From today on is the king

Chapter 406 404. Prelude to the Christmas War

At 12 o'clock in the morning on December 25th, Liu Mang ran from home to the arena three kilometers away. Today's game is very important.

The Rockets have a big center this year, and Francis is at his peak, so the Rockets have become a contender for the playoffs. They are temporarily ranked ninth in the Western Conference.

Therefore, as long as it is a non-top team, the Eagles want to win as much as possible.

For the game against the Rockets, starting at nine o'clock in the morning, the defensive tactical training for Yao Ming, a retro creature in the NBA, began.

Although the Rockets were the ninth and tenth team in the Western Conference, they were not taken too seriously by the Hawks coaching staff. Although the record is not good, the Hawks as a whole have been confident in their team's strength after defeating the Bucks and Hornets in a row.

Coach Kruger knows Liu Mang well, and knows that even if he is a player from his own country, he will never brag about their strength.

Through the previous video of the Rockets, Coach Kruger discovered that Yao Ming is a big guy, as Liu Mang said. His role on the court is very different from that of the previous super giants. He is not just a [-]-meter big man who blocks shots at the basket.

In fact, it’s not that the taller you are, the better you are at grabbing rebounds. Often those super big and tall guys are average in rebounding, such as Big Z Ilgauskas and Manute Ball, who are average in rebounding. Because they are too tall and their bodies are too large, their ability to move around the basket is average, and they can block shots with their long hands.

Even Big Z, who is not particularly good at defense, averaged 2.5 blocks per game, not to mention Ball, who averaged 5 blocks per game in his rookie season, but Ball had only 6 rebounds in the season with the highest career rebounds.

It's too high to move, and it's okay to stand under the basket to block shots, but it's not easy to get stuck and grab rebounds. The defense against breakthroughs is not as effective as expected. The statistics look good, but the defensive effect is far from that of Mutombo and Ratliff.

Yao Ming has excellent shooting ability and good mobility. Coach Kruger has seen this when Yao Ming came to the Eagles for trial training last time. However, his positioning ability and rebounding ability were unexpected. Although Yao Ming is also tall, he has the average mobility of a big man of about [-] meters.

Take a closer look, the Rockets are really tough!
……

The Christmas game is a holiday for fans, and some players can also celebrate the holiday, but every year, 150 basketball players and hundreds of coaches and medical staff cannot rest. Of course, including security, TV staff, etc., there are even more.

But this is an honor for a player, like Kobe, who has never missed a Christmas game since his rookie year. James has never missed a Christmas game since his third season.

Liu Mang was very busy today. He went to the arena for training at 11:[-] in the morning. He started tactical drills and pre-match meetings at [-]:[-] am. The tactical training ended at [-]:[-]. Nike people came and took a group of photos of Liu Mang wearing new boots in the Eagles arena for promotional photos. Liu Mang also wore these shoes for tactical training today. Let him get used to the new shoes in advance. For the rest of this season, Liu Mang will wear these sneakers. The home game is red and white, and the away game is dark blue and red.

Then at 12:[-] noon, the Eagles began to warm up before the game.

Unfortunately, the Eagles game is the first Christmas game, which starts at 1:[-] pm, so today's tactical training and pre-game meeting will be so early.

At 1 o'clock, players from both teams entered the field.

After many years, the Eagles once again became one of the protagonists of the Christmas game. The fans are very excited. In addition, the Eagles are finally on the right track. The atmosphere of today's home fans is very good.

The fans are enthusiastic, and the players will be in a particularly good mood, temporarily forgetting about the bad record.

There was a very interesting performance in the pre-match event. The management of the Eagles did not know where to find a group of domestic acrobatic troupes to perform. Liu Mang and Yao Ming were watching compatriots performing plate throwing together. Looking at the acrobatic little sister riding a unicycle with more than a dozen plates on her head, she was still throwing plates on her head with the other foot. When the younger sister threw the plate, both of them would cheer along with the fans.

But the quintessence of the country, those who can come out to perform, have been tempered by the audience for at least ten years, and they are stable, with more than 20 plates stacked high on their heads, without a single mistake!
At the curtain call, Liu Mang and Yao Ming applauded loudly along with the scene.

Both of them were very excited. They could see performances that they could only see on the streets in China when they were young in a foreign country, and they almost shouted "traditional Chinese culture" at the fans.

After watching the performance, when it came to the pre-match interview, Director Zhang came with a camera.

The news officer of the Eagles gave the chance to interview before the game, and other TV stations can only use the video signal of Chaoting TV to broadcast.

"Director Zhang, long time no see."

When Liu Mang and Yao Ming saw their old acquaintances coming, they greeted them warmly.

"Long time no see, Dayao, Ace." Director Zhang greeted, "Haha, Ace, seeing that you are so happy now, I knew you were all right, and I believed from the very beginning that you would be fine in the end."

To say that in the past two months in China, Liu Mang was most worried, besides the loyal fans, it was this group of seniors.

"Of course, no matter how difficult the situation is, our goal... will be to fight for a place in the playoffs." Liu Mang almost set another flag. Although there is a bottom line for the system to issue tasks, at least it will not create a task that is absolutely impossible to complete, but Liu Mang still proceeds cautiously.

"Ace, Dayao, today is the Chinese Derby. It's the first time you two have played against each other. How does it feel?" Director Zhang asked.

"It's still quite special. I want to try dunking the tallest big man in the league during the game. It should feel good." Liu Mang hugged Yao Ming with his left hand, and stroked the beard on his chin with his right hand, making a look.

Yao Ming did the same thing, looked at Liu Mang and said, "I also think it's quite special, and I want to try to block the most legendary rookie in history who can only block dunks."

Director Zhang will not talk about it here. The domestic fans who are watching the live broadcast are very happy to see that the relationship between the future No. [-] insider and No. [-] outsider of the national team seems to be quite good.

However... Liu Mang, who was sizing up Yao Ming, suddenly had a flash of astonishment, but thinking that the interview was being broadcast live in China, Liu Mang could only continue laughing, smashing his teeth and swallowing in his stomach.

"Ding...Temporary task: button the little giant..."

After the pre-match interview, Liu Mang sat on the bench with a sad face, watching the starting teammates perform their own pre-match rituals.

Raheem's chronic non-ferrous metal poisoning performance, Jason Terry's basket drilling performance, Ratliff's ghost screaming, Muhammad's David thinking in clothes, only Dean Grove's most honest touch of magnesium powder.

Maybe it's because Liu Mang's superstar value is too low, the system takes special care of him, and he comes up with missions from time to time.

Just now, after Liu Mang held back and said that the goal is the flag of the championship, he said that he would try to dunk Yao Ming, and the task came.

"Dunk Giant: Slam dunk against Yao Ming in the game, task reward skill card: finisher under the basket, penalty for failure: go to Atlanta's Six Nations Park Plaza and find at least ten Chinese aunts over 40 years old to teach them square dance."

Liu Mang was speechless to heaven!
My own broken mouth!

　There will be another chapter to be updated in a while, if the chapter is broken, it will be published, so as not to wait too long.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)