Chapter 551 The Playoffs 1
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch the first game between these two teams in this first phase of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers team plays at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves."
"The Minnesota Timberwolves team had the worst performance of the Western Conference teams that qualified for the playoffs, yet in the first round games where a team needs 3 wins to qualify we can expect a lot of games between the two teams."
"At the very least we will have 3 games between these two teams and thus the Minnesota Timberwolves team is much more likely to advance to the next phase of the playoffs with so many games."
"Kevin Garnett has been doing the best season of his career and is making the fan better accept the millionaire contract that is being paid to him, even if the team's budget was compromised because of Garnett's contract, the Minnesota Timberwolves team has a team strong."
"Even so, the Los Angeles Lakers team is definitely a favorite to win this game and qualify for the next phase of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers team is a favorite to win this season's NBA title."
"Even with this reduced season with 50 games, the Los Angeles Lakers team had one of the best seasons in the team's history with 44 victories and just 6 losses ending the season in first place at the Western Conference."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team has the best attack of this season with excellent players like 5-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Rick Fox on the starting team."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team still has Jake Smith who debuted this season and was chosen in the three months of this season as the player of the month and is a favorite to be chosen as this season's MVP."
"Jake averaged 34.9 points, 11 assists and still has an average of 8 rebounds and 8 steals per game, Jake also plays the 48 minutes in every game, Jake plays every minute of the game which helped the team Los Angeles Lakers taking advantage in many important games."
"With this team, it is normal for the Los Angeles Lakers team to be the favorite team to win the NBA title, we will follow this game to see which team starts these playoffs with a victory."
Just as the commentators said what was expected in this game was for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win the game, the players of both teams also knew this, and the fans who were at the Great Western Forum expected it.
The game started and Shaquille O'Neal won the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaq passed the ball to Jake who started organizing the first attack for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick Fox on the left, this season Rick was having one of the best seasons of his career as a player, Rick played more than 44 games in this reduced season and won the affection of the fans with his good performances in the season.
Rick played well in most games and with the Los Angeles Lakers team playing well and winning many games it was natural for Rick to be praised as well as the other players, Rick received the ball and Sam Mitchell arrived pressing in defense.
Rick held the ball for a while and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Kobe received the ball and Anthony Peeler came pressing on the defense, Kobe held the ball and tried to make a feint and deceive Peeler, Kobe tried to make a body feint and could not deceive Peeler.
Kobe kept trying and dribbled pretending he was going to go left and going right, Peeler was tricked in that move and Kobe advanced to the inside area, Joe Smith tried to hinder the advance of Kobe who accelerated and drive to the basket to make the 2 first points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
The fans were excited by Kobe's beautiful play to make those first points, Jake hoped that in this game Shaq and Kobe would stand out as they always did in the important playoff games, if they played well it was certain that the Los Angeles Lakers team would win.
In another move the Minnesota Timberwolves team went on the attack, Terrell Brandon advanced with the ball and passed to Peeler on the left, Peeler received the ball and Kobe came pressing on the defense.
Peeler held the ball for a while and passed it to Mitchell on the right, Mitchell received the ball and Rick came in pressing on the defense, Mitchell tricked Rick with a feint and tried to advance from the right.
Rick was not fooled and pressed in defense, Mitchell passed the ball to Peeler and Peeler went to the middle and the Minnesota Timberwolves team players changed positions in the play, Peeler passed the ball to Brandon on the right and Jake was on the defense.
Brandon received the ball with the possession time running out and he attempted the mid-range shot and scored 2 points for the Minnesota Timberwolves team, at the beginning of the game the Minnesota Timberwolves team was playing well in attack and trying to press on defense.
So, in the beginning, the game was balanced, this was expected for the Minnesota Timberwolves team to reach the playoffs meant that they had a good team with good players, but those who knew the Los Angeles Lakers team knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team started it was usually slower.
This was not a recommendation from Coach Rambis, it was Jake's style of play as PG, the Los Angeles Lakers team did not start slowly and just kept pace with the opponent's game so that Jake could understand the opposing players.
Coach Rambis and the other players didn't complain because it was difficult for the Los Angeles Lakers team to end the first quarter by losing the game, and with the team having just 4 losses in the season the confidence that the other players had in Jake was much greater.
In another move Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and Mitchell came pressing on the defense, Rick tried to make a feint, but Mitchell was not fooled and Rick passed the ball to Kobe on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Peeler came in to press in defense, Kobe made no attempt to make any individual moves and passed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Brandon came in to press in defense.
Brandon knew that Jake was very good at making three-point shots and usually the opposing players just tried to hinder Jake, but this was a playoff game and Brandon thought he had to try to put more pressure on the defense to make Jake miss or even try block.
Jake didn't know what Brandon was thinking and made a feint pretending that he was going to the left and advancing on the right, Brandon, who was pressing on defense, couldn't react when Jake advanced on the right and was tricked.
What Brandon didn't know was that the players who defended against Jake had a lot of difficulties, Jake was very good at three-point shots and if they tried the block in every move they could make several fouls and make some 4 point moves for Jake do.
In addition, if the players who played against Jake tried to defend by pressing and were very close to him when Jake tried to advance to the inside area using his speed, the opponents would not be able to keep up and Jake would pass every time.
Jake moved forward and Brandon was unable to keep up with him, Jake moved forward and this time Kevin Garnett tried to defend against Jake by preventing him from advancing into the painted area, Jake was quick and realized that Garnett came to defend against him and so Jake passed the ball to Shaq who was free.
Shaq received the ball from Jake and advanced to score 2 more points with a dunk for the Los Angeles Lakers team, the Los Angeles Lakers fans celebrated this beautiful play by Jake, Jake thought very fast in the plays and was never a selfish player who he just wanted to score a lot, so it was difficult for opponents to guess what he was going to do.
If Garnett didn't try to defend against Jake, he would definitely continue to advance and score 2 points, so it was very difficult for opponents to defend against Jake when he decided to make a 2 point play.
Even though Jake was very good at three-point shots, he was more likely to make a mistake trying to make a three-point shot than making a two-point shot, so opponents had to defend away from Jake to prevent him from moving forward. internal area.
In another move the Minnesota Timberwolves team was on the attack and Brandon advanced with the ball and passed it to Peeler on the left, Peeler received the ball and held it a little before passing it to Mitchell on the right.
Mitchell received the ball and Rick came on to defend, Mitchell received the ball and managed to trick Rick with a feint and stepped back to try a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Minnesota Timberwolves team.
The game remained balanced with the Los Angeles Lakers team always winning the game, that did not make the Minnesota Timberwolves players happy because they knew that the Los Angeles Lakers team was controlling the game.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a small points advantage, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.
"The first quarter ends with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game, the game looked balanced, but everyone could see that the Los Angeles Lakers team was dominating the game in that first quarter."
"Garnett and Mitchell played well in that first quarter and we could see the Minnesota Timberwolves team struggling to score, and even so the Los Angeles Lakers still ended up winning that first quarter."
"Yes, this is the Los Angeles Lakers team's playing style this season that has only changed in the toughest games, Jake is an excellent PG and if he led the Lakers team to achieve so many victories this season playing like that, then this is the right way for the Lakers team to play."