Chapter 1238 1237. McGrady Is Going to Cause Trouble! (The Tenth Update, Asking for Double Monthly Votes!)
Those who watch NBA know that Yao Ming is far behind Liu Mang in terms of leadership ability. His advantage is that he is one of the last two Tyrannosaurus-type centers in the NBA. Apart from O'Neal, only Stoudemire, who obviously plays as a power forward, can compete with him.
But the followers of public opinion are usually not fans who watch NBA, but most ordinary people. They just follow the trend and drive public opinion. The number of fans Yao Ming and Liu Mang cannot be compared, but the public opinion that follows the trend seems to be true.
The day after the first game, June 7, the Hawks players prepared for the second game at the Phillips Arena. The confidence was greatly increased after winning the first game!
The Hawks coaching staff mainly emphasized that they should not be careless, and they should strengthen the advantages that have been played.
The preparation was mainly from the team meeting, and there was not much training.
Because the NBA wants to compete with football in the big market of China, the finals will be played every other day, so physical fitness needs to be considered.
This is the third consecutive year of the finals, which is very important.
There was a team meeting in the morning, a training class near noon, and another team meeting after lunch. After the meeting, the team finished preparing for the game today, and let the players study how to deal with their opponents in the afternoon.
The tactics of the coaching staff are very important, and the individual ideas of the players are also very important. The difference in the players' basketball IQ and strength is reflected in their personal preparation.
Just like the series between the Hawks and the Heat, in regular time, both teams are tactically competing, and the stars solve problems at critical moments.
But it does not mean that only the stars who solve problems at critical moments are the most important. The tactics of the coach are also very important, just like the first half of the sixth game when the two teams competed tactically. If one side can't keep up, it will collapse all of a sudden, and the role of the stars at critical moments will not be reflected, just like the Heat made a big mistake in decision-making in the third quarter.
As for the Hawks being chased in the fourth quarter...
They are the Hawks, the boss is a playboy, or the number one, and the whole team, including the coach, follows suit...
Liu Mang and McGrady discussed for a while about how to cooperate, and took out the laptop to read the news.
It's okay to read the news in the United States, but I feel depressed after reading the domestic news. He played so well in the first game, but the domestic people are praising Yao Ming?
Liu Mang didn't pay attention before, and felt that the Lakers looked similar to the Heat. Wade had a hair whistle, and to be honest, he wouldn't be much stronger than Kobe now. Considering Kobe's explosive scoring power and the ability to make 12 three-pointers in a single game, they should be about the same. Liu Mang believes that in the original time and space, if Wade of the Heat was replaced by Kobe, there is a high probability that he would directly sweep the Mavericks... The premise is that Kobe, O'Neal and Payton didn't fight, and O'Neal didn't go to the toilet to cry and ran to the Heat, but he couldn't avoid this guy...
But after the first game, I understood that the Lakers relied on three big stars to conquer the world, and they could still play to this point. The drug combination is quite powerful.
But Yao Ming actually stole the limelight! Liu Mang worked hard to receive assists from McGrady and scored 38 points, but they were all ignored!
"Shameless big guy, no sense of justice, don't blame me for being rude!" Liu Mang didn't care about that, it was all Yao Ming's fault anyway!
Fuck him!
...
...
Time: June 8, 2006.
Location: Atlanta Philips Arena.
Event: Game 2 of the Finals between the Hawks and the Lakers.
Unlike the past few years, there was not much preparation time for this year's Finals. People were talking about how the Lakers could make it to the Finals, how terrible Kobe and Yao Ming's performance in the second round was, and how Odom was like Magic Johnson when he almost averaged a triple-double against the Suns, and these discussions were not over yet, and the second game was coming.
The Lakers responded urgently, and the collapse in the first game was worse than the Zen Master had imagined, but there was no way, the knife was on the neck, and they had to fight!
In the second game, the Zen Master's change was to strengthen the offense!
Strengthen the offense as much as possible!
There was no other way, to take a risky move and do the opposite!
Experts and media were all giving advice to the Lakers, helping them think about how to defend Liu Mang.
There are many ways, but none of them are applicable. The Zen Master has many ways. His defensive coaching ability is top-notch. During the OK first championship and the Bulls dynasty, the defense of the team led by the Zen Master was in the top three in the league. If there was someone, would they be beaten so badly in the first game?
Isn't it that there is no one available!
So, at the beginning of the second game, the Lakers' play surprised people, including the Hawks.
It's a pity that the Zen Master has to worry about many things, such as Yao Ming can't run, Yao Ming's physical fitness, the point guard can't keep up, and the forward pressure defense is easily broken through...
There are changes and ideas, but it doesn't mean that it can have a good effect. The first quarter was okay. The Lakers relied on Kobe and Yao Ming to play hard and scored 28 points in a single quarter. The Hawks' touch was not as crazy as in the first game. Although 32 points in a single quarter is also a headache, it is still within an acceptable range.
The Lakers trailed the Hawks by 4 points in the first quarter, 28 to 32.
But in the second quarter, Yao Ming played the entire first quarter and took a few minutes to rest, and the Hawks scored 14 to 6... and immediately widened the gap to 12 points...
Kobe with Yao Ming and Kobe without Yao Ming are very different. One can make Kobe enter the finals, and the other can make him go out in the first round...
In general, Zen Master's arrangement for the second game was correct, playing to their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses, but Yao Ming's physical fitness limited the Lakers' strategic goal of keeping the score close and giving Kobe a chance to play at the critical moment.
The Lakers lost the second game as expected by the fans.
Yao Ming played for 33 minutes and got 23 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, showing his passing ability. Kobe scored 29 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists, and Odom scored 8 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Although Odom did not perform well, Kobe protected the rebounds well when Yao Ming opened up space, and coordinated the offense with Yao Ming and Odom.
After all, he was the little blacksmith who had a 25% hit rate in the seventh game of the finals but grabbed 15 rebounds.
However, Liu Mang scored 35 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, McGrady scored 16 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists, Korver scored 20 points and set a new career high in the playoffs, Jason Terry scored 18 points steadily, especially McGrady's 14 rebounds. When Yao Ming blocked Kwame Brown from grabbing rebounds and Kobe was actively fighting for rebounds, McGrady relied on his height and big hands to defeat Kobe on the rebounding end. When Liu Mang needed to focus on scoring and didn't care about rebounds, Kwame Brown and Rasheed Wallace only had 10 rebounds in total, McGrady's happy rebounding played a key role!
One or two rebounds don't seem so important, but the effect is obvious throughout the game!
122 to 109, when the Lakers took a risky move, the Hawks still firmly grasped the advantage. The Lakers played a weird move, and the Hawks also offset it with McGrady's comprehensiveness!
After the second game, the result did not surprise the fans.
But... when fans looked at the average statistics of the players after two games in this finals, and compared the statistics of McGrady and Liu Mang, they felt that this finals was heading in a strange direction...