From today on is the king

Chapter 506 504. The Hardest Time Begins
After entering March, if the schedule in the second half of January is suffering and the schedule in February is purgatory, then the Eagles' schedule in March is 3 levels of hell.

No matter how difficult the schedule in January is, at least it is only the second half of the month, and the schedule in February is difficult, at least there is an All-Star Weekend in the middle of the game, which is postponed for a week.

But when it comes to March... at the beginning it directly connects seamlessly with the last day of February.

On March 3, the Eagles, who had just finished playing the Magic, immediately faced back-to-back challenges from the Knicks at home.

The Knicks, like the Wizards, have a record of 27 wins and 30 losses, tied for tenth in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks are good, and they can’t be bad if you kill them. As the richest big city team in the world, James Dolan, the rich second generation who took over the Knicks in 1999, was asked by reporters in mid-January that the Knicks had no hope of making the playoffs this season.

This logic is very interesting, it can be rotten, but it is not allowed to be rotten.

Dolan actually wanted Bo James. See how skillful the art of speaking is, but he couldn't save face and said directly that he was going to be bad.

Dolan just wants to preserve the "dignity" of the holy land of basketball. The bad thing is that they don't work hard, but that they are not strong enough.

Then the Knicks players and coaching staff took it seriously!
The Knicks players and coaching staff felt the sense of self-identity and pride that a "rich team" should have!

The Knicks players are all working hard. They feel that their dignity has been maintained, and they have the urge to "die for their confidants" towards Dolan. Then, in the past more than a month, they have a record of 11 wins and 6 losses, catching up with the Wizards.

This wave of outbreaks caused Dolan to suffer.

Why did it explode all of a sudden?
Aren't you all ready to move towards the penultimate place in the East?

Going straight from a 10-win team all the way to close to 30 wins, it might even hit 40 wins at the end of the season, which made Dolan so desperate.

There is a chance for 40 wins, even if you get 40 wins, you will not be able to enter the playoffs!

But no matter how desperate you are, you have to swallow your broken teeth.

No, the Knicks are going to play the Eagles. Dolan didn’t accept interviews recently, but because of an exclusive interview with a Chinese reporter, in order to open up the Chinese market... Because the Knicks have opened up the Chinese market so easily. China's Rose Bowl and the NFL's annual Super Bowl can be watched by up to 16 people, and with more NFL teams, it is definitely more profitable than the NBA.

The Knicks are one of only two teams in the NBA that can compete with NFL teams in ticket sales.

North America's live broadcast share, the Knicks' income is also in the forefront of all NBA teams.

Since it has easily become one of the best teams in the NBA market, Dolan has the ambition to expand into overseas markets. The Chinese market is undoubtedly the NBA's largest overseas market candidate. Didn't you see that the NBA has put a lot of publicity resources in the Chinese market? Dolan also wants to get a share.

So, when I was interviewed, I couldn't control my mouth anymore.

In an exclusive interview with Imperial TV, Xu Jicheng from Xinhua News Agency asked the Knicks whether they would compete with the Hawks for a playoff spot this year. Theoretically speaking, the Knicks still have a chance, after all, they are only less than four wins away from the Hawks.

In order to impress the Chinese fans with the impression that the Knicks are a tough team that will never give up, Dolan replied: "No, our goal is not the playoffs, but the championship. No matter how difficult it is, even if we fail in the end, our goal is also the championship. As a professional team, if we don't fight for the championship, we should just disband."

Dolan responded by citing the connotation of Kobe, who was still a substitute, in his rookie season after he made consecutive shots outside the basket and was eliminated by the Jazz in the playoffs.

Kobe was a substitute back then. In addition to his style of playing like Jordan and the big Los Angeles market, Kobe was selected as an All-Star starter in the second grade. His talent was part of it. More importantly, he dared to make a lore shot in the playoffs in his rookie season, and he had the courage to take responsibility after losing.

The Knicks have been playing for more than a month, and the morale they mentioned last time has almost been exhausted. They could have done a good job. If the season ends with 30 wins or so, the top three picks are unlikely, but the top five picks can still fight for a wave.

But after hearing the president's words, the players felt a "sense of mission", even if they couldn't even make the playoffs in the end, but as the famous coach Tomjanovich said, they can't live without a championship heart!
As a result, the Knicks, who Dolan was expecting the losing streak to begin immediately, went berserk during the away game against the Eagles.

On March 3st, the Eagles, who had played back-to-back after just 1 games in the past 11 days, faced the Knicks with a tired team, and were stunned by this team that started in mid-January.

Originally, Knicks players hated the Eagles, and Alan Houston hated Liu Mang even more, and it exploded today!
Alan Houston has a feeling of "turning back" this year. He actually played the strongest season of his career. He averaged 22+3+2 per game and scored a new high in his career.

Today, the Knicks seem to have regained the iron-blooded defense of the Pat Riley era, tyrannical physical confrontation, and precise mid-range shooting. They beat the Eagles to a 45-34 lead at halftime.

Most of the Hawks' players are weak, not because they want to work hard, but because they are really tired.

In the third quarter, Liu Mang took Prince, Chris Crawford, Newbell, and Boozer, who are not bad in physical fitness, to fight for a wave, trying to overtake the score.

Indeed, the third quarter was the best quarter of the game for the Eagles. They scored 28 points in a single quarter. Liu Mang scored 13 points and 5 assists in a single quarter, but the Knicks scored 31 points!
The Eagles have a good offensive lineup, but except for the two guards, the three players in the frontcourt were all sieved. Not only did the fork not shrink, but it was pulled by the Knicks to 14 points, 62 to 76 behind in three quarters.

Liu Mang led Jason Terry, Prince, Boozer, and Muhammad to continue playing hard in the final quarter. After three quarters, Jason Terry and Muhammad also recovered. Their consumption was not as great as that of Raheem and Ratliff. The overall condition of the Eagles began to pick up in the final quarter.

But the Knicks were not careless. They had a rare chance to win against the Hawks. How could they be careless? Alan Houston, who scored 20 points in the first three quarters, exploded in the final quarter and scored 22 points in a single quarter. The 22-point performance of the entire Eagles in a single quarter, plus the 35 points scored by others after Alan Houston attracted the defense, the Knicks carried the Eagles' counterattack in the final quarter!
Liu Mang scored 36 points and 8 assists today, but lost to Alan Houston's explosive 42 points.

In the end, the Knicks defeated the Eagles 104 to 97 in an away game, "fighting for a breath" for Knicks owner Dolan's belief of "never say never"!
Knicks owner Dolan came to the away game to watch the game. Seeing that the Knicks played like a championship today, he almost spit out a mouthful of old blood.

Why didn't I see you guys like this at the beginning of the season? This is only the possibility of the playoffs, or is it an extremely low possibility, and you exploded?

……

……

30 wins and 26 losses, the Eagles suffered a loss in the second game of back-to-back across the month.

This kind of thing is within the expectation of the Eagles coaching staff, so in the games in late January and February, the Eagles want to win so much, just to accumulate a few wins in case this happens.

They played 2 games in the last 11 days at the end of February. The schedule was cruel, and March has basically been this kind of schedule, so the Eagles must have a certain number of wins as a buffer when they have to lose.

For example, after playing the Knicks, the Eagles only have a day off on the 2nd, and then start on the 3rd, another 7-day 5-game, first three consecutive home games, the Celtics on the 3rd, back-to-back home games against the Warriors and Hornets on the 5th and 6th, and then back-to-back away games on the 8th and 9th against the Hornets and the Heat.

Fortunately, they are all playing at home or against teams from the East, West, and South Divisions. It is less than an hour's flight from Atlanta, but even so, the Eagles players want to take Gatlin to New York to bomb the NBA headquarters.

NBA officials said that they are also very helpless!
Yes, they treated the Eagles like cattle in order to open up the Chinese market. However, they gave the Eagles a very loose schedule in November, December and the first half of January. It can be said that it has never been in the entire history of the NBA.

But the Eagles couldn't help themselves to death, and wasted the schedule of only 28 games in the first two months.

Originally, David Stern thought that the Eagles had the best record in the league in the first two and a half months. With the record of the Eagles last season and the fact that the players are all young, they must have improved this year. With such a schedule, it is not difficult to win the regular season half championship. Then, as the NBA regular season half champion, they will warm up for the playoffs during the Chinese New Year and more than a month after the Spring Festival.

The plan is perfect, but things often don't go according to plan, and the Hawks are still struggling for a playoff spot in March.

David Stern is also suffering!

If the Eagles fail to make the playoffs due to an accident, David Stern will probably vomit blood. If the Hawks and Rockets fail to make the playoffs, he will probably want to cut himself. The market in China is hot this year, especially the court has a "championship heart", and even predicts the finals between the Eagles and the Rockets... Some domestic "experts who understand the ball" have begun to analyze the probability of black eight.

Although David Stern knows that it is something that cannot be dreamed of, but both teams have entered the playoffs, which makes Chinese fans look forward to it. No matter how miserable it is, at least one team must enter the playoffs.

But now, the Rockets and Hawks are in the eighth position in their respective divisions. David Stern is worried every time he sees the Hawks and Rockets lose.

But the matter has come to this point, the Eagles players can only complain in private, and they still have to say that they don't care about the schedule and just want to win.

……

On March 3, one day off, what is enough time for one day?

Enough to go to the supermarket.

In such a difficult time, after Liu Mang got up in the morning and finished training, he didn't continue to focus on basketball in the afternoon. At this time, the more he thought about the schedule and worries about the future, the more entangled his emotions became.

After waking up in the morning and finishing training, at noon when Dinah finished her homework, Liu Mang took little Lolita to the supermarket together to buy some wooden boards, screws, mini electric drills, and plastic baffles with a high transparency close to the transparency of glass.

Dinah used his plastic storage boxes, cardboard boxes and other things to store those trophies before. Dinah always felt that it was too "dignified", so she wanted to make an honor display cabinet by herself.

Hire workers?
Forget it, it's too expensive, Dinah doesn't have enough pocket money, so she tricks Liu Mang to buy wooden boards and make them herself.

Liu Mang was worried about having nothing to do and playing games was annoying, so he readily agreed.

Although you can't do it, you can learn it!
Do some carpentry work to divert attention, and study with little loli how to make a beautiful display cabinet. Although the final product is not very good-looking, it is at least a cabinet, and then paint the plant paint together and put it in the yard to dry. Since the plant paint does not have too many chemical components, it can be used after drying.

In the evening, Liu Mang still felt a little sense of accomplishment when he saw that he and Dinah had worked together all afternoon to complete the honor exhibition cabinet, which was filled with his own trophies.

People are so easy to be satisfied, sometimes when seeing the pressure like Mount Tai, instead of moaning about it, complaining about yourself or blaming others, it is better to find something else to do, find some small goals, and the small achievements you have completed are not bad.

Liu Mang did carpentry work with Dinah today, which really relieved a lot of pressure. Now Liu Mang is very happy, not thinking about those heavy things for the time being, and cheering for the completion of the goal with Dinah.

Seeing Dinah ignore the sawdust on her head, and excitedly asked her uncle to put the "Honor Notes" written long ago in front of each trophy, Liu Mang couldn't stop smiling. Although this little loli would occasionally drive herself to death, when she should be cute, she was so cute!
According to Dinah's instructions, put them one by one in front of each trophy, and then picked Dinah up and hugged her chest. Dinah looked at the honor cabinet she had made by herself, the position she wanted to place, and the honor description she wrote. She was so excited that she couldn't stop cheering...

……

After working with Dinah all afternoon yesterday, Liu Mang was in a much better mood.

The next day, the Eagles ushered in the next 7-day five-game schedule.

First up is the Boston Celtics.

Except for the top five in the East, from sixth to ninth, the difference in record is not very big. Although it is difficult for the Eagles and Magic to surpass seventh or sixth, it is calculated based on the current record gap between the Bucks and Celtics and the Eagles and Magic.

老鹰队站在30胜26负，凯尔特人33胜25负，老鹰队的胜率是50.00%三，凯尔特人队的胜率是50.00%七。

If the Celtics have maintained a 50.00% six-seven winning percentage, it is basically impossible for the Eagles to catch up with the Celtics' record, after all, the schedule is so difficult.

But it's hard to say, if the Celtics lose a few games in a row, they will really have to work hard for the eighth place in the Eastern Conference with the Eagles and Magic.

The Celtics themselves are well aware of this. It is March, the last two months of the game, they attach great importance to it, and they have no intention of underestimating the Eagles.

For the Eagles, the situation is not very good. The room is leaking and it rains overnight. Although Ratliff has been saving his use, a big center like him is not a violent and muscular type, but a tonnage type.

Fortunately, there was no injury, and coach Kruger quickly put Ratliff on the injured list.

Raheem is really injured, his ankle is sprained, and he needs to rest for three to five days.

In addition, both Prince and Boozer suffered from different degrees of fatigue and injuries. The two rookies suddenly assumed important roles in the team at the end of December.

Although Prince and Boozer are fine, and they don't even have obvious symptoms like Ratliff, but in order to protect the two, and Ratliff has already rested, two more rests... how big of a deal...

Then, the Hawks' starting lineup became Dean Grove, Jason Terry, Chris Crawford, Muhammad, and Kevin Wesley.

How long has the Eagles not been so starless!

The entire starting lineup has no All-Stars this season!
Then, the Eagles suffered a crushing loss at home...

It’s not that Liu Mang and Jason Terry didn’t play well, but they played very well. Liu Mang scored 33 points and Jason Terry 27 points and 5 assists.

Without Raheem's restrictions, Pierce played so coquettishly that no one could stop him, even if Antoine Walker made 12 of 4 three-pointers, Pierce could drive it.

At the end of the quarter, the Celtics double-teamed Liu Mang and Jason Terry, defended the basket, and released others. Without Prince as a three-pointer and Boozer as a mid-range shooter, they couldn't make open shots from the outside, blocked the inside, and were flanked by double waves in the backcourt. The Eagles only scored 13 points in the final quarter, and the Celtics, who had already led by 7 points in three quarters, opened up the gap in one fell swoop.

In the end, even if Liu Mang scored 33 points, Jason Terry scored 27 points, and the two scored 60 points and 10 assists together, they could not stop the team from losing streak. Pierce scored 32 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists, leading the Celtics to a 103-92 victory over the Eagles.

After losing to the Celtics, the Eagles only had one more day to rest.

Two consecutive losses, Liu Mang is so angry!

The record became 30 wins and 27 losses. Fortunately, the Magic didn't win. McGrady continued his slashing journey and got a triple-double of 30+11+13. In the end, he was shot to death by the Kings, and the Eagles had a chance to breathe.

After a day off, the Eagles continued their schedule and are about to start a consecutive back-to-back.

First of all, on March 3, the Eagles continued to sit at home and ushered in the second and last match against the Oakland Warriors this season.

Losing two games in a row, Liu Mang was on fire!
Although I know that during the team meeting, the coaching staff also reassured the players not to lose their composure because of one or two losses. The team's goal is the whole season, not one or two games. When the team's schedule is difficult, don't lose your mentality because of one or two games.

But Liu Mang still has fire in his heart!
If there is a fire, we must calm down!
By coincidence, the Warriors are here!

Beat the warriors to calm down!
On March 3th, at 5:6 pm Eastern Time, the Eagles played against the Warriors at home.

The game is about to start, Liu Mang chose to start today!Playing with Jason Terry, Chris Crawford, Muhammad, Kevin Wesley.

For the Warriors, Arenas played with Jason Richardson, Jamison, Murphy and Dampier.

In terms of strength, the lineup of the Warriors and the current lineup of the Eagles may be stronger than the Warriors. The Eagles win because they have a clear core, tactics, and defensive system, and the Warriors have stronger personal strength.

However, just a week ago, these Warriors players had just experienced the worst game of their respective careers, and they were already terrified by Liu Mang's beating!
Arenas looked at Liu Mang who seemed to be breathing flames in his eyes, tightened his muscles, and shouted in his heart: "Brother Ace! Don't..."

But will Liu Mang miss the opportunity for the other party to step on him to death after the other party is scared out of his wits?
Obviously not!

Due to the absence of Raheem, Liu Mang and Jason Terry simply let their instincts fly!
After the start, Liu Mang faced Arenas. Arenas was still in fear of the last fight, and gave up on the defensive end completely.

This is the most criticized point of Arenas in his peak period, especially when he was eliminated by James in the playoffs for three consecutive years. Arenas completely lost his fighting spirit when he played against James in the playoffs for the last time. The last time Arenas played against James in 6 games, he averaged 9 shots per game and only 10 points per game. James lost his fighting spirit and was swept away.

The Arenas who confronted James was Arenas who had become a top star, so James spent two years torturing him until he lost the will to fight.

The current Arenas is only in the second grade, Liu Mang didn't need to spend too much effort, and directly beat Arenas to the point where he lost his desire to become No.1 in the same class.

The more Arenas gave up on defense, the better Liu Mang played. Liu Mang made four consecutive three-pointers in the first quarter, and Arenas had no fighting spirit to defend!
Eat, sleep, and fight the general!Liu Mang's evil rule over the younger generation has begun!

(End of this chapter)