Chapter 529 The Season Continues 9
Brandon had the ball and tried a mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the Minnesota Timberwolves team, Jake still tried to hinder Brandon in that play and he couldn't, Brandon was playing well in that game and Jake knew he had to press more on defense.
Jake had managed to make a steal in the first quarter by taking Brandon's ball and so Brandon was only trying mid-range shots, but now Jake realized that maybe he would have to press even harder on defense.
In this balanced game, coach Rambis decided not to replace the main players, the players were not so tired because they were having 1 day of rest between games, in addition, coach Rambis knew that the opponent players were also tired.
It was easier for Jake to organize the moves when Shaq and Kobe had been playing for more than 37 minutes and were playing well in the games, Rick was not playing very well in the last games, but it helped to prevent the opponents from making double-team defense against Shaq and Kobe.
In another move, the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and Sam came pressing on defense, Kobe tried to trick Sam with a feint, but Sam was not fooled.
So Kobe passed the ball to Rick from the left, Rick received the ball and Garnett came pressing on the defense, Rick held the ball a little and passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and tried an outside shot to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake tried a shot from outside the three-point line, so Brandon didn't have time to react and so Jake scored 3 more points, in that second quarter the game was still balanced, but the Los Angeles Lakers team was managing to increase the advantage in points.
So the Los Angeles Lakers team ended up winning the second quarter, in the third quarter the Minnesota Timberwolves team tried to press further in attack and defense, but with Jake, Shaq and Kobe playing the Los Angeles Lakers team very strong.
At the end of the game, the Los Angeles Lakers won with 119 points against 97 points for the Minnesota Timberwolves, in that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 32 points, 11 assists, 11 rebounds, and 8 steals.
Jake managed to make another triple-double in that game and with Shaq he was not well to catch rebounds and Dennis Rodman was not playing, Jake decided to try harder to catch defensive rebounds to help the team and not give more attacks to the opponent.
"The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team has achieved another victory this season, with almost half of the games of this season already played, the Los Angeles Lakers team continues with just 1 loss."
"This game was balanced like some games by the Los Angeles Lakers team this season, the Minnesota Timberwolves team played very well and the players performed well, but the Los Angeles Lakers team still won that game."
"Shaquille O'Neal did not play as well as in the last games and scored 24 points, Kobe Bryant played very well and scored 21 points, and Jake was again the highlight of the Los Angeles Lakers team."
"Jake managed to make another triple-double this season, this was his ninth triple-double this season, Jake had 32 points, 11 assists, and 11 rebounds and played again every 48 minutes."
"It's true, I think Jake can really win the MVP award this season, after all, he has been the best player this season, the Los Angeles Lakers team is almost guaranteed in the playoffs and if the Lakers team advance further in the playoffs Jake can really be chosen as an MVP."
The Los Angeles Lakers team managed another victory and Jake remembered that the Minnesota Timberwolves team had qualified for the playoffs with 25 wins, so with two more victories the Los Angeles Lakers team would be guaranteed in the playoffs.
Getting to the playoffs was Jake's first goal in his debut season, then he wanted to try to win the NBA title, if the Los Angeles Lakers team won the NBA title Jake would really feel that he had changed the future of the Los Angeles Lakers team for the better.
The players were excited about this victory and coach Rambis was also happy, the players were performing well in most games and when one player played poorly the team still had Jake who played well in all games this season.
After 24 games Coach Rambis has already started to see Jake as the most important player for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaquille O'Neal was certainly a player who had to be in every game and the team could even win without Jake on the team.
But that was because Shaq didn't have a good substitute and Derek Fisher could play well as PG even if he wasn't as good as Jake, so the team depended more on Shaq, but Coach Rambis thought Jake was the most important.
Jake was the leading player in various game statistics on the Los Angeles Lakers team and just because he was able to play 48 minutes in every game already showed the importance he had for the Lakers team.
After the end of the game the Los Angeles Lakers team traveled to downtown Cleveland, Ohio which was where the next game would be, the players arrived at the hotel and could rest well because the Lakers team would not have a game the next day.
The beginning of this month of March was being very good for the teams that sometimes had 1 day for the players to rest between games, the teams still had a difficult and tiring sequence with many games, but it was better than in the month of February.
The other day the players just did a short training and so they would be more rested for the next game, then the day of the next game came that would be against the Cleveland Cavaliers team.
The Cleveland Cavaliers team was having a regular season with 10 wins and 10 losses in 20 games, even though the Cleveland Cavaliers team was playing at home, everyone thought the Los Angeles Lakers team would win that game.
Jake remembered that in this game the Los Angeles Lakers team lost in his past life, so he would not underestimate the opponent, but Jake thought that if he played well the Los Angeles Lakers team would still win.
The game started with the Cleveland Cavaliers team pressing in the attack and showing that they wanted to win, the Los Angeles Lakers team also pressing in defense as they did in every game and the game was even.
At the end of the first quarter, the Cleveland Cavaliers team was winning a small 2 point lead, in the second quarter Jake started trying more attacking moves and more steals too and he was helping in defense.
So in the second quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team ended up winning, and in the third quarter too, at the end of the game, the Los Angeles Lakers team won the game with 108 points against 96 points of the Cleveland Cavaliers team.
This game was more difficult because only Shaquille O'Neal and Jake were playing well in that game, Shaq had 37 points and 19 rebounds and 5 blocks and had one of his best this season, Jake double-double with 32 points and 10 assists.
Dennis Rodman did not play again in that game and Coach Rambis seemed uncomfortable with it, Jake had a different contract that allowed him to miss some training and even lose some games and even then Jake did not use this benefit and asked Coach Rambis when he needed to miss training.
Kobe Bryant was not playing very well in that game and had 14 points and Rick Fox was also not playing very well and had 12 points, even so, the Los Angeles Lakers team managed another victory and that made the players happier.
After that game, the team traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where they would play the next game, this time the players would not have 1 day off because the next game would be the next day.
The other day the Los Angeles Lakers team went to the First Union Center to face the Philadelphia 76ers, the other players and even coach Rambis were not concerned with that game because the Los Angeles Lakers team had lost just one game that season.
But Jake knew that the Philadelphia 76ers team was probably the toughest opponent that the Los Angeles Lakers team this season, the Lakers team would have lost 8 games this season if Jake had not been on the team.
So even though they now had 24 wins and only 1 loss it was because Jake had joined the Los Angeles Lakers team, only Jake knew the real difficulty of the games and that game would be very difficult.
The Philadelphia 76ers team had 13 wins and 9 losses this season which was already very good, and they had 3 games less than the Los Angeles Lakers team, in Jake's past life these two teams had similar results in the season.
The Philadelphia 76ers team still had Allen Iverson who was a great Jake idol in the NBA, Allen Iverson is one of the best players in NBA history, this February Allen Iverson would be the player of the month if Jake was not chosen.
Allen Iverson would also be the player with the most points per game this season, Jake would probably be the player with the most points this season, so Jake was looking forward to this game and knew that all players would have to play very well for the team to win.
Jake even talked to Kobe before the game to ask Kobe to let him defend against Allen Iverson in that game, Jake knew that Allen Iverson would score a lot in that game and only he could help in the defense to prevent Allen Iverson from scoring so many points.
Ideally, Jake would suggest this to Coach Rambis, but Jake had a good friendship with Kobe and didn't want to do that without talking to him before, unfortunately Kobe was very confident that he could defend well against Allen Iverson and did not accept Jake's suggestion.