From today on is the king

Chapter 1351 1350. Defense is not so simple
A team that ranks sixth in the Western Conference looks so threatening!
It is stronger than the sense of oppression that the Spurs brought to the Eagles!
Liu Mang had a feeling, he didn't know if it was an illusion, he felt that the current Suns team... had no chance to kill the Spurs in the playoffs!

"The opponent may send O'Neal in the third quarter, and we should plan accordingly." Liu Mang suggested.

"Yes, I think so too." Stockton echoed.

This is a troublesome thing.

Coach Kruger also has a headache.

The Suns are better than expected. In the West, coach Kruger originally only regarded the Lakers, Horses and Bulls as strong opponents. After all, these three teams are the most outstanding in the West.

But now coach Kruger finds that the Suns also have the strength to reach the finals!

That's different.

Originally playing for the Suns, coach Kruger was going to let Liu Mang play the same as before, playing just over 30 minutes, but if the Suns can be compared with the Lakers, then Liu Mang's playing time will not be restricted.

And in order to keep the third place in the Eastern Conference, the Eagles will try their best to win all five consecutive away this time!

……

After the start of the second half, the Hawks sent out the strongest lineup of Liu Mang, Jason Terry, Tracy McGrady, Marion, and Kwame Brown.

The Suns, as expected, dispatched the core combination of Calderon and O'Neal's second team, but with Nash, Josh Smith, and James Jones!

Nash is not a character who has never played catch and shoot. In the Mavericks' singles tactics, most of the cases are singles, and others are ready to catch and shoot. Nash is also doing well.

Compared with other core point guards who concentrate on the ball, Nash's biggest difference is that he is willing to hand over the ball if necessary. This is also the key to his ability to lead the team to the Western Conference Finals many times!

Let the MVP who is at his peak be a pitcher, besides the Eagles and Spurs, there is now a third team doing this!

For the grasp of open shots, superstars who are good at shooting are definitely more sure than role players who are good at shooting.

Although the Suns did a poor job of defense because of Calderon and Nash, a pair of defensive double-pit guards, but their positional offense played very well under the organization of Calderon!
Especially Calderon and Josh Smith's outside pick-and-roll cooperation is simply the slow version of Liu Mang and the fast version of Kwame-Brown's pick-and-roll cooperation!

Liu Mang has a big head!
Liu Mang seems to have an impression of the Suns' point guard style of play. It seems to be the style of play of the future Zhu Holiday and Rondo under Gentry's hands, but it has changed from a defensive type to an offensive type...

It seems that the combination of Rondo and Jrue Holiday's double-point guard combination is not bad. At that time, Rondo was already able to make a three-pointer almost every game...

Moreover, Gentry's double point guard tactics are too great for the inside bonus. O'Neal played less than 8 minutes in the second quarter and scored 9 points, and in the first half of the third quarter, the Eagles tried to speed up, but were stopped by the card-shark combination.

The point difference has been hanging in the early five points.

By the official timeout of the third quarter, the Hawks trailed the Suns by 71 points 77-6.

And it was after Liu Mang rushed to the basket to bypass the decline in physical strength and couldn't prevent O'Neal under the basket and hit a layup to narrow the point difference to 6 points, the Suns called a timeout.

That is to say, after the official timeout comes back, it is the Suns' possession of the ball!

……

Pause back.

O'Neal was tired from playing, and he might need to play at critical moments. Coach Gentry replaced him and Calderon with a lineup of Nash, Barbosa, Raja Bell, Josh Smith, and Diaw.

The most difficult part of the Eagles this season is the substitutes of those strong teams. They are all players who have already formed their skills to join their thighs.

Seeing the second lineup composed of Calderon, O'Neal, James Jones, Barbosa, and Tim Thomas, I can only envy, while continuing to deploy the lineup of Liu Mang, Tracy McGrady, Battier, Granger, and Marion.

Kwame Brown played very tired today, except for a 4-minute break in the second quarter, he hardly rested.

The Suns attacked. Nash received the ball from the frontcourt and met McGrady's defense. Liu Mang followed Barbosa to the bottom line on the left side of the basket.

They are all five small lineups, without a real center. After Nash and Josh Smith picked and rolled, McGrady and Granger switched defenses. Nash didn't get a good chance to break through and pass the ball, so he handed the ball to Diaw who was pulled up high.

After Dior received the ball, Barbosa from the left baseline cut in. When Liu Mang followed up, he heard the system prompt!
"Josh Smith..."

Liu Mang immediately changed direction and blocked Josh Smith who was cutting in the middle.

As soon as Josh Smith entered the free throw line and received the ball, he was blocked by Liu Mang!

"Ding... Features: Rejecting horse triggers, 30.00% chance of successful prediction."

Liu Mang switched defenses here, and Granger got into the basket tacitly, but at this time Josh Smith passed the ball to the bottom corner!
Barbosa ran halfway, and when he saw Josh Smith cut in, he retreated to the bottom corner. Josh Smith received the ball and passed it to Barbosa. Barbosa made an open three-pointer...

It's a good chance not to enter!Liu Mang grabbed the defensive rebound.

Big gap ah this is!

Three passes from the Suns easily created a three-point opportunity.

The current lineup of the two teams, in terms of personal strength, the Eagles are undoubtedly stronger.

However, running and gunning can smooth out many disadvantages!
Running and bombing is similar to the small ball in the future. The role is fixed. It does not require players to be proficient in too many skills. They just need to be able to shoot three-pointers and run. Moreover, the Suns are more extreme in small balls than the future Warriors. They don’t even need to defend...

Dior's pass frightened the Eagles, especially Liu Mang. He predicted Dior's first pass, but... Dior's high-level support was not just a simple pass!
The feature of rejecting horses is easy to use, but it still takes time to accumulate experience. The effect of defending against Milicic was very good last time, but from experience, Milicic is still very young. Milicic, who just turned 21 in the summer, has developed talent after three years of patient training by the Raptors, but it has not yet reached its peak. They just started to win this year and are still accumulating winning experience.

Milicic judged the first pass. Relatively speaking, with the characteristic of rejecting the horse, it will be easier to defend at this stage. You only need to judge his first pass. His organizational attack has not yet reached the time to calculate so many steps.

But the real high-level support masters, such as double 21s, are different from Gasol. They don't just think about the result after the first pass when they organize the offense, they think about the whole team's offense.

Although Diaw has not played for a long time, he is better than Milicic in this respect. Milicic has good physical talent, but Diaw has better skills, especially his high-level support. If it is not because he is not self-disciplined enough, like Shaquille O'Neill and Barkley, he likes to eat and eat Hesse's lifestyle, he can become even better!
Liu Mang originally thought that with the characteristic of rejecting horses, he would be able to deal with these high-ranking organization masters, but now he finds out that it is not that simple!
It still needs Liu Mang's own experience accumulation, as well as the accumulation of team defense command experience.

But it’s true that this feature is great. Only when you can predict the opponent’s pass can you have the opportunity to defend more.

When the Eagles attacked, Liu Mang advanced to the frontcourt.

71 to 77…

6 points behind, Liu Mang is used to this situation, just do it!

After Liu Mang advanced to the frontcourt, he went directly to McGrady for a pick-and-roll. McGrady was about to throw it from the left to the right at a 45-degree angle to open up space, and immediately stepped up to block Liu Mang's left.

Seeing this scene, Marion immediately beckoned Granger to go inside.

McGrady came up to help Liu Mang block Raja-Bell, Liu Mang moved to the left to go around the pick-and-roll, and when Barbosa came up to defend, he jumped!

"Ding... Aerial Magician triggers at level 5..."

Raja-Bell and Barbosa saw Liu Mang take off, and they were sure that Liu Mang was about to wave, so they rushed towards Liu Mang. Liu Mang took the ball back in the air and threw it from behind to the right side of the top arc.

Raja Bell and Barbosa were deceived by Liu Mang, and McGrady immediately rushed to the right at a 45-degree angle after the pick-and-roll, caught the ball when it was about to go out of bounds, turned around and shot a three-pointer...

hit!

74 to 77, the point difference narrowed to 3 points!
The Suns encountered Tracy McGrady and Granger’s poor defense in the pick-and-roll. They used high post support to get an open three-pointer and missed a chance to make a three-pointer. The Eagles’ simple two-person cooperation at the top arc made a three-pointer!

助攻7比8，刘莽还落后纳什一个！三分球以9个比13个落后4个。

However, the point difference narrowed to three points!
Successfully narrowed the point difference to less than 5 points!
When it came time for the Suns to attack, Nash and Josh Smith's pick-and-roll coordination was restrained by the Eagles' five small unlimited defenses. This was the Eagles' plan to defend against the Suns.

After Nash received the ball from Barbosa, Marion didn't dare to press up on the short-range horseback archery jumper after he switched defenses. If he pressed up, it would be a foul. Nash scored two points with a short-range jumper.

Still 5 points difference.

The Eagles attacked, and the Suns were very afraid of the pick-and-roll between Liu Mang and McGrady just now. After the pick-and-roll, McGrady ran to the right. Raja Bell went to chase McGrady.

So, this time Liu Mang and McGrady pick and roll, Nash, who was defending against Battier in the corner, chased toward McGrady's line of receiving the ball.

Entered too!
The Eagles players feel up!

On the other hand, the Suns also had a good touch. When the Suns attacked, Barbosa didn't miss the opportunity this time, catching the ball from the corner and making a hit!

For the Suns, it is a pity that Barbosa stepped on the toes of the three-point line when he took off the long shot this time, so it was only a two-pointer.

81 to 77, the Suns still lead by 4 points!
For the rest of the third quarter, the Eagles played simply and roughly. On the offensive end, Liu Mang and McGrady cooperated in the outside pick-and-roll. McGrady cut in when he had the opportunity, and opened up the three-point shot when he had the opportunity.

On the defensive end, the five small lineups of the Eagles are very good defensively. The restrictions on the Suns' perimeter and the basket are slightly larger.

Especially as the pace became faster and faster, neither side could defend the other. The Eagles only scored 14 points in the first half, and the Suns only scored 12 points.
24 to 20, the Eagles played a fierce offensive battle with the Suns in the second half of the third quarter!

In the third quarter, the Eagles and the Suns scored a terrifying 38-32 single quarter score!
Ten years later, this score is very common, but at this time, even if the rhythm of the league has improved a lot because of Liu Wei, it is still quite exaggerated.

95 to 97, after three quarters, the point difference behind the Eagles narrowed to two points!

……

The crucial fourth quarter!

The two-point difference can basically be regarded as no, and the two teams have returned to the same starting point.

During the break, the Eagles are discussing the fourth quarter's style of play intensely.

If the Hawks send two of the three Eagles, plus Kwame Brown and Marion, Prince or Granger, Battier, even if the Suns send the strongest lineup, the Hawks still have a certain strength advantage.

But the problem lies in physical fitness!

Liu Mang is fine, McGrady and Kwame Brown have played for a long time, Jason Terry and Marion are fine, they are all within controllable range.

The biggest disadvantage of the Eagles over the Suns is not the number of stars, but the fact that the Suns have two very sharp lineups.

Although the Suns' tactics are not yet at their peak, and there is still room for improvement, such as the rhythm control when switching lineups, there were some problems at the beginning, which gave the Eagles a chance to chase points, but they are still very good.

The most frightening thing is that there is still room for improvement!

When they perfected the tactics of the two core lineups of Nash plus Josh Smith plus Diaw, Calderon plus O'Neal, this Suns team is terrible!

Liu Mang remembered that this season was the strongest year for the Suns in the playoffs in time and space. They almost killed the champion Spurs of the season. They thought they would collapse after O'Neal went, but who knew that Gentry actually fought and fought back. He turned the situation back and performed so well!
From the overall situation, this is very beneficial to the Eagles. A strong Suns team is bound to bring great torture to the Lakers and Spurs...

But what Liu Mang needs now is to win this game!

Everything else is behind, the Eagles have 17 wins and 9 losses, the Heat have 18 wins and 12 losses, and lost to the Suns, they will be tied by the Heat!

(End of this chapter)