Chapter 1174 1173. Almost Won

Liu Mang knew that it was impossible to defend the Jazz with Deron, Boozer, and Kirilenko with this lineup, especially since their center was actually the best three-point shooter in their team, and a meat shield three-point shooter.

So during the tactical training during the day, Liu Mang discussed with his teammates the tactic of locking down all of Deron's data as much as possible, and then using offense to solve the problem.

The first quarter was pretty good, with David Lee's mid-range shot and high-post pass, Liu Mang's own singles, Kwame Brown's dunk, Iguodala's pass, and Korver's opening.

But in the second quarter, everything changed after Granger and Horry played together as forwards...

Horry spent dozens of games sacrificing, and finally broke out in one game before, but then the coffin lid was closed again. He couldn't make shots on the offensive end, and was eaten alive by Boozer on the defensive end...

David Lee's sturdy body, even if he didn't have defensive ability, could still withstand Boozer's low-post strength, but Horry and Boozer played like O'Neal and Yao Ming, rushing in and hooking directly, and Mourning couldn't make up for the defense in time.

Granger... He was really bad, much worse than Iguodala and Josh Smith in their rookie seasons.

Finally in the second quarter, the Jazz's advantage began to become obvious. Relying on Boozer's 9 points in a row, the Jazz played a wave of 14 to 6, and suddenly widened the gap to 9 points.

Liu Mang also figured it out. Now these teammates who can play are okay in the starting stage, but when it comes to the rotation stage, the offense is too bad!

The key is that, except for Kwame Brown and Iguodala, none of these teammates who can play are the kind of players who can maintain the continuity of their status, including Korver. Korver is only in his third year after all. He is not a player with outstanding talents. Apart from being tall, good-handed, handsome and having a sense of defense, he has no other talents in basketball. Players of his type may not be so stable when they are young, and will become more stable in the middle and late stages of their careers.

After the rotation lineup came up, facing the situation where the opponent's main lineup can play for more than 40 minutes, the offensive efficiency of the Hawks' rotation lineup dropped sharply.

Liu Mang simply let his teammates block Deron's data crazily, and would rather let others score or get assists than let Deron have the opportunity to get data.

Liu Mang does it himself on the offensive end!

A large number of shots, crazy shots, and only pass the ball when there is an opportunity to directly send assists, opening the one-man-one-city mode.

Liu Mang's play from the middle of the second quarter was very simple. He kept dribbling and shooting whenever he had a chance. If the Hawks' offense was completed in 15 seconds, the ball was in Liu Mang's hands for 13 seconds. Except for direct assists, he basically didn't pass the ball, wasting time and shooting alone.

Not to mention, Liu Mang's blind play was better than this rotation lineup's tactics...

At halftime, the Hawks were 43 to 56, 13 points behind the Jazz.

Liu Mang scored 26 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists in the first half.

Deron, facing Liu Mang's strategy, scored 4 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists in the first half...

If both teams played with all their main players and both sides tried their best to win, it would not be so easy for Liu Mang to suppress Deron's data in all aspects.

Deron showed a very high enthusiasm from the first matchup with Liu Mang and seemed very excited.

If both sides played according to the tactics normally, the Jazz double-teamed Liu Mang, Deron played very hard, and the Jazz's pick-and-roll cooperation was so good today, Deron might pose a great threat to Liu Mang in terms of assists.

But the Hawks tried to give up the idea of ​​this game, giving Liu Mang a few opportunities to arrange defense randomly. The Hawks' defense was to block Deron.

And Jazz head coach Sloan saw the Hawks' defensive strategy, so during the halftime break, he arranged Deron's one-pass tactics against the Hawks' defensive strategy, and let Boozer, Kirilenko and Kirilenko serve as the real organizing points.

After the start of the second half, Liu Mang led the starting lineup again. When it came to the rotation lineup, Liu Mang did not hesitate to continue to start the one-man-one-city mode.

However, the gap in the lineup was obvious. The Hawks had Liu Mang and Kwame Brown, and the strongest Iguodala had an ability rating of 79. As a second-year player, and not a second-year player who was trained as a core, having an ability rating of 79 was very impressive. Almost all teams were jealous of the Hawks using a young man with physical talent like Iguodala as a substitute, and he was not the first substitute, but he was indeed very bad.

By the middle of the fourth quarter, the score difference was still more than 10 points.

With 5 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Hawks were 84 to 95, trailing by 11 points.

In the last 5 and a half minutes, Liu Mang started to throw directly after crossing half court and reaching the three-point line. He once threw three three-pointers in a row to narrow the gap to 6 points, which scared the Jazz to quickly launch a fierce attack and compete with Liu Mang.

In the end, Liu Mang, who made 17 of 39 shots, 8 of 19 three-pointers, 4 of 5 free throws, and scored 46 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, still failed to lead the weak lineup to turn the game around.

96 to 101, the Hawks lost the ninth game of the season.

The Hawks' lineup almost turned the game around, which scared the Jazz players into a cold sweat.

Thanks to Boozer's 41 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists in a single game, he beat Kwame Brown who got 17 points and 18 rebounds. Kirilenko got 13 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks. Harpring on the bench got 15 points. Although Okur only got 10 points and 4 rebounds, he helped Boozer block people and grab rebounds and defend defensive rebounds. The Jazz narrowly beat the Hawks by 5 points.

Deron played 33 minutes, 2 of 11 shots, 7 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 turnovers...

As long as he got the ball and prepared to organize the offense, he was targeted. Deron felt the most evil malice from Liu Mang.

But they won!

Deron found a reason to comfort himself. They won!

Deron now has another chance to show off in front of the opponent with 5-8 embroidered on his chest. His team is the only team in the past three years that has swept the Hawks in the regular season!

In the end, they still lost. When the fans of the Hawks saw Liu Mang make three three-pointers in a row with only 4 minutes left in the game, and scored 9 to 4 by himself, narrowing the score difference to 6 points, they were all excited.

Unfortunately, the Jazz defended the basket and double-teamed Liu Mang in the end. Liu Mang passed the ball to his teammates, who missed the open three-pointers. Without McGrady, Jason Terry, and Rasheed Wallace, Liu Mang was the only one left for the Hawks to shoot three-pointers. Korver and Calderon made 4 three-pointers in the first half, but neither of them made a single three-pointer in the second half.

Horry... 0 out of 5, swallowing all the three-pointers he had made in the previous explosion.

…

Liu Mang looked at the "Jason Kidd & Deron Williams Optional Peak Star Card", a 94-rated control master and a 93-rated second-generation pick-and-roll king, and was glad that he lost.

At the end of the game, Liu Mang was also shocked by the score and broke out in a cold sweat. He almost won!

During the game, he was completely immersed in the rhythm of the game and put the task behind his mind. He definitely wanted to win the game, but after the game, he felt that losing was nothing. There was still one last game to come. If he won, he could still break the historical record and get Jordan's 95-96 season star card.

After the Hawks lost to the Jazz, the last game became a must-win game. Liu Mang led the team to almost turn the tables despite such a big lineup disadvantage, which made people see his strength.

Especially three-pointers. The opponent defended like that, but he still made 8 of 19 three-pointers, with a three-point shooting rate of more than 40%. People don't know how to describe Liu Mang, this epoch-making three-point shooter.

On April 17, the last rest day of the Hawks' regular season, the Hawks held a tactical meeting for the game against the Knicks.

However, during the tactical meeting, from the coaching staff to the players, there were not many opinions to be raised.

The Knicks... their style of play has no routine at all!

First of all, Larry Brown is not good at offense at all. He can turn the Dream Team into a one-on-one team.

Then there is the Knicks, who have a record of 19 wins and 62 losses, ranking last in the league. Such a team basically has no so-called absolute strengths. Even Marbury only averaged 16 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists per game this season.

Eddy Curry... How bad is he after getting a big contract? He averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds per game, and can only play 20 minutes a game. It is true that he is very efficient, but his weight this year is similar to Yao Ming. Yao Ming is 137 kilograms, Eddy Curry is 136 kilograms, and Yao Ming is 2.26 meters tall, Eddy Curry is 2.14 meters tall...

Eddy Curry can play for 20 minutes, which is already a gifted talent.

No matter from which angle, the Hawks players can't find anything worth guarding against in the opponent.

But the more this is the case, the more the Hawks coaching staff emphasizes the need to focus.

The Knicks have won 19 games after all, and have also won away games against the Heat and Mavericks.

As for how the Knicks won those two games, the Hawks didn't quite understand it after watching the video clips together. In the two games, the Heat and the Mavericks were inexplicably in a scoring drought, and the Knicks didn't score much either, winning 97-77 against the Heat by 20 points and 89-79 against the Mavericks by 10 points.

After some discussion, the Hawks came to a conclusion.

Both the Heat and the Mavericks were careless!

…

On the last rest day of the regular season, after the Hawks' tactical meeting, a tactical training class was held in the afternoon, ending the work of the last rest day of the regular season.

After the training, Liu Mang was still a little reluctant, this season was too dreamy!

The assist king was about to be won.

Seeing that there was only one game left before the playoffs, Liu Mang was still a little timid.

This timidity was not fear, but an indescribable feeling.

Every season is like this, there is always some strange feeling about the unknown playoff journey that is about to begin.

Just when Liu Mang finished taking a shower and was about to go home, the long-lost task reminder came.

"Ding... Avengers series mission: Despair in the Big Apple is triggered..."