Chapter 474 Basketball and Business 8

So the yellow team would play Bryce Drew, Tracy McGrady now playing as SG, Paul Pierce, Tim Thomas, and Michael Doleac, the blue team would play Jason Williams, Michael Dickerson, Matt Harpring, Pat Garrity, and Raef LaFrentz playing as Center.

In this second quarter, the teams were more balanced and the yellow team had a small advantage in attack and the blue team was stronger in defense, unlike the first quarter also in the second quarter the players were playing more seriously wanting to play the best they could.

In an attack by the yellow team, Bryce Drew was advancing with the ball, and reaching the three-point line he passed to Tracy McGrady on the left, McGrady managed to get rid of Michael Dickerson's defense and tried a mid-range shot to make 2 more points for the yellow team.

The blue team also attacked and after a good attacking move Jason Williams passed the ball to Michael Dickerson who tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points to the blue team, that game was much more played in the second quarter.

The yellow team attacked again and after a good attack play Doleac passed the ball farther back to Paul Pierce, Pierce stepped back and tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the yellow team.

With this game played the blue team got the advantage with LaFrentz's plays and the whole team attacked well, Michael McGrady tried to make many attacks alone and the defense of the blue team pressed the defense against him and thus he lost many attacks.

Pierce still made some good plays and made 6 points in that second quarter, Jake had promised that he would leave the team as it was for everyone to have the opportunity to play, but in the third and fourth quarter, they could regain the advantage and win the game.

"The two teams changed almost all the players and we could see all the players of the two teams playing in those first two quarters, the blue team goes to the break with the advantage, but when the initial yellow team comes back the result of the game will be uncertain."

"It's true, Tracy McGrady who was left to play for the yellow team in the second quarter wanted to receive the ball and score points in several plays and so the defense of the blue team defended well against him and managed good plays with Raef LaFrentz."

"Now that we are on break we are going to follow Kate Annesley's show that will sing two songs, one of them is the song that was in Billboard's first place for two weeks this year and the other song was in the Billboard's top 100 this year too."

The team recommended by Kate was very good and in a few minutes prepared a stage and everything for Kate's show at the game break, some people who came to this game just wanted to watch Kate's show.

Jake also didn't go to the locker room to rest and stayed in a hidden place to watch Kate's show, Eva and Anna who came to watch Jake's game would also have the opportunity to see Jake's girlfriend sing.

The first song that Kate sang talked about love and it was a romantic and lively song as well and it had been very successful that year to be able to enter the first place on Billboard, even those who didn't know her who came to see the game liked this song and Jake was happy about it.

Kate's second song was a song that talked about how women were independent, but it didn't offend men either, with a lively rhythm that song pleased women a lot more and men also liked it.

Kate and her team of dancers had great choreography for the two songs and Kate danced well while singing what pleased the fans too, when the two songs ended at the Miami Arena they applauded her, and Jake went back to the locker room to wait for the go back to the court.

With this show, Kate was very happy and Eva and Anna also liked Kate's songs very much, TNT was also happy because there were millions of people watching this game broadcast by them and most people were watching Kate's show during the game break too.

It was their audience record for this game, so the directors of the network who were already thinking about starting to broadcast basketball and football games realized how good it could be for their network.

Jake was happy with Kate's success and had decided that he would return after the break to win that game, the two teams returned with the same players from the first quarter to the third quarter, Jake let Tracy McGrady remain on his team, but in the last quarter, he would make a change in the team.

Early in the third quarter Jake moved forward with a faster pace, Jake passed the ball to McGrady on the right, and Mercer pressed the defense against him, so McGrady had to pass the ball to Carter from the left, Carter passed the ball to Jake in the back.

Bibby was defending against him and Jake saw that Carter was free from the left after passing the ball to him, so Jake passed the ball back to Carter who tried the shot from outside and scored 3 more points for the yellow team.

Carter seemed to be training more three-point shots from what Jake had seen, on the Tar Heels team he and Shammond Williams were very good at three-point shots, so Vince Carter didn't try much, but Jake remembered that Carter would be an of the best players in the NBA three-point shots.

In another play Bibby advanced the ball to organize the attack of the blue team, Bibby saw that Jake was away from him and tried to pass the ball to Mercer, but Jake was too fast and intercepted the ball making the steal, Jake advanced using his speed and Bibby who was further behind was unable to keep up.

So Jake can easily do the dunk and 2 more points for the yellow team, Jake had returned to the third quarter thinking about winning the game so he would start playing seriously in defense.

The players of both teams realized that Jake was playing seriously and started to work hard too, Bibby advanced with the ball and passed to Mercer on the right, Mercer passed the ball to LaFrentz who soon managed to get away from Jamison and went to make the layup, but Duncan understood the move well and went on to make the block.

Jake picked up the ball after Duncan's block and held the ball and didn't try to move fast when Jake advanced to the three-point line Bibby started to press in defense, so Jake signaled and Duncan came and made the screen and Jake could pass freely on the right.

But Jake didn't try the shot and Robert Traylor who came when Duncan made the screen and Bibby tried to pressure Jake, he was smarter and made a high pass to Duncan who took the ball high and made the dunk to complete the alley-oop.

Jake's yellow team managed to tie the game and started to open the lead before the blue team managed to recover in the game, the blue team managed to press and attack too, but the yellow team already had the advantage.

"What a great game we've been having so far, Jake and the yellow team's starting players came back with a desire to win in that third quarter."

"The blue team was unable to defend the great moves of Jake, Duncan, and Carter, and Jake started making more steals, and Duncan also started making more blocks and so the yellow team has a big advantage on the scoreboard."

"We still have the last quarter and the blue team still has a chance to win, but if Jake and the other players on the yellow team continue to play well so the yellow team is closer to victory."

In the last quarter of the game, Jake decided to put Paul Pierce on the yellow team in place of Tracy McGrady, McGrady cannot be upset because only he had played 36 minutes in the first three quarters of the game.

The blue team did not replace anyone and still left Raef LaFrentz to play the entire game, LaFrentz had already been replaced for a few minutes in that game to rest and could play most of the 12 minutes in the last quarter.

In the last quarter the yellow team continued to press in attack and defense, Jake talked to Carter and Pierce and they decided to make more three-point moves and so the blue team's defense had to leave the inside area to defend.

Even though they went out to defend Traylor, he was always defending against Duncan, but so Antawn Jamison had a lot of freedom to attack, Jamison had made few points in that game because Raef LaFrentz was playing very well in defense.

But with Jake, Carter, and Pierce making several three-point shots, the blue team could no longer defend against Jamison and leave the other players free, with this change the blue team's defense failed to adjust and the yellow team won the game.

The yellow team won having 123 points against 102 points of the blue team, in that game, Jake had 27 points, 13 assists, 2 rebounds, and 6 steals, Jake only played for 36 minutes and in the first quarter he had only 6 points, but he was satisfied with his performance in that game.

"And so the game ends with the victory of the yellow team, Jake Smith played very well in that game showing all his skills, Vince Carter also played very well and Antawn Jamison had his highlight in the last quarter."

"Paul Pierce entered the team very well and performed well and Tracy McGrady managed to score 24 points, and the highlight of the yellow team in attack and defense was Tim Duncan."

"In the blue team all the players also performed well, but the yellow team was better and so the fans were able to meet the new players and see a little bit of how they can do in the next NBA season."