novelChange in Los Angeles Lakers Team 5
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With the possession time gone Payton tried the mid-range shot and ended up missing and Kobe Bryant got the rebound, in another dispute between Jake and Gary Payton, Jake showed that he also knew how to defend well.
Bryant advanced with the ball and passed to Jake further back after passing from the middle of the court, this game was well balanced and therefore Jake could not keep the game pace as slow as he liked and the Los Angeles Lakers team had to press on the attack to try to win the game.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Schrempf arrived pressing on defense, Fox held the ball and soon passed to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and Hawkins arrived pressing on defense.
So Bryant passed the ball to Jake further back who tried a feint against Payton, Payton was not fooled and kept pressing in defense, Jake made another quick feint and then advanced using his speed.
Payton reacted quickly, but Jake was even faster and Payton could not keep up, Schrempf approached to do the double-team defense together with Payton, Jake realized this and passed the ball to Fox on the left.
Fox who was free tried the mid-range shot to score 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake had a very high basketball IQ and could always analyze the play and the position of all the players on the court.
This could be a consequence of his high intelligence statistics, Jake once asked the system why Basketball IQ did not appear on his statistics list and the system said it was because Basketball IQ was something that was not possible to measure.
It was almost like intelligence, but intelligence was something that the system could measure using all humans as a reference, but for basketball, only players had it, and even among the best players Basketball IQ was different.
Payton was having a hard time defending against Jake who was smart, fast, strong, and didn't try many moves going to layup or dunk, most of the points that Jake often made were three-point shots and Payton had a harder time defending against such a player.
In another move the Seattle SuperSonics team went on the attack, Payton advanced with the ball and passed it to Schrempf on the right, Schrempf received the ball and Fox arrived to press on defense, Schrempf passed the ball to Polynice later on.
Polynice received the ball and O'Neal came pressing on the defense, Polynice tried a strong shot, but O'Neal remained firm in defense, so Polynice made a feint and moved away from O'Neal and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Seattle SuperSonics team.
The second quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to recover and ended the second quarter by winning by 2 points, Jake played for 12 minutes and had 11 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.
"The second quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to recover in the game and are now winning by 2 points, the two teams remain balanced and the two teams are playing very well."
"Yes, maybe this is the most difficult game that the Los Angeles Lakers team had this season, they lost a game, but it was because Shaquille O'Neal wasn't playing, now they have the full team and they're still having a hard time on the scoreboard."
"Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant are playing very well as they have done throughout this season, Rick Fox is also performing well and mainly Jake Smith is playing very well."
"Yes, even though he's doing fewer steals in that game, Jake Smith is focusing on defending against Gary Payton who is one of the best PG the NBA has today."
"Jake Smith is still playing as well as in other games this season, and he is defending very well against Gary Payton who is having a hard time making the shots and missed many mid-range shots in that game."
In the third quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to push forward, in a game like this, Coach Harris did not think of replacing the main players of the team for a long time and only replaced when O'Neal, Bryant and the others were tired.
The coach of the Seattle SuperSonics team also did not think about replacing the players, this made the dispute between Jake and Payton even more interesting since Jake always played in the 48th minute and Payton also endured playing for a long time.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Fox on the left, Fox received the ball and Schrempf arrived pressing on the defense, so Fox passed the ball to Bryant on the right, Bryant received the ball and held it for a while before passing it to Jake further back.
Jake received the ball and Payton already started to press in the defense not giving Jake room to try another move, so Jake tried a feint and Payton was not fooled, Jake saw an opportunity and made a high pass to Shaquille O'Neal who took the ball at the top and did a dunk completing the alley-oop and making 2 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
In another move the Seattle SuperSonics team went on the attack, Gary Payton charged the ball forward and Jake came to press on defense, Payton did not attempt the individual move and passed the ball to Hawkins on the left.
Hawkins received the ball and Kobe Bryant came to press on defense, Hawkins tried a feint, but failed to trick Bryant who was firm in defense, so Hawkins passed the ball to Payton further back.
Payton received the ball and tried a feint to deceive Jake, but Jake was not deceived and continued in defense, so Payton tried to advance and Jake pressed further in defense, so Payton did a quick step back and tried the mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the Seattle SuperSonics team.
Payton was quick and Jake was unable to react, but Payton still tried to shoot the mid-range shot, Payton also tried several shots from outside that he missed, luckily his teammates managed to get some rebounds and so the game was still balanced.
The third quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with a 6 point advantage, Jake played for 12 minutes in the third quarter and had 8 points, 2 assists, and 1 rebound.
The three-point shots Jake was able to hit were helping the Los Angeles Lakers team to increase their points advantage in the game, but in defense, he was concentrating so hard to defend against Payton that he was unable to make any steal in that quarter.
Payton's attacking moves were so good that Jake remembered when he played one-on-one against Kobe Bryant, of course, Payton was not a player with offensive skills as good as Kobe Bryant, but in a multiplayer game, Payton was making it much harder for Jake to defend.
"The third quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team continues to win and managed to increase the points advantage, Jake Smith continues to play very well and this is being fundamental for the Los Angeles Lakers team to achieve this advantage in points."
"Even with Gary Payton's good defense, Jake Smith has already scored 27 points in that game, and the opposite is also true because Gary Payton has managed to score 15 points in that game, the difference being that Jake Smith missed fewer attacks and can make more passes also."
"Yes, we can see in this game that the two are excellent players and are very good in defense, of course, Gary Payton is a player with more than 8 years of experience in the NBA, 5 times an All-star player and was the defensive player of the year in 1996."
"And Jake is a rookie player who debuted this season in the NBA, so it's amazing what Jake Smith is doing to attack well even with Gary Payton defending against him and him managing to defend well against Gary Payton."
In the last quarter, the Seattle SuperSonics team started to press both in attack and defense, they wanted to take advantage of playing at home to try to win, Payton advanced with the ball and passed to Schrempf on the right.
In the expected duel between Jake and Gary Payton what happened was that the two were more intelligent and tried to score the points avoiding the opponent to defend, Payton didn't do it so well because Jake pressed hard on the attacks and Payton tried several times the layup and the mid-range shooting what was his style of playing.
Jake didn't need this because his style of play was to try three-point shots, and Payton wasn't able to hinder Jake in three-point shots, so Jake was able to attack well, Payton also had to be more careful when making passes because Jake was very good at steals.
Jake managed to make assists with difficulty, but he did even better than Payton in that game, yet whoever was watching this game could see that Jake was playing very well against Payton and it showed that even though he was a rookie he was already one of the best NBA players.
The last quarter ended and the Los Angeles Lakers team got the win by making 100 points against 88 points from the Seattle SuperSonics team, in that last quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, and 1 steal.
"Another NBA game ends this season, the Los Angeles Lakers team won another victory in this difficult and balanced game, the Seattle SuperSonics team played very well in that game and all the players performed well."
"All the starting players scored at least 10 points in that game and Gary Payton scored 22 points even though Jake Smith was defending so well against him, but the Seattle SuperSonics defense was unable to stop the strongest attack this season in the NBA and Team Los Angeles Lakers still won."
| ← Ch. 506 | Ch. 508 → |