From today on is the king

Chapter 510 508. Competition First, No Friendship

On March 2003, 3, the visiting team's locker room at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Eagles players are ready to start a new chapter!
There was no madness at night when I just lost to the Bulls two days ago, there was no quiet and impetuous heart practicing calligraphy to cultivate sentiment, and there was no watching high school students dunk performance together to relax.

The moment they stepped into Madison Square Garden, Liu Mang and his teammates felt the enthusiasm of the New York fans, especially when the two teams started to enter the field, they were booed all over the sky as if to cover them up.

The fans in New York are very interesting. They don’t boo their own team’s players, but cheer for their opponents. For example, last year when the Knicks had a bad record and Liu Mang scored 41 points here, all the fans turned around and cheered for Liu Mang.

But in the middle of this year’s season, the Knicks broke out suddenly, and there was a little bit of hope for the playoffs. Although the hope is not great, it is hope anyway, especially last season. They originally thought that Alan Houston’s 32 million yuan contract was another garbage contract given by the team. Unexpectedly, Alan Houston played the best performance of his career at the age of 60.00 this year. It is better than the Pistons, Grant Hill, and the Knicks at the peak of the Knicks in previous years. It has brought hope to the Knicks fans. Because they did not perform well in the first half of the season, it is safe to enter the playoffs next season, because their winning percentage in the second half of the season reached 60.00%[-], which is only a little bit worse than the Hawks' winning percentage of [-]%[-] in the second half of the season.

So now the Knicks fans have become the most "loyal" fans, full of hostility towards the away team's Hawks, especially because of Liu Mang's rampage here last season, so they still have past hatred.

Because the Knicks defeated the Eagles in two away games in the previous two matches this month, it gave the Knicks fans more confidence!
Fortunately, Liu Mang had felt the enthusiasm of the New York fans yesterday, otherwise he would not have gotten used to it. New Yorkers are so fickle. At this time last year, they still called him Xiao Tiantian, but this year they booed him to death.

In addition to the very enthusiastic fans, there are also warm welcomes from the opponents. The Knicks are all excited, and the Knicks' owners and players are in a state of embarrassment!Because they felt "humiliated" again yesterday!
Since 1986, except occasionally in Los Angeles or Washington, as long as the McDonald’s All-Star Game is held in Madison Square Garden, the opening guest is the head of the Knicks. In 1986, it was the Knicks star Bernard King. In 1988, it became Ewing. After that, it was Ewing for several years. After 2000, it became Alan Houston, and last season was also Alan Houston as the opening guest.

When the McDonald's All-Star Game was still held in New York this year, Alan Houston had already prepared for the best personal performance of his career. As a "model of success" in the eyes of high school players, he played the best performance of his career in the second year with 33 million yuan.

However, the McDonald's All-Star Game was held in New York, and the opening guest invited was actually an Eagles player!
This is literally slapping Alan Houston in the face!
The Eagles who went to the game yesterday didn't take it seriously at all, but the Knicks were different, they just felt humiliated.

When the Knicks players were interviewed before the game today and criticized the organizers of the McDonald’s All-Star Game for disrespecting them, and Dolan announced that they would no longer provide venues, the Eagles players knew that the Knicks took this matter so seriously. They didn’t expect the Knicks to become more hostile to them because of this.

but……

The Eagles don't care about the hostility from the Knicks players or their boss at all. They came here to take revenge, which will definitely make the Knicks players unhappy. If that's the case, let them be hostile if they are hostile!

Liu Mang enjoyed the boos and practiced shooting for a while. After the preparation time before the game, he returned to the bench, chatted with Boozer and waited for the game to start, completely ignoring the boos.

Liu Mang and Boozer chatted and laughed, which not only made the fans furious, but the Knicks players were even more angry, but there was nothing they could do about Liu Mang.

Liu Mang just likes to see the feeling of his opponent who hates him but can't kill him, and just likes the pleasure of running amidst the opponent's hostility.

For the Eagles, the starters are still Jason Terry, Prince, Raheem, Muhammad, and Ratliff.

For the Knicks, Howard Eisley, Alan Houston, Sprewell, Kurt Thomas, and Osella Harnington were sent.

Generally speaking, after the start of the game, after both starters finish their pre-match actions and go on the field, the boss of the home team will come up to say hello to the opponent's starter, high-five or punch.

Even Kobe would come up and clap hands with Raheem, the relationship between the two is not bad.

But the Knicks said no this time!

No one took the initiative to say hello to the Eagles players, ignoring the scene of "friendship first, competition second". The two teams have become hostile. Although the Knicks are unilaterally hostile, the Eagles do not regard the Knicks as a competitor at all, but they have already torn their faces.

Originally, the Eagles were upset about losing to the Knicks when the schedule almost made the Eagles almost unable to hold on. Now they are more determined to kill the Knicks, and use this game to start the playoffs!
jump ball!

Ratliff and Harrington came to the middle of the court, the referee blew the whistle to start the game, and the ball was thrown into the air. Ratliff won the jump ball with a clear advantage of height and wingspan.

The Eagles attacked first, and the start was still handed over to Raheem.

Most of the time, Raheem chiseled at the start, and it was all good, and then helped the Eagles' starting lineup to open the situation.

However, this time Raheem had just settled inside, and Sprewell's fierce top defense made Raheem very uncomfortable!

Regardless of his personality, Sprewell is indeed a good player, especially this year is his contract year. He has played like a giant player on both ends of the offense and defense. People only saw the brilliant performance of Alan Houston on the offensive end. They thought that the Knicks broke out in the second half of this year.

This year, Sprewell played a very good defensive performance and became the defensive gate of the Knicks' back line. Otherwise, Alan Houston and Howard Eisley, who was originally Mark Jackson's backup, had at most average defenses.

Raheem was made difficult to catch the ball by Sprewell's rough forward movement, mainly because he was not prepared at all. When the two teams played against each other this season, Raheem was not there!

And the other small forwards of the Eagles are not low-post singles, and they are not the main attack point. It is not Sprewell defending them at all, so I don't know that Sprewell will be so rough when defending in the low post.

Jason Terry saw that Raheem was a bit sleepy, so he came by himself!
It was Eisley who defended Jason Terry. Before this season, he played eight seasons with fewer than 50 starts. This year, he was lucky. Mark Jackson was sent away by the Knicks in the second round. He became the starter. He played really hard this year, especially in the second half of the season.

Eisley's defensive ability is not very good, but he is very active!Especially today, the entire Knicks team was very desperate. Eisley gave Jason Terry a lot of interference. Jason Terry missed the first emergency stop jump shot when he came up to try!

Harnington, who once formed the Texas Duo with Francis of the Rockets, squeezed Muhammad away with his fat body, stuck in his position and grabbed a defensive rebound!

The Knicks are a bit fierce today!

(End of this chapter)