From today on is the king

Chapter 535 534. Only We Can Beat the Nets

"Jason, I heard that your wife caught you whoring and beat you up?"

"When did I go whoring? Ace, don't talk nonsense. The coach heard my playing time and ran out. I finally met a weaker opponent...Wait, who was beaten by my wife?"

"I still don't admit it, look at the bag on your forehead, even the hairband can't stop it, you must have been beaten by your sister-in-law when you went to whoring."

"I just said that I didn't go whoring... No! I wasn't beaten by my wife! Yesterday when we came to Philadelphia together, I didn't have a bag on my forehead. I hit the door this morning! If you don't believe me, call your sister-in-law!"

"I understand, isn't it just a prostitute! It's normal to be caught and beaten by my sister-in-law, and my sister-in-law will definitely not admit it..."

"I just said I didn't go whoring... No, I wasn't beaten by your sister-in-law! I'll go get my phone, call your sister-in-law, and ask her yourself!"

Jason Terry rushed into the tunnel as he spoke.

Muhammad on the side couldn't stand it anymore, and said to Liu Mang speechlessly: "Ace, stop teasing Jason."

"Isn't this boring!" Liu Mang laughed, "Teasing Jason is also quite fun."

Muhammad is so speechless. Recently, the coaching staff strictly prohibited this kid from being interviewed, especially after leading the 3ers 1-76. Before and after the game, the coaching staff, trainers, and teammates held him up to prevent him from being interviewed, for fear that he would provoke the opponent again, anger the opponent, and increase the difficulty of promotion in vain.

So Liu Mang is really boring.

Today is May 5st, a great and perfect day, but unfortunately no one can confess, and this kind of "pseudo-holiday" is not popular these days.

On May 5, the Eagles started the first game of the second round. The Eagles played very focused in the first game, and they exploded in the away game. Rahim mainly attacked the inside and dragged the rhythm of the game into a positional battle.

The Eagles emphasize defense in this round of the series, don't be brought into the offensive battle by the 76ers.

When the coaching staff announced the general direction of this round of the series, Liu Mang felt weird. When playing against the 76ers, he actually needs to think about not being dragged into the offensive by the opponent?

But seeing the current lineup of the 76ers and their average of 104 points per game in the first round, Liu Mang didn't find it strange. If the 76ers brought them into their rhythm, it might be really dangerous!
That's how the Hornets got stuck.

The 76ers reached the playoffs and completely turned into an offensive team. McClochy, the only 76-foot center, was beaten to the sidelines by the [-]ers, which did not match the team's rhythm. They sent a pure offensive lineup of Iverson, Eric Snow, Kenny Thomas, Van Horn, and Derek Coleman.

With the lineup of the 76ers, as long as they are dragged into positional battles, when Coleman and Van Horn only have mid-range and long-range shooting capabilities, they only need to defend Iverson, defend the basket, pinch Iverson, defend Kenny Thomas and Eric Snow, and guard Van Horn's three-pointers.

The defensive strategy of the Eagles is the best defensive method seen in the few games in which the Hornets beat the 76ers. The main reason is to force Iverson to fail to organize the team's offense.

If the 76ers want to play offense, Iverson's organizational offense must be brought into play. The 76ers are also Iverson who has real organizational skills. Although Snow has averaged 6 assists per game this season, his assists are almost all Iverson.

The 76ers have only one person to organize the offense. Iverson averaged 44 minutes per game. If Iverson had no chance to organize the offense, the 76ers' offense would return to its original state, and the 76ers' defense has now collapsed and become an offensive team.

So the Hornets lost to the 76ers in the first two games, and they also found a way to deal with the 76ers. Knowing who the 76ers can put and who must defend, this is the most difficult part of the playoffs. The series is too long, and weaker opponents can also find a way to win.

The Hornets got back home and took out the 76ers twice at home, proving that this defensive style works.

Home court advantage is very useful, so is promotion first. With home court advantage, the visiting team will be less prepared, but advance first, and you can see the weaknesses exposed by the next opponent in the last round. The 76ers only have two short days to prepare, and they don't have that much time to study.

During the 6-day break, the Hawks studied the series between the 76ers and the Hornets, watched the live broadcast, and brought back the Hornets' defensive strategy.

The Eagles wanted to do the same in the second game, but Iverson went berserk, scoring 51 points and 7 assists, and scored 24 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter, only 1 point less than the Hawks team. His runaway performance held a home court, and the Eagles reversed 11 points in the final quarter, defending a home game 102 to 99.

But Iverson can’t run wild every game. After returning to the home court, the Eagles’ defense against Iverson became stricter. At the same time, Raheem saw Iverson’s opponent in the same class explode in the last game. 48 points, the strength gap was fully demonstrated in this game.

In the fourth game, Iverson knew that his teammates were unreliable. This group of guys were old and soft. The only one, Snow, was still a strong defensive and weak type.

At this time, coach Kruger quickly replaced Muhammad with Jason Terry. The double point guard combination of Liu Mang and Jason Terry came on the court. Raheem stepped up to the position of power forward.

The fourth game was the performance time of the Eagles' double waves in the backcourt. The two played the rest of the first quarter, the second quarter and the third quarter. Although Iverson scored 35 points in the three quarters, Liu Mang and Jason Terry scored 44 points and 10 assists in the three quarters.

After the first four games, the Eagles led 3-1, continuing their strong performance.

In the fifth game, he came to Philadelphia again. This year, the Hawks lost for the first time in the playoffs in this city. After coming here, Raheem went berserk again. He was still very unhappy with Philadelphia. Although many years have passed, the resentment towards the 76ers still exists.

In the summer of 1996, Raheem was also one of the top picks. Originally, the top pick was Duncan, but Duncan decided to go to college for another year after finishing his junior year. So Iverson, Marbury, Raheem, and Camby became the top picks. Little Blacksmith may also be counted. He performed the best among all players in the trial training, but he said he would only go to big cities like Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia. If I chose a high school student but didn't choose Iverson, Marbury, or Raheem, I would be laughed at, and I didn't choose Kobe.

When Rahim heard the 76ers say this, he was looking forward to becoming the No. 76 pick, but the 76ers didn't pick him. He fell to the third pick. He has always been full of resentment towards the 76ers. It's just that the 76ers were much better than the team he was in before. He had no chance of revenge against the [-]ers.
Raheem decided to deal with the 76ers in the fifth away game. He didn't want to bring the game back to Atlanta, so he crazily gouged inside the game and continued to cause damage.

Raheem, who went crazy, has a strong body similar to Garnett and is willing to play in the paint. He beat Van Horn, a thin pitcher, and scored 22 points in the first quarter. Liu Mang could only wave the flag to cheer.Not only did they play well, but their defense against Iverson also made Liu Mang a lot easier on the defensive end. Iverson was defended 8-of-1 in the first quarter, and the Eagles led 29-13 in the first quarter by 16 points, establishing an advantage in one fell swoop.

In the second quarter, Raheem continued to run wild, but he started to pass the ball, because the 76ers began to shrink. Liu Mang, Jason Terry and Prince, who came off the bench, shot from the outside. The three of them made a total of 10 three-pointers in the second and third quarters, breaking the 76ers.

After three quarters, the Eagles lead 85 to 55, leading by 30 points. Now only Raheem is left on the court, playing with Dean Grove, Prince, Boozer, and Kevin Willis on the field. Because Iverson on the 76ers side refused to admit defeat, he insisted on coming up from behind by 30 points to narrow the point difference to 20 points. The idea of ​​​​continuing to expand the score with the main force is to stabilize the score difference in this way.

Liu Mang watched as he forcibly rushed into the defensive circle surrounded by Raheem, Prince, and Kevin Wesley again and again and fell down, earning fouls with difficulty, but then Raheem rushed to the basket and could easily score or pass assists to open up the score that Iverson finally recovered.

The fans at the scene couldn't bear to see their stars struggling like this. The scene was very quiet, and many fans had already left one after another.

This year's regular season has the fourth best record in the East and ranks fifth in the East. The 76ers fans are already very satisfied, and they have reached the second round. They can't be more satisfied. No one blames Iverson. With such a group of old, weak and weak teammates, what else can we do?The opposing team is strong and strong. They have just swept the Pistons and they are in full swing. It is already a miracle to win a victory. It is still a miracle of 50+ points in the playoffs that sometimes does not come once a year...

最终，艾弗森打满了全场，44投18中拿到45分，但不敌拉希姆全面的36分15板11助攻的三双表现，老鹰队以112比90击败76人，4比1的大比分把76人淘汰出局。

After being eliminated, Iverson went to the player tunnel alone again, and no one paid attention to him.

Liu Mang didn't try to comfort Iverson or something. First, the two were opponents, and then Iverson was the opponent. At this time, let Iverson lick his wounds. Liu Mang can only hope that there will be a stronger Iverson with a better team next season, and he can play against a better Iverson.

Although Iverson is good personally now, but the team is too weak. Liu Mang feels that playing against the 76ers is too bad. He has no feeling of really competing with Iverson. Liu Mang averaged 5+17+4 per game in 6 games, which is a normal performance. None.

Liu Mang didn’t know when he had the mentality to fight against these superstars. He really wanted to stand in the same position to compete with superstars. Just like Carmelo Anthony, he only had the most fighting spirit when he was playing against James, Kobe, and Wade.

Only now, Liu Mang knows that he is not strong enough to lead the team to sweep opponents like Raheem. He can only be a qualified point guard who delivers ammunition and opens up space, and Iverson does not have Liu Mang's teammates, not even high-quality teammates.

Liu Mang can only comfort himself, regret is also a kind of beauty...

……

……

The Eagles are the first to advance to the conference finals in the Eastern Conference!

Why only advance in the East first, because the Spurs had already advanced to the Western Conference Finals the day before the Eagles eliminated the 76ers.

The elimination of the 76ers by the Eagles was something that people expected. Except that Iverson scored 51 points in the second game and gave people some surprises. After that, there were no surprises. After the Eagles defended two home games, people already knew that it was a matter of time before the Eagles advanced.

And the Spurs actually eliminated the Lakers by a big score of 4 to 1. From the first game, it brought people a big surprise, or... panic!
Because in the past two years, even if the Lakers record was worse than the Spurs, the away team played, and the Lakers had the advantage. In 2001, the Lakers won both away games and swept the Spurs 4-0.

However, this time, after the Spurs defeated the Lakers with Manu Ginobili's lore in the first game, they seemed to have found a way to beat the Lakers. People were stunned that they couldn't make shots, and they made 7 of 114 shots in total. The gap between role players was fully exposed this year. OK lost two consecutive away games.

After returning to the home court, the Lakers wanted to work hard. The losses were all away games. They were still confident, and they played a fierce offensive from the beginning.

Although the Lakers beat the Spurs 120 to 95 in the fourth game, it was like a flashback. In the fifth game, they returned to the Spurs' home court. The Spurs played a suffocating defense and defeated the Lakers 85 to 79. , 4 to 1 promotion!

After this round of the series, Duncan proved that he is worthy of being the MVP of Lianzhuang, and officially became a god at the position of power forward!
The Hawks and Spurs both advanced to the conference finals, and the remaining two series were tough.

The Kings and the Mavericks drew 2-2. The Mavericks played really well in the second round of this year's playoffs. Although Nowitzki's scoring was severely limited, he averaged only 18 points per game, far behind Webber's 30 points per game, but Nowitzki's rebounds exploded!15 rebounds in the first game, 14 rebounds in the second game, a little less in the third game, only 10, but scored 20 points and 21 rebounds in the fourth game, the first double 20 in the career playoffs!

Although Nowitzki has never averaged 10+ rebounds per game in his career, his explosive rebounding power has always been good. He has had 6 double-20s in his career so far, and he has three times in the regular season this season. At the peak of his career, he once faced O'Neal and scored 21 rebounds plus 33 points.

The other two times, coincidentally, happened to be facing Weber, both times were 26 points and 20 rebounds, and Weber lost his temper when he grabbed rebounds.

Relying on Nowitzki's rebounding advantage of 18 points and 15 rebounds per game in the first four games, Webber was strong enough to only have 16 rebounds in the four games.

In the East, the Nets led the Bucks 3-2. At the beginning, they led 3-1, but they were pulled back by the Bucks in the fifth game.

Kidd and Payton, the two defended each other like iron gods. Both of them only shot more than 30.00% of the field goals, and they relied on organizing offense to continue their lives. Both of them averaged 9 assists per game.
Relying on averaging 8 rebounds per game, Kidd held a lot of backcourt rebounds and did not grab too many offensive rebounds for Drummond Mason, a man of physical fitness.

However, the key to the outcome lies in Toni Kukoc, the former Bulls general who is considered to be an addition to the head, and the Nets' No. [-] pick Kenyon Martin.

Kukoc scored at least 14 points per game, scored a career playoff-high 31 in Game [-], and sifted Kenyon Martin.

But Kenyon Martin performed better overall, averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game, especially in rebounds. Kenyon Martin rebounded in this year's playoffs, averaging 9 rebounds per game, especially in the second round, averaging 11 rebounds per game, which became the key to the Nets' advantage.

……

This year's playoffs are really full of surprises, and there are always unexpected highlights.

And at this time, the Eagles, who were the first to advance to the second round, began to feel pain again.

First of all, they don't have the No. [-] record in the league like the Spurs. Regardless of whether they advance first or later, they are waiting at home.

The Hawks start off the road against everyone. Originally, when the Hawks and the 76ers finished Game 3, the Nets were still leading the Bucks 1-[-]. The Hawks felt that if they won, they could go to New Jersey. Maybe the Nets would eliminate the Bucks to advance to the second round.

This is not good. If the Nets fail to win the next away game, it is really hard to say who will advance!
Of course, the Eagles hope that the Nets will be overthrown like this, but the possibility is not high, but it is not impossible, so the Eagles coaching staff once again fell into anxiety.

The night after the 76ers, coach Kruger finally let go of the tight rein, allowing the players to play in Philadelphia, the fifth largest city in the United States.

The main reason is that the Eagles are not in a hurry to return to Atlanta tomorrow, and they are not even prepared to go back without knowing whether there are two days or five days to wait for the next round. If the Nets advance in the game the day after tomorrow, they can go directly to New Jersey and experience the away game in advance.

The Eagles coaching staff is tangled in the meeting suite. The Eagles coaching staff is centered on Coach Kruger and Mike Woodson. Basically, things are discussed between two people. The coaching staff is still too small. There are only 5 people in total, and one of them is a shooting coach.

"Mike, Almond, who do you think will win the Nets or the Bucks?" Coach Kruger was so melancholy. After sitting at home for three consecutive rounds last year and slowly waiting for his opponent, it feels too uncomfortable now.

"..."

"..."

Hill and Mike Woodson looked at each other, not knowing how to respond.

This year's playoffs are too strange. The Spurs almost swept the Lakers, but the Mavericks were on par with the Kings. Last year, the Lakers beat the Spurs 4-1, and the Kings beat the Mavericks 4-1.

If the Bucks really counterattacked the Nets this time, neither of them would be surprised.

"Why don't we ask that guy?" Mike Woodson didn't want to take the blame for this possibility, so he decisively dumped the blame before it appeared.

"You mean that guy?" Coach Kruger also thought about it.

"Yes!" Mike Woodson nodded resolutely with the idea that a dead fellow Taoist would never die a poor man.

"Okay, Almond, you call him to come." Coach Kruger ordered.

Hill is different from the two bad guys. He has a low position in the team. He basically has no other job except teaching shooting. He has a good relationship with the players, but it is not good. He is not as familiar with the players as Mike Woodson is, and he does not have the status of coach Kruger. He asked suspiciously: "Who are you calling?"

Coach Kruger and Mike Woodson looked at each other and couldn't help laughing. Although it was a bit embarrassing to be promoted early and wait for the opponent, it was a trouble of happiness. The melancholy was melancholy. The whole Eagles team is in a good mood now.

Mike Woodson clasped his hands, as if the air conditioner was too cold, and said tremblingly, "Call him, he should sleep in the room."

Shivering—cold, falling asleep while the players were out surfing... Hill burst out laughing, and immediately took out his cell phone to make a call...

……

A few minutes later, a sleepy man in pajamas came to the suite where the coaching staff was.

"Oh, coach, why did you call me here so late! Don't you know if you can't sleep well or grow taller?" Liu Mang couldn't help but slander when he got down, he didn't go out to play, three big men were in the same room, judging by his age, it was impossible to have sex, it could only be that he couldn't do it anymore.

"Ace, you are 20 years old, theoretically you will not grow taller," Mike Woodson said with a smile, "We want to ask you, Ace, who do you think can advance to the Nets or the Bucks?"

Is this a stupid question to ask?Liu Mang replied without hesitation: "The Nets."

"Why? The Bucks won an away game and have a chance to reverse it." Coach Kruger asked curiously.

"There's no reason," Liu Mang was upset when he fell asleep in the middle of the night and was woken up. Why did he care so much about this stupid question, but he still replied, "I don't believe that the Nets will lose to the Bucks. We are the only ones in the East that can beat the Nets!"

(End of this chapter)