From today on is the king

Chapter 1182

Liu Mang and Mai Di looked at each other, Liu Mang's eyes were full of longing, but Mai Di turned his head away...

When I need you, you keep silent...

Liu Mang now feels the context of this lyric, so it is the current situation!

Liu Mang made 26 of 8 shots, and Liu Mang played too badly. Except for 15 of 6 three-pointers, which was not bad, with a 40.00% three-point shooting rate, he did very poorly in other aspects.

Play off!
Liu Mang and his teammates played around until the middle of the third quarter. When Coach Kruger called a timeout, Liu Mang and others realized that they were so far behind!
The Eagles had 73 wins, while the Pacers only had 39 wins, a gap of 34 wins. The Eagles said that they should pay attention to every opponent in the playoffs, but at the beginning of the game, they let themselves go for fun. In the third quarter, they were beaten 20-6 by their opponents!

Coach Kruger called a timeout. When he wanted to get the players nervous, he wanted to tighten the rhythm, but it was no longer possible.

There is no sense of urgency, no defensive pressure, and the offensive end is not bad, but it is not good. Only 22 points were scored in the third quarter, and 16 points were scored in the second half of the offense.

As for the Pacers, they played harder and harder, and sometimes they played better when they had a lead.

After three quarters, the Eagles are 67 to 88, 21 points behind the Pacers!
Coach Kruger was furious!
The pre-match training was so serious, and Liu Mang and McGrady went to talk to him about tactical changes. That's why coach Kruger would sit still when his team's offense was poor in the first half and the defense couldn't defend.

Who knew that it was the opponent who took the lead in attacking in the second half, and the opponent played a wave of 20 to 6, which opened up the point difference all at once.

The Eagles were scored 39 points in a single quarter by the Pacers in the third quarter!
Artest had 13 points and 4 assists in a single quarter, and he defended very well in the first half of the third quarter, leading the Pacers to play the first half of the defensive explosion.

In the fourth quarter, coach Kruger was blown away and pressed Liu Mang on the bench. Although it was McGrady’s wave ratio mode, there must be someone to take the blame. Liu Mang was regarded as the blame man. Coach Kruger finished the three quarters and pointed to Liu Mang who threw 26 shots in the three quarters and only made 8 shots and scored 25 points.

As for McGrady who is 14 out of 4...

Generally speaking, commanders will choose to punish the comrade with whom they have the best relationship to warn others.

If the NBA is a battlefield, the relationship between the head coach and the players is like the relationship between comrades-in-arms. From the perspective of a company, it is a relationship between colleagues.

Today, Rasheed Wallace, who was 7 of 1 from the field of play, and 14 of 4 shots were also out of play. The two combined are not as high as Liu Mang, but Liu Mang was the one who was sprayed by Coach Kruger.

The Pacers are already on the rise, with three first-class stars, and with Artest, a guy who is very tough on both ends of the offense and defense, it is too difficult for the Eagles to come back!

Just like the second round of the series between the Lakers and the Rockets in 2009 in the original time and space, the Rockets only had an extra 30-year-old Artest who had already passed his peak period, but he transformed instantly and entered the second round.

Artest is a player who can transform a team. He is not the strongest on the offensive end, and he may not be the strongest on the defensive end. He has obvious shortcomings, but as long as the team is willing to fight together, he can create miracles!
In the fourth quarter, Coach Kruger simply put Liu Mang on the bench, let McGrady and Jason Terry fight for a wave, and then kept attacking Liu Mang, letting others feel his anger.

Jason Terry and McGrady went up to fight for a quarter, but they still didn't narrow the point difference too much.

Liu Mang was yelled at by coach Kruger a little bit. With 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter and 81 points behind 102 to 21 and entered the garbage time, he asked the substituted McGrady for help. McGrady pretended to be ignorant and went to discuss today's problems with Stockton.

McGrady is very calm, knowing that he caused something wrong today, but since someone is responsible, McGrady turned into an ostrich...

刘莽看着打了30分钟15中6只拿到15分的贾森-特里，打了29分钟8中1拿到5分的拉希德-华莱士，看着打了打了33分钟17投6中拿到18分的麦迪……

These three guys who usually called each other a good brother so affectionately, at the critical moment, they all sold him out!
The Eagles replaced the main players and announced their surrender. In 4 minutes, they were 21 points behind.

109 to 91, when the Pacers blew the final whistle, the three stars of the Pacers who were still on the field during the garbage time were as excited as if they had won the championship!
33分3板7助攻3抢断2盖帽的阿泰斯特，22分11板的杰梅因-奥尼尔，被刘莽防得前三节9中3、被麦迪第四节防得只有6中2，全场只有15中5拿到11分但拼了命抢下10个篮板球的斯蒂芬-杰克逊，三人像是回到了两年前，拥抱在一起庆祝。

They actually beat the Eagles!
Before the start of the series, they themselves did not expect to win the Eagles, and they won the Eagles in the opening game of the playoffs!
They don't care what will happen in the future, the three of them temporarily put aside their usual grievances with each other, and now they have won!

The Eagles who won 73 wins, and the defending champion Eagles who won two consecutive championships!
……

After the game, the Eagles locker room refused to accept interviews. Coach Kruger scolded Liu Mang bloody in the locker room.

This kind of situation has almost never happened. Even Jason Terry, Liu Mang, who is already the team's second oldest veteran, has never seen Coach Kruger scold Liu Mang like this. Everyone in the Eagles knows that they played really badly today.

After scolding Liu Mang miserably, Coach Kruger finally vented his frustration and left the locker room, which was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, leaving behind a group of staring players.

Seeing that Coach Kruger had indeed left, Liu Mang, who had been miserable before, immediately cheered up and walked towards McGrady, Jason Terry, and Rasheed Wallace, three teammates who performed worse than him today.

The three of them were in a mess, and Maddie hid behind Rasheed Wallace: "Ace, what are you doing! Don't come here!"

Suddenly, Rasheed Wallace directly pulled McGrady from behind to the front, using McGrady as a shield: "Ace, just do whatever you want, Jason, we haven't showered together for a long time, let's go, let's take a shower..."

Jason Terry immediately ran off with Rasheed Wallace, leaving McGrady huddled in the corner of the locker room.

Mai Di looked at Liu Mang with a ferocious expression, but he didn't expect that he would have today...

……

Outside the locker room, Stockton asked Coach Kruger, "Lang, is the scolding too much? What if Aswan's mentality goes wrong?"

"The kid has a problem with his mentality? No, don't put any pressure on him. He completely treats the playoffs as a playground. He hasn't lost a series other than the Eastern Conference Finals. He doesn't pay attention to his opponents in the first two rounds of the series." Coach Kruger said it was okay.

"Yeah, Ace seems to have never lost the first game of the series. He is such a terrible guy." Stockton then remembered how terrifying Liu Mang's dominance in the playoffs was before this game.

"We can't be careless anymore. We have already lost our home court advantage. We must win the game the day after tomorrow. It will be bad if we are behind by two games..."

Coach Kruger and Stockton were actually not that worried about losing the game.

The main reason for the loss was that from the very beginning of the game, McGrady and Liu Mang led their teammates to play, making the normally cautious role players play.

So much so that in the second half, I wanted to raise the rhythm and play more compactly, but I couldn't do it.

But coach Kruger has no doubts about winning the series.

The main purpose of scolding Liu Mang is to let those role players see that he is angry.

He just scolded Liu Mang, but he didn't need to scold anyone else, he just went to Xuezang. Against the Pacers, the Eagles could still win with a few subs who were not active.

The main thing is to focus!

Even the Pacers were abused for 18 points in the first game, they couldn't make any shots, and their defense didn't have any cohesion.

It's better to have a problem early than a temporary problem, and the Eagles coaching staff can take it easy.

As a coach, I see a lot more than as a player. Apart from being blocked by the Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals for two years, all the Eastern Conference playoff opponents were beaten by the Eagles.

The Eagles have gradually developed the "noble disease" of the Lakers. This kind of mentality is not bad, and the team should be proud of being a strong team, but it must be nervous.

The Lakers have Kobe's paranoia that even his teammates want to spray, so don't worry about this, but the Eagles don't have Kobe's who spray the sky and air, so they need the coaching staff to take care of these things.

……

In the locker room, Liu Mang and McGrady, who had been playing around for a while, went to take a shower together, did not accept an interview, and went home early. Mai Di went to Liu Mang's house to have a good exchange with Liu Mang about today's game.

Losing the first game of the playoffs is too embarrassing!
(End of this chapter)