Chapter 1092 1091. Champion's Revenge Battle Is Coming

Mike Brown, the head coach of the Cavaliers, called a timeout!

Just now, James took advantage of Iguodala's imbalanced mentality and made Iguodala commit a foul. Now it's James who is out of balance!

With 58 seconds left in the first quarter, Mike Brown replaced James to calm down for a while.

Although Jason Terry was hit in the chest, he was more excited than in pain!

It's incredible! He actually defended James!

Although I don't know why, Jason Terry is more convinced of Liu Mang now!

This guy, no matter what he says, he seems to be able to do it!

Jason Terry is undoubtedly the hero who broke the previous tense situation. When he returned to the bench, everyone came up and high-fived Jason Terry.

In fact, Liu Mang took a trick. When Iguodala defended James, he didn't give James the opportunity to get in position. Instead, James took the ball and shot directly, which was no different from facing the basket.

And Jason Terry couldn't get around at all, giving James the opportunity to take the ball and back-up, so he could use this to defend James.

If James receives the ball in the three-second zone and attacks the basket directly, if there is no inside player guarding the basket, the outside player cannot defend it.

But no matter how smart or how high a person's basketball IQ is, there will always be shortcomings.

James' weakness is that when he is back to the basket, whether he is looking for the basket or teammates, he is very bad now. In the future, after practicing for several years after 2011, he can only be considered makeshift.

As a high school player with average skills except ball control, James started from scratch after entering the NBA except for breakthrough and passing. Compared with Kobe, McGrady and others who had skilled skills in high school, James relied on his body for a long time in his career.

After the timeout, the morale of the Hawks soared. In the last minute or so of the first quarter, the Hawks played a wave of 5 to 0.

Liu Mang scored two points with a breakthrough layup, and Jason Terry easily scored a three-pointer against Damon Jones.

After the first quarter, the Hawks led 31 to 19, and the Cavaliers were beaten 11 to 0 by the Hawks in the last 3 minutes! The Hawks entered the second quarter with a 12-point lead.

…

In the second quarter, the Hawks continued to send Liu Mang, Jason Terry, and Iguodala to the outside three, and replaced Josh Smith and Mourning in the interior.

On the Cavaliers side, James was sent back, Snow and Ronald Murray partnered up in the back line, and Alan Henderson and Varejao came off the bench in the interior.

Compared with the relatively gorgeous starting lineup, with the 96 generation of Big Z, Larry Hughes, and the 4th pick in 2002, James's bench lineup was much worse. Liu Mang saw that in addition to the old teammate Varejao, whose data increased to 6 points and 7 rebounds per game after playing time, the ability rating of 75, James' other two teammates with a salary of nearly 4 million, Ronald Murray, 65 ability rating, Alan Henderson, a 33-year-old veteran with a contract of 3.7 million, only had an ability rating of 59, averaging 1.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Liu Mang felt that the Cavaliers' management was very confused about the signings!

It is really incomprehensible that they spent three years to gradually reduce the contract of 10 million dollars to dig Alan Henderson from the Mavericks. Last season, Alan Henderson only scored 3 points and 4 rebounds. How can he be worth this price?

After the intermission, the Cavaliers attacked first.

Iguodala continued to defend James. When James played with the ball when Larry Hughes was not there, he played well.

But after Larry Hughes returned to the court, he never went to the low post again.

In the first three minutes of the second quarter, the Cavaliers scored 4 points. James made a breakthrough layup and caused Alonzo Mourning to foul, but he missed the free throw. He also passed the ball to Ronald Murray who was cutting in the air after a breakthrough, and the layup was scored, helping the Cavaliers get four points.

But after Larry Hughes came up, Liu Mang saw that if Larry Hughes held the ball, James would either cut directly to the basket and receive the ball and split it from mid-range, or pull out to the three-point line to shoot three-pointers. He would never go to the low post to receive the ball and attack directly, and he even dared not to receive the ball and attack the basket. He felt that he was too much, and he had a psychological shadow on James playing in the low post!

James became more and more hesitant. He didn't know how to play without the ball in his hand. After Larry Hughes came back, the two had a good cooperation, but it was all gone at once!

James didn't have 10 points and 2 assists in the first quarter, which was actually 10 points and 2 assists in the first eight minutes. The strength of the Cavaliers suddenly dropped from the middle of the second quarter!

From the beginning, relying on the offense of James and Larry Hughes, the open shots of teammates and the Cavaliers' perimeter defense, when the Hawks didn't have McGrady and Rasheed Wallace, the Cavaliers and the Hawks played on par.

But just after Jason Terry defended James in the low post, and defended James in the low post for three consecutive times, the Cavaliers collapsed.

And the collapse was so severe!

In the original time and space, Liu Mang didn't know how the partnership between Larry Hughes and James, who could be regarded as the poor version of James and Wade in the original time and space, collapsed. It might be due to injuries, but now, James doesn't even want to play without the ball and cooperate with Larry Hughes!

Refuse to catch the ball and attack the basket in the low post from the bottom of his heart!

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Cavaliers still relied on getting 4 points. When the Hawks had a general touch in the second quarter and only scored 6 points in more than three minutes, they barely kept the score difference within 15 points.

But after Larry Hughes started to control the ball, the Cavaliers collapsed.

The Cavaliers only scored more than 10 points in the second quarter, 16 points in a single quarter!

The Hawks played averagely in the second quarter. In addition to Liu Mang's 6 points and 3 assists, he got three assists and an indirect assist after passing the ball, helping Korver and Kwame Brown, who returned to the game, to score a total of 10 points. Josh Smith's tip-in scored two points. Jason Terry, who was too excited, only scored 5 points. The Hawks only scored 23 points in the second quarter, but when the Cavaliers only scored 16 points in a single quarter, the Hawks finished the half with a score of 54 to 35, leading by 19 points at halftime!

The Hawks' score was not particularly high, less than the season average halftime score. The James abuse moment that is popular every year is here again...

In the third quarter, Liu Mang turned on the scoring mode when McGrady, another team averaged 20+ scorers, was absent. In one word, it was - wave!

The strength of the third quarter was very different. The Hawks scored 27 to 17 in a single quarter.

After three quarters, the Hawks led the Cavaliers by 29 points, 81 to 52!

James scored 10 points and 2 assists in the first quarter, and only 5 points in the second and third quarters. After three quarters, he scored 15 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. The worse he played, the worse he hesitated, and the worse he played...

In the end, with Liu Mang scoring 23 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists in three quarters, the Hawks defeated the Cavaliers 106 to 79, reducing the Cavaliers' score to less than 80 points!

After the game, Jason Terry, who was the maker of the key turning point, went to be interviewed. Jason Terry and James of the opposing team became popular again in this ESPN live broadcast!

……

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After two consecutive wins, the Hawks' record improved to 31 wins and 2 losses.

The day after playing against the Cavaliers, Liu Mang didn't care about the pity of James being attacked by public opinion for "poor skills" and immediately returned to Atlanta with the team.

After returning to Atlanta, Liu Mang only rested for one night. The next day, he immediately started back-to-back games. Now, on January 10, he ushered in the game against the Celtics.

Last summer, the Celtics gave up Antoine Walker again and let Antoine Walker join the Heat. The Celtics accelerated the pace of tanking because some players could no longer hold back the idea of ​​leaving the team.

This season, the Celtics directly tanked. Except for the Knicks, who were completely rotten, the Celtics are now the worst team in the East. The record of 13 wins and 34 losses ranks second from the bottom in the East. If the Knicks had not become the only team in the league with less than double wins, the Celtics really wanted to fight for Bargnani like they did for Duncan, and if they selected Bargnani as a bargaining chip, there would be many teams that wanted it.

However, the Celtics still fought hard against the Hawks. As Celtics players, they don’t want to see a new team win three consecutive championships. Even if it’s to disgust the opponent, they will fight hard.

However, McGrady and Rasheed Wallace returned in this game. Although Kwame Brown and Prince were rested, Liu Mang and McGrady scored 70 points together. Liu Mang played 31 minutes and scored 27 points, 14 assists and 3 rebounds. McGrady played 41 minutes and scored 43 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. The two helped the Hawks beat the Celtics 122 to 105 and easily won three consecutive games. Liu Mang got an additional 3,000 superstar points for the task of defeating the Celtics, the strongest team in history.

After defeating the Celtics, the Hawks played back-to-back against the Wizards...

The Celtics were still good. Although they were scored 122 points by the Hawks, they scored more than 100 points themselves. It was not particularly ugly. It was a rare game this season where they fought hard to win.

But the Wizards were miserable...

They only scored 61 points in the whole game!

Although the Hawks only scored 108 points, Liu Mang only scored 14 points and 10 assists in the first half, and did not play in the second half, the Hawks scored 70 points in the first half! The Wizards only scored 25 points in the first half...

In the second half, the Hawks replaced the substitutes, and even Jason Terry, Iguodala, and Josh Smith were all Hughes in the fourth quarter. Calderon, Barry, Granger, Horry, and David Lee were all played. They beat the Wizards 22 to 14. The Wizards did not resist. In the case that the Hawks did not play any starters in the second half, the Hawks expanded their 45-point lead at halftime to 47 points...

Blood slaughter!

Not only Arenas, fans and media felt that all the players of the Wizards were collectively depressed when they met the Hawks. Even Jamison, who was originally a very stable player, was wilted. Only one player on the Wizards scored in double digits...

...

The January schedule is very tight for the Hawks, but the Hawks' record is still good. After all, Liu Mang is here. He has cooperated with this group of teammates for more than a year and has a good tacit understanding. As Liu Mang becomes more and more skilled in organizing offense and begins to find the way to organize offense, the Hawks will not be much worse even if they take turns to rest. Liu Mang not only has the ability to raise the team's ceiling as a scorer, but also the ability to ensure the team's bottom line, which is gradually becoming more and more capable.

However, in terms of record, the Hawks have begun to decline compared to the madness of losing only one game in the first two months.

After four consecutive wins, the Hawks lost to the Nets 94-105 in the first game of the five-game road trip against the Nets, with Carter scoring 44 points and Kidd getting a triple-double. Then they played another four-game road trip in five days. In the first three games of the four-game road trip, the Hawks beat the Bulls by 40 points, and then they won three consecutive games. However, in the second game of the second back-to-back game against the Jazz, the Hawks, who were fighting for the playoffs, were missing McGrady and Jason Terry, and their three-game winning streak was ended by the Jazz, and their record became 36 wins and 4 losses.

After the five-game road trip, the Hawks returned to Atlanta on January 21, and the brutal schedule of 12 games in the previous 20 days finally ended.

Except for the 21st, there are still 10 days left in January, and the Hawks have 5 games. Fortunately, except for the 31st, the other 4 games are home games. The Hawks can finally stay in Atlanta and play several home games in a row, and they are not back-to-back games, so they can take a break.

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Although the Hawks had “only” 9 wins and 3 losses in the first 12 games in January, this record is still the best in the league…

Except for the Hawks, as of now, in January, a month when both fans and players in the league are in a fatigue period, the team with the most wins is the Spurs, who have 7 wins and 3 losses, maintaining their winning rate of just over 70% this season. The Spurs only have 15 games in January, which is much easier than the Hawks.

Liu Mang looked at his team’s 90% winning rate, which was the best in history. It was even higher, once 100%, but now it has dropped to 90%. Although 90% is already terrifying, it is still the best winning rate in history and broke the winning rate of the first 41 games in NBA history maintained by the Hawks themselves, but people are like that, always wanting better.

I looked at the last five opponents. First, they played against the Nets on the 22nd, the Raptors on the 24th, the Timberwolves on the 26th, and the Knicks in the basketball mecca on the 31st. These four opponents are relatively not that strong, especially the Hawks, who have not lost at home this season!

A standard "home dragon" team.

When the devil's home court plays against those strong teams, it actually has little effect except affecting the opponent's mood. Just like the Salt Lake City devil's home court, it can only scare those rookies and weak teams, but that's enough to make the Hawks stable when they are bullying the weak at home.

However, there is an opponent that Liu Mang thinks is quite worthy of fear!

San Antonio Spurs!

On January 28, which is January 29 in China, the evening of the United States and the morning of the Chinese New Year in China, the Spurs challenged the Hawks away to the "champion revenge battle", which is the Hawks' strongest opponent in January except the Lakers.

Liu Mang has been looking forward to this game for a long time. In addition to the New Year's Day battle against the Lakers in January, what he is most looking forward to is the Spring Festival battle jointly launched by Chaoting Sports Channel and the NBA!