was chosen as the rookie of the month and player of the month of February in the 1998-99 NBA season.
Jake was expected to be chosen as February's rookie of the month, but many did not expect him to be chosen as February's player of the month either, but that was normal because Jake made the top 20 in the NBA in 4 different statistics.
Jake was the player with the most points this season with an average of 33.4 points per game, in one of the players with the most assists with an average of 11.6 assists per game, and he was also one of the players that most steals with an average of 7.5 per game.
In addition, Jake was also good at catching rebounds and certainly had the highest average of minutes played per game, with these excellent averages it was only natural that Jake was chosen as the player of the month.
With almost a third of the games of this season has already taken place, Jake could already be considered one of the best players in the NBA, after all with an average of these points and assists playing in 15 games it was difficult to be just coincidence and showed the quality of Jake.
Certainly, the 5 triple-double that Jake had and the 6 double-doubles also helped Jake to be the player of the month, many good players took years to make 5 triple-double, and Jake managed in less than 10 games in his debut season.
The very next day the players had to travel to Phoenix, Arizona which was where they would play the next game, even though the month of February had ended and the month of March had started, the teams still had many games in a row to do.
The players traveled to Phoenix and had a few hours of rest at the hotel before having to go to the America West Arena where the next game would take place, the opponent for that next game was the Phoenix Suns team.
Earlier Jake received congratulations from his teammates, Shaq, Kobe, Rick, Dennis, Robert, and the other players spoke to him and they were also happy that Jake was chosen as the player of the month and rookie of the month.
Jake can see that at the America West Arena, the Phoenix Suns fans came to cheer for the team and watch a great game, the Los Angeles Lakers team was the visiting team and would have some disadvantage in that game.
The Phoenix Suns team had a good team that had a good attack and a good defense, it was a well-balanced team that brought difficulties to the opponents, but this season they won only 7 games and lost 6 games of the 13 games that they had this season.
This was not a good thing for the Phoenix Suns team, the Phoenix Suns team did not expect to win the NBA title and if they managed to make it to the playoffs they would already be satisfied, of course in this game they would try to get the victory for playing in home.
Jake was also excited about this game because he would face one of his great NBA idols, in the Phoenix Suns team he had the great PG Jason Kidd, Jason Kidd was an excellent PG who attacked very well and also defended very well.
He was the second-best in NBA history in assists and steals, and Jason Kidd was also ninth in 3-point field goals made, it showed how Kidd was an excellent player, in addition, he was always known for being an excellent leader of the team on the court.
Of course, in the current Phoenix Suns team, he didn't have many opportunities to win the games and the NBA title, even so, Jake respected him a lot and would try his best to win that game.