Chapter 564 West Conference Semifinals 4

In that game the Los Angeles Lakers team would start the game 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, Brian Grant playing as SF, Rasheed Wallace playing as PF, and Arvydas Sabonis playing as Center.

The two teams would start playing with the same players as it was in the last games, Coach Rambis still hoped that Dennis Rodman could help the Los Angeles Lakers team by catching rebounds and helping in defense.

Robert Horry did well in the last few games, but if Dennis managed to catch more than 15 rebounds as he did sometimes he would make a difference in an important game like this, especially since Jake tried a lot of shots from outside in every game.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this game this NBA season, this is the fourth game in this phase of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers team won 2 games and the Portland Trail Blazers team won the last game."

"The Los Angeles Lakers team is still a favorite to win that game, but with the Portland Trail Blazers team winning the last game, the Portland Trail Blazers players have more confidence in that game playing at home after an important victory."

"It's true, it's clear that if all the players on the Los Angeles Lakers team play well in that game they have a better chance of winning, in the last game we could see that just Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal performing well is not enough to the Lakers team win."

"Another thing that is important to note is that the Los Angeles Lakers team coach Kurt Rambis does not have as much skill as coach Mike Dunleavy, so the Los Angeles Lakers team depends more on the individual performance of the team players."

"Okay, let's see if the Los Angeles Lakers team gets the third win and gets closer to qualifying for the next round or if the Portland Trail Blazers team gets the second win and ties that playoff stage."

What the commentators said was what everyone in the sports media thought, Coach Rambis didn't have as much skill as Coach Dunleavy on the Portland Trail Blazers, so the Los Angeles Lakers team lost when they didn't have the best players performing well.

The Lakers team players thought so too, but the truth was that everyone knew that Coach Rambis was being the coach because the Lakers team did not have time to sign another coach after 13 games in a reduced season.

Next season it was very likely that the Lakers team board would hire another coach even if the Los Angeles Lakers team won the NBA title this season, after all in a team with Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and now Jake it was natural to expect the team winning the NBA title even with a bad coach.

Coach Rambis certainly knew that the players and the media thought of him, he even knew that he did not have the capacity to coach one of the best teams in the NBA, yet he called the players to talk before the game started.

"I wanted to say what you all already know, this is a very important game for our team if we can win this game we will only need to win the next home game for our team to qualify for the next phase of the playoffs."

"I confess that I was very disappointed with our defeat in the last game, it was a game in which our team could win and we even finished the first quarter by winning the game, but it seems that the Portland Trail Blazers team found a way to defeat us."

"The last two games have not been very good, and the Portland Trail Blazers team almost won these 2 games, what left me most disappointed is that even with you knowing how your opponent plays, you still played the same way."

"At the end of the game you looked like you gave up the victory because of the Portland Trail Blazers team's strategy of making fouls, only Jake played in those two games believing in the victory until the end and that's why he had his two best performances in these playoffs in those last two games."

The players were surprised to hear Coach Rambis saying this, after all with the Lakers team winning most games, Coach Rambis did not have many complaints with the players, but with this defeat in the playoffs, neither Coach Rambis was able to remain without complaint.

"So just as the opposing team changed the strategy, we also have to play differently, in this game I want you to put pressure on the attack from the beginning of the game, in this first quarter we have to get a good point advantage."

"If your opponents start using the foul strategy, use that in your favor and get a lot of fouls, there is no way that the Portland Trail Blazers players will foul all quarters and still have no players kicked out."

The players were more confident having a different strategy for this game and Jake was even more surprised, after all, he thought about doing it even if Coach Rambis didn't say anything, it showed that even if he thought about it it was normal that Coach Rambis would also notice that this was a good strategy.

Of course, Coach Rambis couldn't know that Jake tried harder in these last two games and would try even harder in that game since the beginning of the game, for Coach Rambis and for all members of the media Jake tried his best in every game that's why I always had such a good point average.

The game started with the Los Angeles Lakers team pressing in the attack, Jake talked to his teammates saying that in the first minutes he would try to make several three-point shots to scare the opponent.

Everyone agreed with this because they knew that Jake had a very high hit average and that would certainly help to put more pressure on the Portland Trail Blazers team and open up a good point advantage.

Jake slowly advanced the ball and passed it to Rick on the left, Rick Fox received the ball and held it for a while before passing it to Kobe Bryant on the right, Kobe received the ball and Isaiah Rider came pressing on the defense.

Kobe and Rick were making the move normally only for players on the Portland Trail Blazers who didn't realize that the Los Angeles Lakers team's strategy was for Jake to attempt the three-point shot in several moves.

Kobe held the ball a little and passed it to Jake in the back, Jake received the ball and Damon Stoudamire was on defense, Stoudamire was a little far from Jake as he did in the last games, Jake took advantage of that distance and tried a shot from outside and got it right by making 3 points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.

Even with these 3 points from the Los Angeles Lakers team, the players from the Portland Trail Blazers team were not bothered by this and went on to the next play, it was normal in many plays that Jake started making a three-point play.

Stoudamire advanced with the ball and passed it to Brian Grant on the right, Grant received the ball and Rick arrived pressing on defense, Grant tried to trick Rick with a feint, but Rick was not fooled, so Grant passed the ball to Rider on the left.

Rider received the ball and Kobe came in pressing on the defense, Rider held the ball a little and did a quick step back and tried an outside shot to make 3 points for the Portland Trail Blazers team, Kobe did not expect Rider to try to shoot so he didn't try to put any more pressure on the defense.

The game seemed balanced as the last games were and the Portland Trail Blazers fans were happy with that, in the other 2 plays Jake tried to make 2 more shots from outside and hit with 6 more points for the Los Angeles Lakers team.

The Portland Trail Blazers players didn't notice anything strange even though Jake made 3 3-point plays in a few minutes of play, the Portland Trail Blazers team also managed to make 4 more points in another 2 attacks and so the Los Angeles Lakers team managed to have 2 points advantage.

Jake moved on to the attack again and he had planned to make another three-point play and if he could get it right he would make 12 points in a few minutes and would further increase the pressure on the Portland Trail Blazers team.

Jake came close to the three-point line and passed it to Rick on the left, Rick held the ball for a while and passed it to Kobe on the right, Kobe received the ball and held it a little and passed it on to Jake again.

That's how the last three moves were and Jake tried the shot from outside afterward, Jake realized that in this move the Portland Trail Blazers players were already more attentive in the play waiting for Jake to try the shot from outside to find out if this was a strategy of the Los Angeles Lakers team.

Jake saw that Shaquille O'Neal was freer and decided to pass the ball to him, Shaq received the ball and already realized that Jake decided to change the play in this attack, Arvydas Sabonis was quick and arrived to press in defense against Shaq.

Shaq took advantage of the time he was free to adjust and when Sabonis approached Shaq did the spin and advanced to the painted area using his strength, Sabonis did not expect this and even tried to press on defense.

Shaq went ahead and tried a layup and made the 2 points and even managed a free throw attempt, Sabonis tried to prevent Shaq from making the points by making a foul and was unable to prevent Shaq from making the 2 points and still made the foul.

Shaq was the player of the Los Angeles Lakers team that suffered the most fouls in the last games, after all, he was the player who had the lowest average of hits in the free throws, this time Shaq tried and hit with 1 more point and so the Lakers team did another three-point play with Shaq.