From today on is the king

Chapter 1566 1565. The Most Anticipated Showdown

Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose, two point guards who are not considered to be of concern now, began to be invited to participate in the trial invitations of the owners of the fifth to tenth picks in the 2008 draft.

To their surprise, the Pacers, the owner of the No. [-] pick, also sent them a trial invitation.

Typically, the top-three picks, in the first few workouts, invite only the hottest players.

They never imagined that someone was already watching them...

On Schwartz's side, relying on his relationship with Yi Jianlian, he had contact with Kevin Love and Westbrook long ago, but Westbrook didn't sign up. Westbrook and the well-known agent Thaddeus Faucher are old friends. After announcing his early participation in the draft, he signed with Weatherman's agency.

Kevin Love went very well and was signed by Schwartz.

……

……

The draft has begun to gain some heat, but now people are more concerned about the playoffs.

The fans in Atlanta are already boiling. Raheem will finally return to this arena to play the playoffs, but he is already an opponent, but Raheem's team can reach the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Hawks fans are also happy.

In the early morning of May 5, Magic players arrived in Atlanta from Orlando.

At the airport, Raheem, Carter, and Howard were surrounded by reporters.

"I have been working hard to be able to stand on the same stage as Ace. Finally, I have this opportunity now. I have many great teammates. It is very interesting for me to beat the Eagles." Raheem did not hide his desire at all.

Both Carter and Howard also expressed that playing against the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals is a completely different thing.

On Liu Mang's side, he was paralyzed at home all morning, and came to the arena for training in the afternoon, and learned about Raheem's fighting spirit from the reporter.

"I've been looking forward to this day too..." Liu Mang said very little.

Seeing that Liu Mang left after answering this sentence, the reporters felt weird.

Atypical hooligans!
……

"Give me the ball in a while, I will attract the defense to throw for you..."

"Don't worry, fight with me behind you, no one can bully you..."

"I'll be the first to go out today, you? Of course you will be the last, you are the MVP..."

"I want to test my abilities..."

Liu Mang was rarely in a trance during the training, but the pictures of some and Raheem in the three years when he was still the younger brother gradually became clearer.

The first game, the fight with the Pistons, the official leadership of the team before the first finals, the words Raheem said when he was about to leave...

Finally, he was going to stand on the stage of the East Finals with Raheem again, and Liu Mang thought of many things at once.

Stockton, who was leading the players to conduct technical training, saw Liu Mang being hit on the head by the ball that bounced off the front of the basket, so he hurried up and asked, "Ace, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell? The team doctor..."

"It's okay, I'm just thinking about something." Liu Mang quickly responded.

"If you have something to think about, don't train. You have trained enough." Stockton still cares about this precious apprentice.

Three consecutive MVPs, four consecutive finals MVPs!Ma Long didn't want to leave until Liu Mang's honors were broken, let alone Stockton. Although Jordan also claimed to be Liu Mang's teacher, the two brothers were the ones who trained with Liu Mang every day.

"It's okay, I've already thought about it, let's continue training, and start counting my shots again..."

Liu Mang concentrated his energy and began to practice shooting, preparing for the Eastern Conference finals in the near future.

Memories are a knife to kill people. Memories are beautiful, but they are also cruel. Since they are memories, they can never go back.

Now that Raheem came to Atlanta with his Magic Legion, Liu Mang knew what he was going to do next after recalling the beautiful past.

With the strongest strength and the best state, give Raheem and his magic team the most violent blow!
Only in this way is the greatest respect for Rahim!

……

……

The Suns, Eagles, and Magic are getting impatient...

The Suns and Eagles entered the division finals early, and the Magic also started preparing for the division finals on the 18th.

But the game was too late to start!
The Lakers are too procrastinating!
"Tie-break? How much do the Lakers want to sell tickets for one more game?" Liu Mang complained helplessly.

92比99、103比110，爵士队连下三场，愣是从0比3落后，追到了3比3平。

The Lakers are going to play tiebreaker again!
It's not just Liu Mang, the whole world is probably speechless about the performance of the Lakers. The only one watching the game with Liu Mang is the little girl. The other two girls are not interested at all. Watching the Lakers game is very exciting!

If, like the previous three games, the Lakers tightened their points gap in regular time and prevented the Jazz from stretching the point gap too far, relying on Kobe's restraint of the Jazz in the fourth quarter, it would not be a problem to win one of the three games.

However, the Lakers are so pissed, trailing by nearly 20 points in the first three quarters of three consecutive games, even Kobe's crazy performance of 14 points per game in the fourth quarter of this series can't get back!
On the night of the 20th, the Lakers were tied by the Jazz and will have a tiebreaker on the night of the 22nd.

Seeing this situation, Liu Mang also recognized it, at least the date for the start of the regional finals was confirmed.

After the sixth game between the Lakers and the Jazz, in addition to the tiebreaker between the Lakers and the Jazz being scheduled on the 22nd, the Eastern Conference Finals schedule between the Eagles and the Magic has finally come out, starting on the 23rd, 25th, 28th, and 30th.

On the west side, the winner between the Lakers and the Jazz, after the winner is decided on the 22nd, will play the Western Conference Finals with the Suns on the 24th. The other three match days are the 26th, 29th, and 31st.

Both the East and West finals will finish the first four games before the end of May.

……

After the schedule came out, the Eagles, who had still rested for six days, began to increase their training intensity. On the 21st, the Eagles were divided into two teams, Rondo, Liu Mang, McGrady, Marion, Jermaine O'Neal;

In addition to the starting 10 players, the remaining two teams can change at will. Except that there are only 10 minutes in the first and second half, the others are confronted and competed for the outcome like a formal game.

No one would have thought that the Lakers would reach the tiebreaker in a 3-0 situation. It's just hell.

Fortunately, during this period of rest, the Eagles players did not slack off. They were doing the technical training that should be carried out every day. After the opponent was confirmed to be the Magic, the tactical training was also going on. The intensity was not high, but fortunately they maintained their state.

In the training match, the main team defeated the rotation team 56 to 51. Both sides played very well and were not dragged down by the 6-day rest period. This is inseparable from the enthusiasm brought about by losing the championship last year.

The Eagles are preparing for the game in full swing, and the visiting team's training ground has been preparing for the game. In recent days, there have been a lot of fans outside Phillips Arena. The Eastern Conference Finals between the Eagles and Magic is the most watched Eastern Conference Finals in the past ten years. It has attracted more attention than the Eagles' revenge against the Nets in the 03-04 season.

Liu Mang and Raheem...Marion and Raheem...Kwame Brown and Howard...McGrady and Carter...Rondo and Turkoglu...

There are too many places worthy of discussion by fans.

Finally, on the night of May 5, the Lakers and Jazz decided the outcome.

Relying on Kobe's 34 points, 7 boards and 12 assists, Yao Ming's 25 -point 9 -board, Gasol's 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists Wang Zhizheng and Barnes each scored 12 points. The key is that in the last 49 seconds of Kobe, it was tied and also blocked the penalty. The two teams did not score away, and the Lakers were in dangerous jazz.

Kobe, who scored 17 points in the final quarter, helped the Lakers beat the Jazz 118-115 at home and win the tiebreaker!

However, after the Eagles came out of the Eastern Conference Finals, they did not pay much attention to the Western Conference. Regardless of whether the Lakers, Suns or Jazz will enter the Finals, it will be a matter of later. The most important thing for the Eagles now is to beat the Magic!

(End of this chapter)