Chapter 104 104. The Western Expedition Begins!
Chapter 104 104. The Western Expedition Begins!
The Eagles only have 14 games in November, and the schedule is quite easy. At any rate, they were predicted to be the top four teams in the Eastern Conference before the start of the season, so they got a bargain.
Although the Eastern Conference is weak, at least it sounds like the top four are also strong teams, so the Eagles are also considered lucky.
As for the weak team, are they tight before and then loose? It doesn't exist. The reason why a weak team is called a weak team is because they basically can't win against anyone, so the schedule for the entire season seems to be very tight.
On December 2, the Eagles played against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers at home.
The tragedy of small cities is that they can’t make money. Now is not the era when NBA revenues are skyrocketing, and teams in big cities will give money to teams in small cities. The goal of weak teams is to enter the playoffs and get playoff bonuses. Because they entered the playoffs, they can sell tickets for a few more games, and the regular season ball market for the playoff teams will also be good.
If they can't make it to the playoffs, the box office won't be good. They have only one choice, which is to play poorly and try to get the No. 1 pick and choose a super talent who can lead the team to victory.
This is the case with the Cavaliers. Although Cleveland is the capital of Ohio, it is only the twenty-eighth city in the United States, a small city in the lower reaches of the 50 states in the United States. The entire NBA is the Hornets. Charlotte and Memphis with the Grizzlies are poorer than Cleveland.
Therefore, the Cavaliers, sadly, as one of the victims of the last NBA lockout, can only choose to be the No. big man.
The main beneficiary of the Cavaliers' poor performance is their main point guard, Andre Miller. Although it is good, it is far from reaching the level of the assist king. In the years when the overall strength of the entire career was the best, there were only a few assists at six or seven. Amazing data of 16 points, 12 assists and 5 rebounds.
The Cavaliers' record is also amazing, with an assists leader and a record of 3 wins and 12 losses.
The Eagles defended as always, defending first to contain the offensive firepower brought by Andre Miller's assists. In the second team, Liu Mang came up with a wave of scoring to widen the point difference.
It is unlucky to meet an old hooligan who is considered a hooligan, but when he meets Ricky Davis who is clamoring to choose the little emperor as his helper, Liu Mang has to fly, because this guy in front of him is even more ruthless than Liu Mang. He doesn't let go of the ball and is obsessed with statistics. The defensive end doesn't care about the shooter, and is always ready to rush back to the inside to grab defensive rebounds.
Liu Mang got a lot of completely open opportunities, made 5 of 9 shots from outside the three-point line, and even called a three-point foul. 18 points, plus the first quarter against Andre Miller when the pick-and-roll broke through the inside and relied on the weird inside footsteps to cause damage, a total of 25 points!
The characteristic of the second lineup of the Eagles is that Liu Mang can play well if he can rush forward and advance. Liu Mang has never been able to contain the offense enough. He must rely on scoring more to attract the attention of the opponent and have a chance to get Opportunities for assists, otherwise Liu Mang made too many shots and failed to make shots. When he needs to slow down and adjust his feeling, he can only rely on Muhammad and Ratliff, two unreliable guys, to fight hard inside and hold high. .
But if the opponent is the Cavaliers, it doesn't exist. In this game, Liu Mang came off the bench and scored 25 points and 5 assists in 27 minutes! Both scoring and assists set new career highs! The previous highest score was 24 points, and the highest assist was when the old hooligan gave up defense in the last game against the old hooligan, forcing the rest of the Wizards to defend the 4 assists sent by Liu Mang.
Cavaliers... Even if they don't help the defense, it is easier to get assists than against the Wizards.
97 to 82, the Eagles easily won the game against the fishy team, avoiding another losing streak.
...
After defeating the Cavaliers, the Eagles' record became 10 wins and 5 losses, stabilizing the precarious fourth position in the Eastern Conference.
Now the number one in the East is still maintained by the Pistons, with a record of 12 wins and 4 wins and a half game ahead of the Nets with 11 wins and 4 losses.
The difference in wins in the NBA is that when the losses are the same, the one more game won will be half a game ahead, because the side that wins less will have a chance to win the next game.
The third place in the Eastern Conference is not the Magic. Although the Magic's record has almost caught up with the Eagles, the third place is the leader of the Atlantic Division, the Celtics.
In fact, at the beginning, the Pistons and Eagles competed for the first place in the league, and it was only a battle between the first and fourth in the Eastern Conference. According to the provisions of the labor agreement at this stage, the first place in the six major regions must be ranked according to the record. The top three in the east and west, until the new version of the labor agreement in 2006, there were new regulations, which slightly weakened the advantage of the first place in the division.
Playing against the Cavaliers, Liu Mang worked very hard. He studied his opponents very well since the pre-match preparations, and he paid more attention to it than the last time he played against the Cavaliers, because the last time he was completely crushed by strength, not to mention Raheem , Jason Terry is not something the Cavaliers can deal with, and this time he is the first scorer. He has thoroughly studied the opponent's weaknesses in perimeter defense and pick-and-roll defense, and he was finally abused by Jordan. After a game, I found an opponent to vent my anger on, and I managed to regain some face.
Just poor knights.
In addition to finding a punching bag for himself and avoiding losing streaks, another reason why Liu Mang worked so hard against the Cavaliers was to support Raheem and Jason Terry, whose suspensions will soon end!
After a five-match ban, Raheem and Jason Terry have finally lifted their suspensions and are coming back!
...
"Hey, Ace, you got us banned for so long and fined us so much for fighting for you, so you treat us to KFC? Looks like it's time to enforce the team rules!" Jason Terry gnawed viciously. I took a bite of the chicken leg.
If you dislike it, don't eat it! KFC doesn't want money! Liu Mang was very aggrieved: "I was also fined. You see, I have been beating for a month, and the remaining money is less than 10,000 yuan."
Yes, pretending to be pitiful and acting cute, even though the other party is a bit disgusting from a few old men, but still forcefully acting cute, my brother is only 19 years old, you can just let it go.
A tall man over 1.9 meters was cute, and a few guys who were eating chicken burgers almost didn't spit it out.
However, there is still such an honest person.
"Jason, Ace is right. The sum of his two-year rookie contract is estimated to be four to five hundred thousand." Muhammad is still a good man, but suddenly changed the subject, "Don't tell me you said it very well. Reasonable, team rules must be enforced, by the way, Jason, what our team rules are, I forgot."
"Ahem, let me think about it," Jason Terry looked at the team rules he was thinking about: "I remembered, since our team was established in the 1950s, there has been a rule that every rookie must come to a pole dance. , come on, Ace, I know you're good at this!"
"Why don't you die!"
"Ha ha ha ha……"
...
After playing the Cavaliers, Jason Terry and Raheem came back. Liu Mang also wanted to find a cheap place to treat them to dinner in Atlanta, but he only had one day off, so he went to Portland to order takeout. The group of big eaters has eaten.
Complaining is just complaining. This group of people ordered KFC decisively and ordered more than two hundred dollars. Liu Mang wanted to support them to death.
The next game will be in the remote "Far West", playing against the famous Prison City Trail Blazers, and departing for Portland the next morning after playing the Cavaliers.
Go to Portland earlier for more rest time, because the easy schedule in November has passed, and the brutal five-game streak in the West begins in December, including games against the Supersonics, Kings and two consecutive defending champion Lakers. Extremely brutal!
Seeing that the days of playing against the OK group are getting shorter day by day, Liu Mang is working hard to save skill upgrade cards.
In the game against Jordan, in addition to getting 5,000 superstar points because of that sentence, there were some scattered points. The data in the game against the Cavaliers was also very good, and there were hundreds of points, adding up to more than 6,300 superstar points Value, Liu Mang used all of them for the lottery draw. He drew 161 skill upgrade cards, 5 steal cards, more than 20 physical potions and more than a dozen primary injury potions, plus the remaining few before, A total of 165, but still not enough!
It's still 75 cards away from raising the bench bandit to level 5, which is a bit far away!
The last game of the Western Expedition's five-game streak was against the Lakers. That game was broadcast live across the United States. Of course, the Eagles belonged to the live broadcast.
But Liu Mang doesn't care if he is lying or not, anyway, he wants to play well in that match! Not only to complete the task, but also to perform well in front of the OK group and win more fans!
Therefore, in the first four games, Liu Mang tried every means to collect enough superstar points to draw 75 skill upgrade cards. At least 3000 to 4000 points are enough, and there is a long way to go!