Chapter 1027 1026. Eight Consecutive Wins, McGrady Visits
In the last game of the four-game road trip, the Hawks came to the Verizon Center to challenge the Wizards.
For the Wizards players, it is better to play away than to play against the Hawks.
Being booed away from home is normal.
But the Washington fans, who are usually good, immediately changed sides when they saw Liu Mang coming.
And the fans changed sides for a reason. Arenas wanted to prove himself when he saw Liu Mang. It would be fine if he wanted to prove himself, but he did not have the efficiency and stability since the beginning of this season. No matter how he shot, he could not make it. He played very badly and led the Wizards to a single-quarter score of 19 to 29.
In the past, there were two outside ball holders, Larry Hughes and Arenas, and Jamison contained McGrady. The Wizards trident always had a chance to play against the Hawks. The key point that the Hawks grasped was that Arenas went crazy when he met Liu Mang and wanted to shoot, but he could not make it.
But now, Prince defends Arenas, McGrady defends Jamison, and Antonio Daniels, who was introduced by the Wizards to fill the vacancy of Larry Hughes, is a good player, but not a star, and his salary of nearly 10 million is unworthy.
The Wizards streamlined the backcourt structure this season, using Antonio Daniels and Jarvis Hayes, who are off-ball players, to match Arenas. In terms of the start, compared with last season, the record is better. Before playing the Hawks, they had 6 wins and 3 losses, ranking fifth in the East. If the 76ers were not the first in the Atlantic Division, the Wizards would be ranked fourth.
The Wizards, who have determined the dual-core play of Arenas and Jamison, played very well.
But the disadvantage is that once one of the dual cores collapses, especially Arenas, the top star who averages 29 points per game and is fourth in the league, collapses, the Wizards will collapse directly.
Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan does not understand!
No matter how well Arenas played, he scored 35 points and 14 assists against the Heat, giving the Heat their second loss of the season. How could he be so miserable against the Hawks?
As for depression, the NBA has not paid attention to it until DeMar DeRozan takes the initiative to disclose his illness in the future, otherwise there would not be situations like Kwame Brown and Milicic suffering from depression.
In addition to Arenas's collapse on the offensive end, the biggest problem for the Wizards to lose to the Hawks was defense. Larry Hughes, a perimeter gate who was selected in the best defensive team, left, and Liu Mang and McGrady were flying.
McGrady played 31 minutes and scored 12 points, 3 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, mainly focusing on defense and passing. Liu Mang played 38 minutes and scored 29 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. With Iguodala and Korver scoring 20 points together, the Hawks easily defeated the Wizards 119 to 105 and won eight consecutive games!
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The Hawks started with eight consecutive wins, played two fewer games, and led the Spurs with 8 wins and 2 losses by one win, ranking first in the league.
However, although the Hawks' eight consecutive wins at the start were beyond the fans' expectations, and it was so tough for the third consecutive year, it was also reasonable. This season, the Hawks' data has become more balanced. As the game went on, except for Liu Mang and Kwame Brown, the Hawks gradually had no other players averaging 15+ points per game. McGrady occasionally wanted to soar, but only occasionally.
McGrady is very smart. Liu Mang didn't say it, but he understood Liu Mang's approach. When he had an advantage on the court, he took the initiative to give the ball to Iguodala or Calderon and Josh Smith, the three brothers who had a good relationship, so that everyone's data has been significantly improved compared with last season.
From the Hawks to the present, averaging 115 points per game, only Liu Mang and Kwame Brown averaged more than 15 points per game, and Liu Mang only averaged 30.5 points per game.
However, the more this is the case, the more fans are looking forward to a team that can break the Hawks' unbeaten record.
In the finals of last season, the Hawks seemed to be the main team of all NBA fans, but only when their opponent was the Spurs. In the new season, although the Hawks gradually became the most popular team in China and the United States, two countries with the strongest basketball atmosphere, thanks to Liu Mang, McGrady, and Kwame Brown, the fans of other teams added up to more than the Hawks fans, and people began to discuss which teams have a chance to beat the Hawks.
The season has been started for more than half a month. In general, we can see some of the general situation of this season.
In the East, the Heat ranked second in the East with 7 wins and 3 losses, the Pistons ranked third in the East with 7 wins and 4 losses, the 76ers ranked fourth with 4 wins and 6 losses, the Cavaliers ranked fifth with 7 wins and 4 losses, and the Wizards fell to sixth with 6 wins and 4 losses.
The East is even more miserable than last season, with only five teams reaching 50% at the start.
In the West, except for the Spurs, the competition among the heroes has begun.
The Spurs are in first place with 8 wins and 2 losses, the Supersonics are in second place with 7 wins and 4 losses, the Suns are in third place with 6 wins and 4 losses, the Lakers are in sixth place with 6 wins and 4 losses, the Mavericks are in third place with 6 wins and 4 losses, the Clippers are in sixth place with 6 wins and 5 losses, the Kings and the Jazz are both in fifth place with 5 wins and 5 losses, and the battle is in chaos.
The most stable team is the Spurs, although they lost the first place in the Western Conference to the Suns last season, but they got it back immediately this season.
This season, the Suns lost a major player, Stoudemire was injured in the preseason, and was directly written off for the season in the opening game, but D'Antoni's magic ball is really unimaginable. He dug Boris Diaw, who averaged 4 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists per game as a backup point guard in the past two years, from the Bucks, and used him as a center, and then Diaw averaged 13+7+7...
The Suns’ style of play has become more unrestrained, but the absence of Stoudemire cannot be compensated by Dio. Although Dio’s passing has benefited the Suns a lot, the Suns’ offense is not as stable as last season. Without an inside player who averages 26 points per game, the Suns’ offense has also been ups and downs this season, all supported by Nash.
After two weeks, Nash also won the Player of the Week in the second week.
Liu Mang missed the Player of the Week in the first week and was won by O’Neal. He won the Player of the Week in the second week, mainly due to the average points per game brought by the 50+10 game and the Hawks’ eight consecutive wins.
After playing four consecutive away games and winning eight consecutive games, the Hawks got three days of rest.
From the 15th to the 30th, in 16 days, the Hawks only had 6 games, and the schedule was too easy!
Compared to most opponents who need to play one game after another at the beginning of the season without much time and energy to prepare for their opponents, the Hawks' first game month totaled 34 days and only 14 games. The Hawks can even prepare for the games like they are preparing for the playoffs.
Fans looked at the Hawks' remaining games in November, the Warriors, Pistons, Bulls, Pacers, Bobcats, and Cavaliers.
They found that in November, except for the Heat, no team looked like they could beat the Hawks...
It seems that the only team with a chance is the Bobcats, who beat the Hawks twice last season.
At the end of the post discussion, fans all made expressions of vomiting blood...
...
...
On the afternoon of the 15th, Liu Mang returned to Atlanta and took McGrady, who was hitching a ride, home.
"Ace, I'll go see Beckas and Avril before going back. My wife is visiting your house today." Liu Mang said when he saw him about to change lanes at an intersection.
"Hmm?" Liu Mang turned off the turn signal and continued to move forward. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I almost went to your house."
"I forgot. My wife called me when I got up in the morning. She said she had an appointment with Aida to discuss the child's education. Raymond is already two years old, and we are having a headache." McGrady answered calmly.
He even forgot this... His wife went to someone else's house!
Liu Mang didn't know how to complain, and suddenly thought of something: "Tracy, I heard from Levia that your wife seems to be pregnant again. How many months has it been? She didn't even come to watch the opening game."
"Yes, four months, it's a daughter." Maddie showed a happy smile on her face, "I was so envious when I saw your daughter was born. Fortunately, it was a daughter last week."
"Yes, sons are too annoying..."
"That's right..."
"I'm telling you, Becas is too annoying, you know? It was okay earlier, but now he needs to drink milk several times a night, cries when he's hungry, and loves to poop. It's so troublesome to change his diaper every time, and I can't let my mother get up so late. Aida is already very tired of taking care of the child during the day, and it's really annoying to have a son. Avril is different, she looks so cute..."
Maddie looked at Liu Mang nagging about the hardship of taking care of the child, and couldn't help laughing: "It seems that Ace, you love your son very much!"
"No way!" Liu Mang strongly denied.
"I asked the servants to do all these things, and you came in person." Maddie smiled.
"The servants are clumsy. They can clean and take care of the mother, but how can they take care of the baby?" Liu Mang said casually.
McGrady smiled and didn't continue talking.
...
Arrived at Liu Mang's house, parked the car and walked into the living room.
Raymond McGrady, who is already two years old, was dismantling building blocks, and Liu Mang's parents were teasing their two grandchildren.
"Uncle, aunt, hello, I'm Tracy..." McGrady was holding a small gift bought from Washington and was about to say hello when she saw Liu Mang rushing to one of the strollers at an explosive speed like a whirlwind.
"Avril, Daddy is back..." Liu Mang picked up his daughter and put his face against her tender face and called her in a mushy way.
"Be careful, don't hurt the child..." Liu Mang's mother said quickly.
"Hello, blow... blow out... Weircon... oil wave soumenli give adverbs, three grams of oil..." Liu Mang's mother said a word of thanks to McGrady in broken English, and then went up to take the gift handed over by McGrady.
It's not that Liu Mang's mother didn't want to be polite, but she really didn't know how to be polite, so she just accepted it directly to save the trouble of the translator next to her.
Liu Mang's father looked at his disappointing son and only cared about his daughter. He didn't care about his son at all, and he was helpless.
Liu Mang's father Liu Lijie and Maddie smiled and nodded, but didn't say anything.
Although Levia specially helped the two elders find a tutor in the past few months after they came to the United States, the two elders knew that Liu Mang would definitely stay in the United States for a long time, and they would have to live in the United States for a while, and they would probably come often in the future. It was necessary to learn English. The two elders did not refuse, and they were studying very seriously. They could barely say a few words, and they could go to the supermarket with their little loli and bodyguard.
But Liu Mang's father wanted to save face when there were outsiders. His English was so poor that he would never take the initiative to speak. Liu Mang's mother was different. Liu Mang's mother believed that the tutor said that learning a language requires speaking more, and if you can speak, you will speak.
As for the English pronunciation, it sounded strange to McGrady, but he got used to it after a few times, and the Chinese-English way of speaking was not strange to him.
McGrady greeted the two elders and got together with his wife who was four months pregnant.
Americans, even if they are teammates on the same team, even if Liu Mang and McGrady's families are so familiar with each other, may not see each other for a long time. Levia and Aida occasionally make appointments to chat with McGrady's wife Lalonda, but Liu Mang has not seen Lalonda since the end of summer training.
20 days after birth, the two children no longer have wrinkles, but now have the cute look of the children on TV, and they are mixed-race, with more delicate skin than white children. Avril looks more like Alexia, with big eyes. She didn't cry when Liu Mang was close to her, but kept laughing, so cute.
Liu Mang and Avril were bored for a while, and then he remembered to say hello to McGrady's wife: "Hi, Lalonda, long time no see, I heard from Tracy that you will have another daughter next year."
"Thank you." Lalonda was not surprised by Liu Mang's disconnection. She had long known from Levia and Alexia that Liu Mang's mentality of "valuing girls over boys"
Liu Mang was holding Avril to amuse himself, and at this time the little girl came up and looked at Liu Mang eagerly.
Liu Mang glanced at his cute daughter, who had a piece of cloth on her head to cover the undeveloped part of her head, which made her look extra cute. He then glanced at the little girl next to him who was looking eagerly. She was not only cute, but also a little beauty, and was about to grow up...
But she hadn't grown up yet, so Liu Mang hugged the little girl as well, sat on the sofa, and started hugging her left and right...
The little girl was a little depressed. In the past, Liu Mang would hold her first when he got home, but now she was the second one, but thinking that she was still ranked before Becas, the little girl felt much better instantly...
...
Alexia couldn't stand sitting in confinement anymore, and it had been about 20 days. At first, she was very fresh and enjoyed it, but she gradually found that she was being raised like a pig, eating and sleeping, and feeding. Finally, after half a month, he discussed with Liu Mang's mother, learned to cook from Liu Mang's mother, and recovered on his own.
With sufficient reasons and well-founded evidence, Liu Mang's mother thought that white people might recover faster, so she agreed.
Now Alexia is helping Liu Mang's mother prepare dinner, Levia is accompanying McGrady's wife, and Liu Mang's father is responsible for taking care of the children.
Liu Mang and McGrady came to the backyard to shoot basketball.
While shooting, McGrady suddenly said to Liu Mang: "Ace, you shot so much less this year, because you are concerned about our feelings, right?"