Chapter 534 Sequence of Difficult Games 4
Jake can rest well and soon the day of the next game arrived, Jake went to the Great Western Forum and saw that the Los Angeles Lakers team fans had come to see the game, Jake went to the locker room and met the other players and everyone went to the court.
In that game, the Los Angeles Lakers team would return to play at home after the difficult sequence of games as a visitor, of the 6 games that the Lakers team had as a visitor were 5 victories and only 1 defeat.
This was very good for the Los Angeles Lakers team that now had 26 wins and 2 losses in 28 games this season, Jake was also happy because he remembered that the Los Angeles Lakers team would have lost 3 games in that 6-game streak as a visitor.
In this game Robert Horry would not play because coach Rambis decided to let him rest, Dennis Rodman would start the first game as a starting player with the confidence of coach Rambis after playing well in the last game.
The opposing team in that game was the Phoenix Suns team that had one of Jake's idols, PG Jason Kidd, the Phoenix Suns team had 13 wins and 13 losses this season in 26 games and they were having an average season.
Jake was worried about this game because he remembered that the Los Angeles Lakers team would lose that game, so he had to play very well to try to prevent this defeat from happening, at the beginning of the game the Los Angeles Lakers team started pressing in the attack.
In that first quarter, Jake realized that Shaquille O'Neal was more tired than in other games and was not playing as well as he normally played, yet he was still one of the players who scored the most points in the game.
The Phoenix Suns team was also playing well, the Phoenix Suns team was a team with one of the best attacks of this season and that was bad for the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team that was not doing so well.
Soon the first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, in the second quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to press in the attack, and the Phoenix Suns team was also pressing in the attack.
It looked like this would be a game in which the team with the best attack would win, in the second quarter the Los Angeles Lakers team was playing very well and managed to further increase the advantage in points.
Coach Rambis started to replace Shaq for a longer time in that quarter because he also noticed how tired Shaq looked, yet the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to play well and ended the second quarter by winning.
In the third quarter the game looked very different, the players of the Phoenix Suns team came back with a desire to win and was playing much better and made much less in attack and the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team could not stop their attack.
So at the end of the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns team managed to tie the game and in the last quarter, the two teams started with equal chances of winning the game, in that game Dennis Rodman was playing very well taking several rebounds and helping the Lakers team.
Rick Fox was not playing as well, but he still managed to help the team in attack and defense as in other games, in the last quarter the two teams were pressing in attack and were balanced.
Jake started to work even harder in the game by hitting several three-point shots and making steals and blocks trying to stop Jason Kidd, this helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to end the game with the victory.
In this game the Los Angeles Lakers team won making 112 points against 101 points of the Phoenix Suns team, in that game, Jake scored 43 points and 10 steals getting another double-double, at the end of the game Jake was very applauded because the crowd saw how Jake struggled in the last quarter.
In that game Shaquille O'Neal played less than 30 minutes and scored 24 points and had 10 rebounds, Kobe Bryant scored 25 points in that game and played well helping the Los Angeles Lakers team to win.
Dennis Rodman also played well in defense and managed to catch 13 rebounds, these rebounds helped the Los Angeles Lakers team to prevent the Phoenix Suns team from having more chances to attack.
After the end of the game the players were able to return to their home and Jake went to his home, David called Jake because he had asked David to do this after the game, Jake had asked David to try to organize the commercial recordings for very early in the morning and David said he would try.
"Hi, Jake, congratulations on winning that last game, it seemed like a difficult victory."
"Thanks, David, it was a really tough win, in fact, I expected it to be a tough game and with the fatigue of my teammates the game just got tougher."
"It's true, but you have to think that the players of the opposing teams are also tired and you who have a good resistance can take the opportunity to attack more as you did at the end of that game."
After having worked with the best players for several years David learned a lot of things in basketball, so he knew that if the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team who were younger were tired then the opponents would be too.
"I called to tell you that tomorrow you are going to record the commercial for Pepsi, they accepted your order and we are going to start recording in the morning, but you are going to have to come back at night to do the scenes indoors."
"Thanks, David, I didn't want to miss any more training, I don't mind going back to the advertising companies to shoot more scenes after training."
Jake was happy to know that the Pepsi representatives did not mind him recording the commercial early, Jake went to sleep and woke up very early the next day and went to the advertising company that David had given the address to on the call the night before.
On that day the Los Angeles Lakers team would have no game and would only have light training, so Jake would leave the advertising company and go to training in the afternoon, and just at night, he would return to the advertising company.
Jake arrived at the advertising company and everyone was waiting for him, Jake greet the directors of the commercial and the company representative Pepsi and David called him to tell him what the commercial would be like.
"Jake, in this commercial you will be an athlete running a marathon, the advertising company has already prepared a place to record the commercial with several people who will be the audience for the race and the other runners."
David told the rest of the commercial to Jake and he liked the idea, at that time it was normal for a beverage commercial to joke and compare it with other beverage brands if David didn't think it would be a problem he didn't either.
Jake and the people from the advertising company went to the place where the commercial would be recorded, it was a road that would be used as a marathon route, Jake and the other actors would not run many kilometers and that was just to pass the impression on to the audience.
In fact, they would run a few miles and Jake would have to splash his face with water to pretend he was sweating, soon the commercial started recording, Jake ran with the other actors while some hired people were the audience cheering for Jake and the other actors.
The idea for the commercial was for Jack and the other runners to stop at the gas stations and drink water and other drinks, when Jake stopped at the gas stations to drink water he would show a face that he didn't like what he was drinking.
So Jake and the other runners would pass by various booths and Jake would show that he didn't like drinking water and other drinks, Jake and the other actors had done the scenes and the commercial director liked it.
In the final scene, Jake would pass the finish line first and win the marathon, but Jake would not stop to celebrate and receive the award and would keep running, so there was a scene with the camera showing Jake running out of the marathon location afterward to win the marathon.
So Jake would continue running until he found a store and would go into the store to buy a Pepsi, he would drink an entire can of Pepsi and be satisfied finally drinking Pepsi, Jake recorded the commercial in a few hours because the film crew had to change the cameras and prepare the scenes before Jake could record.
The director really liked Jake's work and because he didn't make so many mistakes he can go to the Los Angeles Lakers team training earlier and would have to go back to the advertising company to take the pictures for the commercials in the magazines at night.
Jake, who knew a lot about business, asked David if it was okay for him to do this commercial because he realized that in the commercial he seemed to dislike the drinks he drank during the marathon.
But one of the drinks he drank in the marathons was Gatorade, which was another company that sponsored him, of course, he didn't show the Gatorade brand in this commercial, and everyone would understand that it was just advertising, but Jake knew that after a few commercial years, it wouldn't be accepted.
Jake found the commercial to be very creative and fun to do for the time he was in, of course maybe in the future a commercial like this wouldn't be much fun for the audience to see, but Jake understood that he was in 1999 now.
Jake went straight to his training and just put on his uniform to train so that the players wouldn't get too tired they just did a little training and stayed in the gym for a while and then they were released.
After training Jake went to his house to take a shower and change clothes, Jake got ready and went back to the advertising company to take the pictures and do what he had to do to finish the commercial.
Jake arrived at the advertising company and everything was prepared for him to take the photos that would be used in Pepsi advertising in the coming months, Jake was used to taking the photos and finished it in a few hours.