Chapter 579 - West Conference Finals 9
With the San Antonio Spurs team attacking so well they managed to lead the score again with a small points lead, Jake couldn't do anything as he had to defend against Avery Johnson who only managed to get 2 points into the second quarter.
The Los Angeles Lakers team continued to attack well, but Jake couldn't make a lot of three-point plays using his speed, it was difficult to get rid of two opposing players and still have the precision to hit three-point shots.
Rick Fox wasn't performing as well as the first two games and even though he was free he still missed some mid-range shots, luckily for Jake, the other players were doing well and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were making a lot of points.
Even with Tim Duncan and David Robinson defending against Shaq, he was one of the best players on the Los Angeles Lakers team and still managed to find opportunities to score points with Jake's good plays, after all, Shaq adapted to playing with two players defending against him after two games.
Soon the second quarter ended with the San Antonio Spurs team winning the game by just one point ahead, Jake tried again to score several points on three-point shots, but with the good defense of Avery Johnson and Sean Elliott, Jake ended up missing 2 attempts and scored 9 points in that second quarter.
In addition to several plays where Jake tried to shoot from the outside and failed and had to pass the ball before the possession time expired, with Jake's ability to make three-point shots he knew when he had a chance to hit and if he didn't have confidence he would pass the ball.
"The second quarter ends with the San Antonio Spurs team managing to recover and now they are winning the game, the San Antonio Spurs team's good defense is paying off and Jake is not having the freedom to try so many three-point shots in this quarter."
"It's true, the San Antonio Spurs team is defending very well and besides, it's attacking very well and making fewer mistakes in attack than in other games, if they continue like this, the San Antonio Spurs team can win this game."
"But it won't be so easy for the San Antonio Spurs team to get the win, even if Rick Fox isn't performing well in this game, Shaquille O'Neal is making a lot of points even with Tim Duncan and David Robinson defending against him."
As commentators said, the game wasn't that hard for the Los Angeles Lakers team to win again, even though Rick Fox was performing poorly, Shaquille O'Neal was performing well even with Duncan and Robinson defending against him.
What really changed in this game is that the San Antonio Spurs players were doing great, it felt like the crowd was helping the players to play even better.
In the third quarter, the game continued the same, but just as in every game there was a moment when Jake had more opportunities to attack, Jake played every 48 minutes in every game, but the other players couldn't do it.
So at least 9 minutes per game Jake was playing while Johnson and Elliott were resting, normally Jake also didn't have many opportunities because when the reserves came in he became the main target of the opposing defense.
But in this game, Jake was determined to win, so he took advantage of Duncan and Robinson resting and started making plays near the painted area using his speed.
So in 3 minutes in the third quarter, Jake managed to get 8 points with layups in 4 attacks, plus, because the San Antonio Spurs team players tried to stop Jake from scoring they fouled 2 plays, so Jake got the 2 points with the layup and still got one more opportunity to make 2 more points in a free throw.
In another play, Jake managed to get 2 more points with a dunk before Duncan and Robinson returned to the game, so the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to get back the advantage in points and was winning the game again.
In that third quarter, Jake scored an incredible 18 points and the Los Angeles Lakers team finished the third quarter with 3 points ahead, even with Jake's great performance in that quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team still had a way to win this game in the last quarter.
In the last quarter, the San Antonio Spurs team continued to try to regain the advantage in the game, moreover, after what happened in the third quarter the San Antonio Spurs team players were taking turns when the reserves entered the court so Jake wouldn't have as much freedom.
As a result, the game was not decided until the last 30 seconds of the last quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team was still leading the game by 2 points and still had 20 seconds of possession, so Jake kept the ball trying to spend possession. and the San Antonio Spurs players didn't try to foul because they knew Jake would hit the two free throws.
With a few seconds of possession Jake asked Shaq to do the screen, Shaq understood what Jake wanted and went to do the screen, when Shaq came closer to where Jake was, Duncan realized what Jake wanted to do and followed Shaq to stop letting him do the screen.
When Shaq and Duncan got close to Jake, he understood he couldn't make the move he wanted and motioned for Kobe to make a move they had rehearsed, Kobe understood and walked over to where Shaq and Duncan were to get out of the opponent.
So Kobe managed to advance to the inside area and Jake made an alley-oop passing the ball over the top to Kobe who received the ball and made a layup to score 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Unfortunately soon after Jaren Jackson missed the three-point attempt and Kobe caught the rebound and was fouled so that time would not continue, Kobe hit the two free throws and thus the advantage increased to 6 points with 2 seconds left to finish the last quarter and it was already decided that the Los Angeles Lakers team won that game.
The Los Angeles Lakers team got the victory with 107 points against 101 points of the San Antonio Spurs team, the players of the San Antonio Spurs team left the court discouraged after this defeat at home.
In that game Jake double-doubled with 51 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, and 5 steals, Jake once again managed to score over 50 points in one game and then another game in the playoffs, which was amazing considering that Jake was playing in his first season in the NBA.
"The game ends, the Los Angeles Lakers team got their third win in this Conference Finals and needs one more win to advance to the NBA Finals, with the Los Angeles Lakers team getting that win even playing as a visiting team, they're favorites to get the NBA Finals."
"This was an amazing game and it was decided only at the end of the last quarter as it doesn't usually happen when the Los Angeles Lakers team plays, it shows how the game was more favorable for the San Antonio Spurs team to win and the Lakers team sought the victory."
"It's true, the San Antonio Spurs players were having an excellent attacking performance in that game, the San Antonio team missed a lot fewer attacks than in the last few games and also defended well."
"Also, in that game, Rick Fox didn't perform well and that was what the San Antonio Spurs team hoped to win, but what caused the Los Angeles Lakers team to win was the good performance of Shaquille O'Neal even though he was good marked."
"In addition to the good performance of Shaquille O'Neal, there was also the great performance again of Jake Smith who had 51 points in that game and a double-double, and a good performance by Kobe Bryant also which was fundamental especially in the last quarter."
"It's true, Jake this season broke the record for the player who scored the most points in three-point plays in a game with 16 hits, even though in that game he didn't hit as many 3-point shots he still managed to get 12 points out of just 8 minutes showing why he's favorite to win this season's MVP award."
On the other hand, the San Antonio Spurs players were feeling pretty bad after all they knew the Los Angeles Lakers team would have three games of chance to advance to the NBA Finals and the San Antonio team needed to win all the next 4 games to advance for the NBA Finals.
After Jake arrived at the hotel where the Los Angeles Lakers team players were staying, Jake called his mother to celebrate with her one more victory, Eva was also happy because she knew Jake needed just one more victory to advance to the NBA Finals and get a chance to win the NBA title.
Jake also called William and talked to his friends who had stayed in Los Angeles, and Jake also decided to call Kate to let them know that they would soon meet when the Los Angeles Lakers team made it to the NBA Finals.
Kate was glad that Jake called her right after the game and she told him that Jake could always call after his games so if she was doing a show her manager Lily could answer the call saying that Kate was busy.
After finishing the calls Jake could sleep more relaxed, the next game would be after 2 days and Jake knew he had to rest to help the Los Angeles Lakers team get their fourth win and advance to the NBA Finals.