Chapter 531 Sequence of Difficult Games 1
Kobe tried to defend in that play and tried to recover after being tricked by the feint, but Iverson had already played with players who were much better than Kobe in defense and he knew how to take advantage of the opportunities.
Jake was watching this and wondering if he could do better than Kobe in defense, Jake knew he could prevent Iverson from making some attacks, but Allen Iverson was playing very well in that game and would still score a lot.
In another move Jake started to organize the attack for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and held it a little before passing to Kobe on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Iverson came in to press on defense, Iverson realized that Kobe was playing well in that game and he also had to press on defense to keep Kobe from scoring too many points.
Kobe tried to deceive Iverson with a feint, but Iverson was not deceived and kept pressing in defense, Kobe tried another move doing a crossover, but Iverson kept pressing in defense.
So Kobe decided to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and took advantage that Snow was away from him, Jake tried a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake was playing well trying to win in that game, but the Philadelphia 76ers team started to press on defense, even though Jake was having a hard time attacking, the other players on the Los Angeles Lakers team were also having a hard time attacking.
So the Philadelphia 76ers team ended the second quarter by winning the game with an even greater advantage in points, Allen Iverson continued to be the highlight of the team scoring more points than Jake in that quarter too.
In the third quarter, the Philadelphia 76ers team started to put more pressure on the defense and not attacking as much, when Shaq was replaced, the Philadelphia 76ers team attacked more with Geiger and all the players of the Philadelphia 76ers team also tied when the Los Angeles Lakers team defense was concentrated in Iverson.
The game ended with the Philadelphia 76ers taking the win by making 103 points against 98 points of the Los Angeles Lakers team, in that game Jake played for 48 minutes and made 35 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 9 steals.
"The game ends with the victory of the Philadelphia 76ers team, this was the second defeat of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season in this excellent game that we had, thus ending the sequence of 20 victories that the Los Angeles Lakers team had."
"This was the fourth-longest winning streak for a team in NBA history, and the Los Angeles Lakers team has the longest winning streak with a streak of 33 wins, the most interesting thing is that Jake just left university with a straight incredible of victories also playing in the Tar Heels team."
"This is certainly not a coincidence and shows the skill of Jake Smith who is currently the best player of the NBA season, in this game Jake played very well with 35 points and 10 assists."
"The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team played well in that game, but the Philadelphia 76ers team played much better and defended better, which was very important for this victory."
"Allen Iverson was the star of that game with 41 points and 10 assists, this was one of the few games where we saw a player performing better than Jake, so the Philadelphia 76ers team managed to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers."
"Now the Philadelphia 76ers team will be more excited to continue winning this NBA season and the Los Angeles Lakers team continues with the streak of games as a visitor that is being tired for the players."
The players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were saddened by this defeat, they realized that they could win the game if they played a little better, especially Shaq who was replaced, of course, they were professional players and knew that losing was normal in the NBA.
Everyone expected that the Los Angeles Lakers team would lose at some point and that's why the Lakers' winning streak was so impressive, Coach Rambis was not so upset about it because he knew he had to replace Shaq in that game.
The one who was most upset and saddened by this victory was Kobe because Jake had talked to him before the game to ask that he could defend against Allen Iverson in that game and Kobe refused to say that he could defend well.
At the end of this game Allen Iverson had 41 points and 10 assists, even though Kobe was struggling in defense he was unable to defend well against Iverson who was playing very well in that game, Jake realized this and called Kobe to talk.
"I know what you're thinking, Kobe, you don't have to worry about the 41 points that Allen Iverson made in that game, I wanted to defend against him because I have more resistance and I knew he would be able to play many minutes."
"But even I don't think I would be able to stop Iverson from scoring a lot, he was playing very well in that game and you don't have to worry about that."
Kobe knew that Jake was just trying to cheer him up and that probably Jake would have defended better in that game and the Los Angeles Lakers team could have won, in fact, if Jake hadn't asked to defend against Iverson before the game Kobe wouldn't have cared so much about the 41 points from Iverson.
Jake didn't know that, but Kobe already thought that if in another game Jake asked to defend against a player, Kobe would stop not risking regret after the game, besides, Kobe was grateful that Jake only talked to him about it and not with Coach Rambis.
After the game was over, players traveled to Orlando, Florida, which was where the next game would be, players arrived in Orlando and went to the hotel that was chosen by the team directors.
The next day the players would have a rest day in which they would not even have the training to be able to rest more before the next game, after all in the past game Shaq had to be replaced in order not to get tired anymore.
Kobe and the other players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were professional players and had already accepted the last defeat and were already thinking about the next game, Jake was even more relaxed because he knew the team would lose even without him playing.
The next day the players used the day to rest before the next game, Jake was very close to Miami and Eva had even called asking if he wanted her to go to the game, but Jake knew that this trip would tire his mother and her I would have to close the restaurant for 2 days to watch that game.
So Jake told Eva not to worry and just watch the most important playoff games if she could close the restaurant for a few days, after all, Jake also wanted Anna to go to his games with Eva.
So soon the day of the game arrived, the players went to the Orlando Arena where the next game would take place, this was the first game of the Los Angeles Lakers team this season against the Orlando Magic team.
The Orlando Magic team was very well this season with 18 wins and 7 losses in 25 games, another interesting thing in this game was that Michael Olowokandi who would be the first pick of the draft in which Jake participated had been chosen by the Orlando Magic team.
Michael Olowokandi had been chosen as the twelfth pick and that naturally changed his status in the NBA and the Orlando Magic team where he couldn't even play as many minutes as he normally would in Los Angeles Clippers team.
Of course, Michael Olowokandi did not know this would happen and many in the sports media said that choosing Michael Olowokandi as a first pick had been a big mistake, with this change Michael Olowokandi could even have a longer NBA career this time around.
The game started with the Los Angeles Lakers team pressing in the attack, even playing as a visitor the Lakers team wanted to win this game after losing the last game, this was something that the Orlando Magic team did not expect and so the Los Angeles Lakers team ended the first quarter winning.
Shaquille O'Neal would play much longer in this game after resting and he was playing very well, Kobe Bryant was also playing very well to forget the previous game, Rick Fox was not playing so well again.
Dennis Rodman was back on the team and was not playing as well as before, but Coach Rambis took the opportunity to let Robert Horry rest in that game and Horry would play for less time in that game.
With the strong attack of the Los Angeles Lakers team they managed to win this game making 129 points against 100 points of the Orlando Magic team, Jake made in that game 32 points 15 assists and 11 steals making another triple-double.
Shaq also played very well and scored 31 points and had 13 rebounds, Kobe also had one of his best performances of the season and scored 38 points in that game showing that he was one of the best SG in the NBA today.
Only Jake, Shaq and Kobe scored 101 points out of the team's 129 points showing why they were the most important players for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win, this victory left players excited again for the next games.
After that game the players traveled to Dallas, Texas where the Los Angeles Lakers team would play the last game in that sequence of games as a visitor, the players arrived in Dallas and went to the hotel to rest.
This time the players would have no day off and the next day they would play again, so it was expected that coach Rambis would let the main players rest for a few minutes during the game.
The next day the players went to Reunion Arena to play against the Dallas Mavericks team that was not doing well this NBA season despite having two of Jake's NBA idols who were Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.