Chapter 569 West Conference Semifinals 9
So in the third quarter, the game continued with both teams pressing in the attack and soon Coach Rambis and the Los Angeles Lakers team players realized that the Portland Trail Blazers team would not use the strategy of making fouls in that game.
This meant that the Portland Trail Blazers team knew they could not win this game and would try to play normally, it left the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team more relaxed, yet they would continue to perform as best they could to ensure that victory.
The Portland Trail Blazers team continued to make a double-team defense strategy against Jake, even though they realized that it would not help them win the game, at least they would prevent Jake from scoring as many points as in the last games.
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team only maintaining the advantage in points, in the last quarter the game continued with both teams in attack and pressing in defense as well.
This was the kind of game that basketball fans who were watching at the Great Western Forum and also watching on television would most like to see, it was what they expected from a playoff game.
The game ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team achieving the victory making 111 points against 82 points of the Portland Trail Blazers team, it was a victory with a great advantage in points of the Lakers team, but those who watched the game knew it was a balanced game.
In that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 28 points, 17 assists, 8 rebounds, and 10 steals, even with the Portland Trail Blazers team making a double-team defense strategy against Jake, he still managed to score 28 points and do more a triple-double.
Even so Jake managed to make 17 assists in that game that was the game with the most assists since he started playing in the NBA, of course, although Jake was very happy to make 17 assists he knew it was nowhere near the record, John Stockton and Magic Johnson are tied for the most assists in a playoff game, with 24 assists.
"The game is over and the Los Angeles Lakers team wins the game with a big difference in points, the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to win 4 games and now they will advance to the next phase of the playoffs and the Portland Trail Blazers team was eliminated with just 1 victory."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team has managed to advance to the West Conference Semifinals and will face the opponent who wins the first 4 games that can be the San Antonio Spurs team or the Utah Jazz team."
"That's right, in that game the Los Angeles Lakers team won with an excellent performance from all players, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were the most important players in the attack, Shaq had 29 points and Kobe had 27 points."
"Rick Fox also helped a lot in the attack and Dennis Rodman had an excellent performance catching 15 rebounds in that game and helping the Los Angeles Lakers team in attack and defense."
"The Portland Trail Blazers team tried to use a double-team defense strategy against Jake Smith, it worked because Jake scored 28 points and it was the first time in the playoffs that Jake scored less than 32 points."
"Unfortunately in this game, the Portland Trail Blazers players were not so good in attack and Jake still managed to make 17 assists in that game and managed to help in defense by taking 8 rebounds and doing 10 steals thus making another triple-double in those playoffs."
"Now let's see if the Los Angeles Lakers team that is a favorite to win the NBA title this season can advance to the NBA Finals."
All the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team and coach Rambis were very happy with this victory and the crowd was also celebrating the progress to the next phase, Eva who was watching the game was also watching Jake's team winning.
Jake was even happier with this victory because he knew that in his past life the Los Angeles Lakers team had been eliminated at that stage, now it seemed that it was more possible for the Los Angeles Lakers team to advance to the NBA Finals and win the NBA title this season.
After the game ended the reporters wanted to try an interview with the Los Angeles Lakers team players, Rick and Kobe did not want to give the interview, so only Shaq, Dennis, and Jake stayed to be interviewed.
"Shaq, in these last games you have been one of the highlights of your team in the attack, even with the opponent's strategy that made the opponents make more faults on you, you still managed to be one of the highlights with Jake."
"Do you think the Los Angeles Lakers are better this season and are more likely to win the NBA title?"
"Yes, the last games were the most difficult for the Los Angeles Lakers team, this strategy of the Portland Trail Blazers team gave me more opportunities to score more points in free throws as well."
"Fortunately, I was still able to make a lot of points even with the Portland Trail Blazers team making this strategy, and Jake attracted the attention of the defense and made a lot of assists for me which helped a lot for our team to win."
"Just like I said before I think that with the entry of Jake and the entry of Dennis our team is more prepared to try to win the NBA title, we have to win the next stage and win in the NBA Finals to show that we have the best team."
Shaq had a lot of difficulties in those last games, especially because when the Portland Trail Blazers team started this strategy of making fouls, Coach Rambis even took him off the team because he knew Shaq would miss more free-throw.
That was why this strategy was known as Hack-a-Shaq because it was more effective against players like Shaq who had a low hit percentage in free throws, but with the change in the Los Angeles team's strategy Lakers, Shaq was one of the most successful players. important in these last victories.
Reporters asked Shaq a few more questions and after they went to Dennis interviews, Dennis was happy to be again one of the most important players on a team who had a chance of winning the NBA title.
"Dennis, you have been one of the most important players in the defense of the Los Angeles Lakers team, and the rebounds you get help both in defense and in the attack, as you feel being on a team that can win the NBA title after leaving a team that is often champion like the Chicago Bulls team?"
"It's good to know that I'm on a good team again, I was lucky to have played on the Detroit Pistons team and won the NBA title twice and also to play on the Chicago Bulls team and win the NBA title 3 times."
"Now I feel that the Los Angeles Lakers team has the opportunity to win the NBA title this season, of course, that is also my merit in helping the teams I play to win the games in the playoffs and have the chance to win so many NBA titles."
What Dennis said was true, it was his merit to have won 5 NBA titles on 2 two different teams, this season, if the Los Angeles Lakers team could win it, would be because Dennis was on the team helping with an average of more than 10 rebounds per game.
Of course, Dennis had no way of knowing that because of his off-court behavior, Coach Rambis and the Los Angeles Lakers team board thought of expelling him from the team, and that's what happened in Jake's past life.
Just because Jake showed up and also missed some training and always said that Dennis was very important to the team that the Los Angeles Lakers team director stopped thinking about expelling Dennis from the team and it seems like that was the right decision.
After the reporters interviewed Dennis and Shaq they went to Jake's interviews, Jake was happy with the victory and was hoping that the interviews would be over soon for him to return home with his mother and talk with Eva.
"Jake, congratulations on qualifying for the next phase of the Los Angeles Lakers team, today was one of the toughest games for you this season because of that double-team defense strategy that the Portland Trail Blazers did against you?"
"This was certainly one of the most difficult games for me this season, the Portland Trail Blazers team use a lot of strategies in these last games to try to win against our team and they won 1 game and the last games were very difficult for our team."
"Fortunately, even though I couldn't score as many points as in the last game, our team still won with the good performance of Kobe, Shaq, and my teammates."
"The next opponent of the Los Angeles Lakers team has not yet been defined, do you have any opponents that you wanted to face in the next round?"
"No, I wanted the opposing team to just advance to the next stage after playing 7 games and that way we would have more advantages, but whatever our next opponent, we will try our best to win the 4 games and advance to the NBA Finals."
Jake answered two questions and left the court, he said goodbye to his teammates and went to meet his mother so they could go home, Eva praised Jake for the good game and she was happy with his victory.
Jake came home with Eva and soon overheard her saying she wanted to go back to Miami to see how the restaurant was doing, Eva had heard from other fans that the next game for the Los Angeles Lakers team would be only after a few days and so she decided to go to Miami.
Jake wanted his mother to stay with him for the next few days, but he knew he shouldn't be selfish, after all, Eva was just watching his games and was far from the restaurant that she liked so much to support Jake.
"Okay, mom, you can fly to Miami by helicopter, the next game should be on the 29th, so if you can get back to Los Angeles on the 28th it would be better."
"Okay, Jake, I'm staying in Miami for the next 3 days, and then I'll be back on the 28th."