Published at 27th of July 2022 9:08 pm

Chapter 557 The Playoffs 7

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Jake remembered that the Portland Trail Blazers team reached the West Conference Finals in his past life, the Portland Trail Blazers team won the 3 games against the Phoenix Suns team and easily qualified for the next playoff phase.

Then he had a tough game against the Utah Jazz team in which he lost 2 games and won the game with 4 wins after 6 games, then the Portland Trail Blazers team lost to the San Antonio Spurs team that won the NBA title 4-0.

So Jake didn't expect it to be easy to win all 4 games against the Portland Trail Blazers team to qualify for the next round, but Jake was confident that the Los Angeles Lakers team would win and qualify for the next round.

Jake also hoped that the San Antonio Spurs team would win the games against the Utah Jazz team and qualify for the West Conference Finals and face the Los Angeles Lakers team, Jake thought that only in this way could he try to win the NBA title with pride that he won the stronger teams.

Soon more 2 days passed and soon the day of the first game came, it was on May 17 and the Los Angeles Lakers team was the favorite for playing better all season and also for not having lost 2 games against the same opponent throughout the season.

In addition, the Los Angeles Lakers team would play the first 2 games at home, so if they won those games as expected they would put all the pressure on the Portland Trail Blazers.

If the Portland Trail Blazers team won just one of the 2 games they would have at home, the fifth game would be decided in Los Angeles, so it was normal for the Los Angeles Lakers team to be the favorite to win those games.

Jake left the house and Eva had left a few minutes earlier to go to watch the game, Eva left before Jake and always arrived at the Great Western Forum, Jake arrived at the Great Western Forum and the crowd was arriving and it was expected that the Great Western Forum was full of fans.

Soon Jake arrived in the locker room and after a while, the players entered the court to see the Great Western Forum full of fans, Jake thought that the Portland Trail Blazers team would certainly feel pressure from the fans.

The names of the players of the two teams were called and when the names of the players of the Los Angeles Lakers team were called the crowd got very excited and started to scream even more.

In that game the Los Angeles Lakers team would start with Jake Smith playing as PG, Kobe Bryant playing as SG, Rick Fox playing as SF, Dennis Rodman playing as PF, and Shaquille O'Neal playing as Center.

The Portland Trail Blazers team would start the game with Damon Stoudamire playing as PG, Isaiah Rider playing as SG, the Portland Trail Blazers team would have Brian Grant and Rasheed Wallace playing as PF, and Brian Grant would defend against Rick Fox, and Arvydas Sabonis playing as Center.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch another game this season, this is the first game of the West Conference Semifinals of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers team will face the Portland Trail Blazers."

"The two teams will compete to see which team will make it to the West Conference Finals and try to make it to the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers team is the favorite to be playing at home and to have the best performance this season."

"But in this phase, teams need 4 wins to advance to the next playoff phase, so the Portland Trail Blazers team has a chance of winning 4 games and advancing to the next phase."

"The Los Angeles Lakers team has another advantage, which is having the best attack with Jake Smith, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant playing, if the three of them play this and the next games, the Los Angeles Lakers team can certainly advance to the next one phase."

"The Portland Trail Blazers team also has one of the best offenses and one of the best defenses this season, even though they are not stronger in the attack, they are a balanced team and managed to advance to the playoffs with the fourth-best campaign playing like this."

The game started and Shaquille O'Neal won the first ball possession for the Los Angeles Lakers team, Shaq passed the ball to Jake who started to organize the attack, Jake advanced with the ball and passed it to Rick Fox on the left.

Rick received the ball and Brian Grant came to press on defense, Rick held the ball a little and passed it to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Damon Stoudamire arrived to press on defense.

Stoudamire was one of the best players on the Portland Trail Blazers team and he always had a hard time playing against the Los Angeles Lakers because he couldn't defend well against Jake and Jake managed to defend well against him.

In the only game, this season that the Portland Trail Blazers team managed to beat the Los Angeles Lakers team was in a game that the Portland Trail Blazers attack was very good and they didn't need Stoudamire to win.

Jake had the ball and thought a little about what play he would do, Jake decided to pass the ball to Kobe Bryant from the right, Kobe received the ball and Isaiah Rider came pressing on the defense, Kobe tried a feint and managed to trick Rider and advanced on the right.

Rider was deceived, but managed to recover and came back to defend, Kobe continued to advance and did a fast crossover and advanced through the middle, this time Rider was unable to follow and Kobe advanced to make 2 points with a layup.

The crowd cheered up with this move by Kobe, in the last game Kobe played very badly and in the last games he was not able to play as well as he should in playoff games, the fans and the media did not charge so much for Kobe because he was a player who was in the NBA a few years ago.

But Jake charged Kobe because he knew that in the future Kobe would be one of the best players in the NBA and right now he already had the ability to help the Los Angeles Lakers team more easily win the playoff games.

In another move the Portland Trail Blazers team was on the attack, Stoudamire advanced with the ball and passed to Grant on the right, the Portland Trail Blazers team played several games using 2 PF and that seemed to have worked well after all the Portland Trail Blazers team stayed in fourth among West Conference teams.

Grant received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, Grant held the ball a little and passed it to Rider on the left, Rider received the ball and Kobe arrived pressing on defense, Rider started doing a Hockey Dribble so as not to lose the ball.

Rider made a feint and pretending he was going to move forward and Kobe retreated, so Rider took this chance to shoot a mid-range shot and score 2 points for the Portland Trail Blazers, the Portland Trail Blazers was also attacking well and the Los Angeles team Lakers had a hard time defending.

With the Portland Trail Blazers team also attacking well and having a good defense the game seemed balanced, but nobody knew if the game was evenly balanced or if the Los Angeles Lakers team was just analyzing the opponent.

Jake knew that the game was really difficult, but with Kobe and Shaq playing well the Los Angeles Lakers team had no difficulty in making the points, so the game was just balanced because he was analyzing the opponent.

Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and held it a little before passing it to Rick on the left, Rick received the ball and Grant came pressing on the defense, Rick tried to trick Grant with a feint, but failed.

Rick passed the ball to Jake in the back, Jake received the ball and Stoudamire came pressing on the defense, Stoudamire learned by watching Jake's games and was not defending close to Jake, Jake realized this and stepped back and tried an outside shot to make 3 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.

Stoudamire already expected Jake to make a move like that, but the Portland Trail Blazers team coach talked to him and told him not to try to stay close to Jake and if Jake tried the shots from outside it was for him to leave and just try to hinder Jake.

Jake didn't know that and was just playing normally, he was prepared for the Portland Trail Blazers to start making fouls just like the Minnesota Timberwolves did.

If that happened, Coach Rambis would replace Shaq who was the target for opponents to make fouls, and Jake would have to try to hit even more shots from outside, if the Portland Trail Blazers team tried to send a player to defend against him in one on one, Jake would continue to attack.

After all, the Minnesota Timberwolves team only managed to find one player to defend against Jake because they had Kevin Garnett on the team, the Portland Trail Blazers team had no such player and Jake would not be intimidated and would continue to attack.

Jake hadn't played a game in which he just tried to make as many points as he could after he joined the Los Angeles Lakers team, this was because he had great teammates and also because Jake knew if he did that the opponent would double-team and he would no longer be able to attack in the game in which he only tried to attack.

Jake didn't think it was necessary after all, even though he played the way he played normally, he managed to make more than 11 assists per game, Jake still managed to score 51 points in one of the games.

In another move the Portland Trail Blazers team was on the attack, Stoudamire advanced the ball and passed it to Rider on the left, Rider received the ball and held it a little before passing it to Grant on the right.

Grant received the ball and Rick came in to press the defense, Grant advanced with the ball using his strength and Rick could not defend well against Grant, Grant advanced a little and tried to make a hook shot to make 2 points for the Portland Trail Blazers.

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