Chapter 563 West Conference Semifinals 3
Jake managed to make this block at an important point in the game when the Los Angeles Lakers team was winning the game, but it was the Portland Trail Blazers team that was playing best in that third quarter.
So if the Los Angeles Lakers team prevented this attack from the Portland Trail Blazers team, they could still maintain the advantage in points, but in this game, the Los Angeles Lakers team was not able to gain as many rebounds as they normally did in games.
So Wallace still managed to catch the rebound and make the 2 points even after Jake made the block, this again gave hope to the fans and players of the Portland Trail Blazers team and did not give the cheer to the Los Angeles Lakers team that Jake expected.
The third quarter ended with the Portland Trail Blazers winning by a few points, the Los Angeles Lakers team could get the comeback in that quarter, but it looked like the Lakers players were out of luck.
With the strategy of making faults in Shaq and other players, the Portland Trail Blazers managed to prevent the Lakers' attack from working well, even Jake was the target of the faults not to make three-point shots.
In the last quarter, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team seemed discouraged with the victory, after all in this game Kobe and Shaq were having a good performance, and even so the Lakers team was losing.
Of course, they knew that if Dennis and Rick were performing well it could be decisive for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win, but in other games, only Shaq, Jake, and Kobe were enough for the Lakers team to win.
On the side of the Portland Trail Blazers team, it was different, the players and the crowd were excited about this game and they wanted the victory to start a possible turn in this phase of the playoffs, coach Mike Dunleavy was also happy that his strategies in this game were working and he saw the hope of the Portland Trail Blazers team moving on to the next stage.
The game ended with the Portland Trail Blazers team achieving the first victory in this phase of the playoffs, with that victory the Los Angeles Lakers team was still 2 victory over 1 victory from the Portland Trail Blazers team, but the next game was at the Portland team home. Trail Blazers and a tie could happen.
The Portland Trail Blazers team won the game with 108 points against 102 points of the Los Angeles Lakers team, in that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 43 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds, 10 steals, and 2 blocks, it was one of the best games of Jake in those playoffs and Jake managed another triple-double even with the Los Angeles Lakers losing.
"The game ends with the Portland Trail Blazers team achieving the first victory in this phase of the playoffs, it was an important victory in which the players of the Portland Trail Blazers had an excellent performance and will give confidence to the team in the next games."
"The Portland Trail Blazers players have already performed very well in the last game in which the Los Angeles Lakers team still managed to win, but in that game with the Portland Trail Blazers team playing at home they managed to win."
"The Portland Trail Blazers team won that game even though Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had a good performance and with Jake Smith having his best performance in these playoffs, this will give a lot of confidence to the Portland Trail Blazers team in the next home game."
"It is true, in the first game of this phase of the playoffs all the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team performed well, in addition to Shaq, Kobe and Jake, Rick Fox and Dennis Rodman also performed well and that is why the Lakers team won with the facility."
"But in this game and in the last game Rick and Dennis did not perform well and the Portland Trail Blazers players continued to play well, which is why even though Jake Smith had his best performance in those playoffs with the triple-double making 43 points a Los Angeles Lakers team still lost."
Just as commentators said, this victory for the Portland Trail Blazers team was very important, especially since Jake had his best performance in the playoffs and even that was not enough for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win.
Even Jake, who was always excited, was saddened by this defeat, especially since his mother had come to watch this game, and even with him trying his best it was not enough for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win.
With this Los Angeles Lakers team defeat, a fifth game was confirmed in Los Angeles, of course, the Lakers team still had the advantage for being the best team of the season and playing the fifth game at home, but for that, they needed to win the fourth game playing as a visitor.
After the game the players returned to the hotel upset with the defeat, the worst was that the next game of this phase of the playoffs would be the very next day and the players had no chance to rest being replaced by a few minutes in these difficult games.
Having a game the next day would be bad because the Portland Trail Blazers players were very confident after the victory and would continue to do so for the next game in which the Portland Trail Blazers team would play at home.
Jake couldn't talk to Eva who was at the hotel he rented for her after the game and would only see his mother in the stands for the next game, so Jake had to regain his confidence alone.
Jake decided that in this game the Los Angeles Lakers team had to win and so he worked hard to score more points and to help more in defense, in the last game Jake made 2 blocks and 10 steals being the best player in the defense of the Lakers team too.
Jake was thinking of working hard in the next game as well and taking the opportunity to score more points in the first quarter and the second quarter that the Portland Trail Blazers team could not use the strategy of making fouls.
In addition, Jake was thinking that the players on the Portland Trail Blazers team should also be as tired as the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team were, so he could take advantage of that to make more speed runs and score more points.
The most important thing was that all the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team were performing well, Jake realized in this game that just Shaq and Kobe playing well wasn't enough, in fact, if Dennis was performing well and catching several rebounds he could be even more important than Kobe in that last game.
Jake went to rest, trusting that his teammates who were professional players would know how to motivate themselves even better than he did, after all a team losing a game in the playoffs was common for the most skilled players.
The other day Jake woke up very early in the morning and went to eat breakfast with the other players at the hotel, Jake saw that the other players no longer seemed to be as discouraged and worried as they were after the defeat.
After a few hours Jake was in the hotel room thinking about what the game would be like that day and he got a call on his cell phone, Jake thought it might be his mother calling from her hotel, but it was Kate who was calling him.
"Hi, Jake, I called to see how you are doing, I heard about the result of yesterday's game."
"Hi, Kate, thanks for worrying about me, I'm already more excited now after sleeping well, I know that the Los Angeles Lakers team is still a favorite to win the next games and I'm more confident for the game today."
"Good, I hoped you wouldn't be discouraged after just 1 loss, the Los Angeles Lakers team won 2 games now and you can win today's game too, I want your team to win so I can watch your games in the NBA Finals."
"I also want to see you soon, Kate, I will not be discouraged and I will do my best to get the Los Angeles Lakers team to make it to the NBA Finals, how are your shows doing?"
"They're doing really well, almost all tickets have been sold at the last few shows and, I'm very happy with that, after the Grammy it seems like I got more fans, now I'm getting ready to stop only if your team makes it to the NBA Finals, otherwise I will have to schedule even more shows."
Jake was happy to see that Kate's success in music was increasing after winning a Grammy award, Jake didn't know what Kate's future would be like in the music world because she wasn't alive in his past life, so Jake could only support Kate and hope she was successful.
Kate also supported Jake very well in everything he did, she wanted him to do well in basketball, athletics, and his career as an actor because Kate didn't know much about what Jake did as a manager too, which is why being apart they were still happy dating.
Jake was even more confident after talking to Kate and was more excited for the game that the Los Angeles Lakers team would have that day, after a few hours Jake and the other players went to the Rose Garden Arena and saw that the fans would fill the Arena in that game.
The Los Angeles Lakers team players could see how the fans were more confident that the Portland Trail Blazers team could win this game than in the last game, Jake and the Los Angeles Lakers team players were also confident that they could win this game and could try his fourth win playing in Los Angeles.
The players went to the locker room and then went to the court to wait for the game to start, Jake can see that the Portland Trail Blazers players were also more confident in this game that they would win.
Jake knew he would be a player who would change the outcome of that game and bring victory to the Los Angeles Lakers team, but for that, he had his teammates in that game.