Chapter 522 The Season Continues 2
Chapter 522 The Season Continues 2
"The Utah Jazz team is having a good season with 12 wins and only 4 losses in 16 games this season, it is one of the teams with the most victories this season, this season with the least games the Utah Jazz team has won almost a third of the games that season."
"In the first game, the Utah Jazz team lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in a well-balanced game between the two teams, in that game the Utah Jazz team plays at home and has John Stockton and Karl Malone who are two NBA stars to try to get the victory in that game."
"The Los Angeles Lakers team is the team with the most wins this season with 17 wins and only 1 loss in 18 games, with Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and rookie Jake Smith the Los Angeles Lakers team is the favorite to win this game."
"That's right, in this game we will also have the confrontation between Jake Smith who is the best PG of this season so far against John Stockton who is one of the 5 best PG of all time in the NBA."
"In the last game Jake played very well and defended well against Gary Payton, so we are looking forward to seeing what he can do playing against John Stockton."
This was a game in which everyone was looking forward to the dispute between the two teams, the dispute between Jake and John Stockton and also the dispute between Shaq and Karl Malone, two of the teams that were doing very well this season were facing each other.
Many also expected a dispute between Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, after all the two faced each other several times while Dennis was playing on the Chicago Bulls team, so this was a game that many people who were not fans of these teams wanted to watch.
The Los Angeles Lakers team would start with Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Robert Horry playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.
The Utah Jazz team would start that game with John Stockton playing as PG, Jeff Hornacek playing as SG, Bryon Russell playing as SF, Karl Malone playing as PF, and Greg Ostertag playing as Center.
The game started with Shaquille O'Neal winning the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaq passed the ball to Jake who started organizing the play for the Lakers team, Jake advanced the ball and passed it to Kobe Bryant on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Jeff Hornacek came in to press on defense, Kobe held the ball and passed it to Rick Fox on the left, Rick received the ball and Bryon Russell came in to press in defense.
Rick held the ball and passed it to Jake in the back, Jake got the ball and John Stockton came in defense, Jake made a feint and managed to go to the right, Jake moved away from Stockton and tried a shot from outside to make 3 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Jake scored 3 early in the game showing that he would attack normally even playing against Stockton, Stockton was not as good a defensive player as Payton, so he knew that in this game he might not be able to defend as well against Jake.
In another move, the Utah Jazz team was on the attack, Stockton advanced with the ball and passed it to Russell on the right, Russell received the ball and Rick came pressing on the defense, Russell held the ball and passed it to Hornacek on the left.
Hornacek received the ball and Kobe came pressing on defense, Hornacek tricked Kobe with a feint and tried a mid-range shot to score 2 points for the Utah Jazz team, the Utah Jazz team was strong in attack too and so everyone expected a game more balanced.
In another move the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and managed to deceive the opponent with a feint, Kobe advanced to the inside area and drive to the basket doing more 2 points with a layup for the Los Angeles Lakers team.
In this game, Kobe Bryant was playing well and Shaquille O'Neal also, it made Jake more relaxed to make the passes, Rick Fox was not playing so well in this game again and in this game, Jake did not intend to make many passes to Robert Horry because Karl Malone was defending against it.
In another move, the Utah Jazz team was on the attack, Stockton advanced with the ball and passed Hornacek on the left, Hornacek received the ball and Kobe came pressing on the defense, Hornacek held the ball a little and passed it to Russell on the right.
Russell received the ball and then passed to Stockton further back, Stockton received the ball and Jake came to defend, Stockton passed the ball to Karl Malone further on the right, Malone received the ball and Robert Horry came in to press on defense.
Malone used his strength to move closer to the painted area and did a spin and tried a hook shot to make 2 more points for the Utah Jazz team, the Utah Jazz team's moves with Malone were the moves most likely to end in points for the team.
The first quarter ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning with a small points advantage, in that first quarter Jake played for 12 minutes and had 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, it was a good first quarter for the Los team Angeles Lakers and to Jake.
"The first quarter ends and the Los Angeles Lakers team is winning the game with a good performance by Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Jake Smith, the Utah Jazz team is also doing well in this game and keeping the game balanced."
"John Stockton and Karl Malone were the highlights of the Utah Jazz team in that first quarter, for the rest of the game the Utah Jazz team will have to put more pressure on the defense if they want to win."
"In the dispute between Jake Smith and John Stockton the two played normally and managed to organize the plays and attack in the same way as in other games, the two seem to be more careful in making assists and Jake is not trying as much to make steals as in other games."
Just as commentators said Jake was not pushing as much in defense as in the last game, this was because Jake knew that Stockton would not score as many points as Gary Payton could do in the last game.
Jake was not provoked and had realized how much more tired he had become in the last game, he would still press on defense, but if the Los Angeles Lakers team could win he would not press so hard on defense.
In the second quarter the Utah Jazz team started to press more in the attack and the Los Angeles Lakers team continued to press in the attack, both teams had strong attacks and wanted the victory.
Stockton advanced with the ball and passed Hornacek on the left, Hornacek received the ball and Kobe came pressing on defense, Hornacek tried to trick Kobe with a feint, but Kobe was not fooled.
Then Hornacek passed the ball to Russell on the right, Russell received the ball and then passed to Stockton further back, Stockton took the ball and Jake came to defend, Stockton stepped back and attempted a mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the Utah Jazz team.
With the experience Stockton was very good at making the mid-range shots, he was very fast when attacking and Jake had no way to get in the way, Jake could try the block, but if he missed the right time he could miss it.
In another move, the Los Angeles Lakers team was on the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and Russell arrived pressing on defense, Rick held the ball and passed it to Kobe on the right.
Kobe received the ball and Hornacek came pressing on defense, Kobe tried to make the individual move by advancing, but Hornacek kept pressing on defense and not letting Kobe forward, so Kobe passed the ball back to Jake.
Jake received the ball and Stockton came to defend, Jake made a feint and managed to outwit Stockton and used his speed to advance to the inside area, Jake advanced quickly and only Greg Ostertag came to defend, Jake was quick and passed the ball to Shaquille O'Neal who was free.
Shaq received the ball and scored 2 more points with a dunk for the Los Angeles Lakers team, with this move by Jake Ostertag had nothing to do, Jake was very fast and if he did not try to defend it would be Jake who would make the dunk.
The game continued with the two teams playing well and with the game well balanced, the Los Angeles Lakers team still finished the second quarter with an even greater advantage in points, Jake and Stockton were attacking normally and were not defending well.
Jake still managed to make some steals and was helping the Los Angeles Lakers team to continue with the points advantage, in the third quarter the Utah Jazz team tried to press further in the attack and most of the attacks was with Karl Malone trying to make the points.
In that game, coach Kurt Rambis realized that he could not replace the main players for long, so only Shaq was replaced for a few minutes in all quarters of the game.
Contrary to what many expected Dennis Rodman was not playing very well in that game again and he was unable to defend well against Karl Malone and still made many fouls in that game.
The game ended with the Los Angeles Lakers team winning the game with 109 points against 85 points from the Utah Jazz team, in that game Jake played for 48 minutes and had 32 points, 13 assists, 9 rebounds, and 8 steals.
This was a balanced game in which the Los Angeles Lakers team still managed to increase the points advantage in every quarter and at the end of the game, they had an advantage of more than 20 points.
"The game ends with another victory for the Los Angeles Lakers team, even with the Utah Jazz team playing very well and with the good performance of Karl Malone making 32 points and the good performance of John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, they did not get the victory."