Chapter 1347 1346. An Opponent that Cannot Be Underestimated

From the name of the feature "Prison Kill", Liu Mang felt that it meant to make the opponent's core fight like a trapped beast.

However, it has not been activated yet. Liu Mang looked at it and there was no detailed introduction.

And it is a series of tasks, so it cannot be completed in one or two tasks.

It seems easy to upgrade the talent skill from level 1 to level 2, but the difficulty of upgrading from level 2 to level 3 is much greater.

There is no end to the road to making yourself stronger...

Just when Liu Mang was dreaming about the sea of ​​stars and lamenting the cruelty of time, a little loli squeezed next to Liu Mang: "Uncle, what are you worrying about... Are you worrying about what gift to give Dina?"

"You still need a gift? Didn't I bring you here to play?"

"Of course!"

"Do you have to?"

"Definitely!"

"... Cheaper, not too expensive, I have no money after buying stocks..."

"Stingy!"

...

...

"Ace, thanks to you, we don't have to fight the Christmas war this year." Nash didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed.

People who have never played in the Christmas game want to play it, but those who have played it will not be very interested if they still play it away. If the Hawks and the Suns played the Christmas game, they might play a Christmas game at their home courts like the Lakers and the Heat did in the past two years. The Suns players had to go to Atlanta to play the Christmas game.

But this year, the league only arranged the Christmas game between the Hawks and the Lakers.

The protagonists of the Christmas game have been determined long ago, regardless of the record. Before the start of the season, although people were ecstatic about the Suns piling up so many stars, Nash, Barbosa, Dio, Josh Smith, O'Neal, Jaylen Rose, Raja Bell, Kurt Thomas, Tim Thomas, Calderon, James Jones... This lineup is too luxurious just by looking at the names.

But this lineup is still a little worse than the lineups of Kobe, Gasol, and Yao Ming.

The salary difference between the two teams is quite large. The highest salary of the Suns is O'Neal's 20 million, the second highest is Nash's 10.5 million, the highest remaining is the middle-class of the two Thomases and James Jones, and Raja Bell's 4.5 million. The rest are low-paid players or rookie contracts. The Suns' salary is only 67 million...

After the Lakers got Gasol and Yao Ming to renew their contracts with the Ace clause, plus Kobe's largest 7-year 136 million contract in history, the total salary reached more than 86 million. Yao Ming's salary increase of more than 10 million is the key.

Moreover, after the start of the season, Nash really had no interest in the Christmas game. He had a lot of headaches.

After Nash returned to Phoenix in the morning, he met with Josh Smith and Calderon for lunch with several Hawks stars at noon. Liu Mang, McGrady, Marion, Jason Terry, Kwame Brown, Rasheed Wallace and others attended.

"I don't want to spend Christmas away from home either. It's too much trouble." Although Liu Mang is looking forward to playing against the Lakers, he wants to try out how much his "sniper" feature can help the Lakers.

But after living in the United States for so many years, Christmas and Christmas Eve are certainly not as important to Liu Mang as New Year's Eve and Spring Festival, but the three girls are all Americans, and spending their "New Year" with them is also something Liu Mang attaches great importance to.

But as Nash said, the No. 24 duel between Liu Mang and Kobe, the battle between Gasol and Kwame Brown for the strongest inside player of the 2001 class, and the Chinese derby between Liu Mang and Yao Ming... There are too many highlights. If there is no Liu Mang, the Suns, who got O'Neal, who was the No. 1 center in the league last season, will definitely be another opponent in the OK battle and the Yao-Shaq battle.

But with Liu Mang, the Lakers and the Hawks still had a grudge in the finals last year, and the two teams fighting on Christmas Day must be these two teams.

And... only these two teams!

Maybe there will be a double-Bull battle, a double-21 battle, Liu Mang and James' 23VS24, Kobe and James' 23VS24... and so on next year, but this year, the Christmas battle between the Hawks and the Lakers is what everyone is looking forward to.

"I want to play!" Josh Smith said enviously.

The Suns have a poor record this season, and Josh Smith has never lost so many games. When he was in high school, he partnered with Howard and dominated Virginia. When he entered the NBA, he won two championship rings with Liu Mang and broke the NBA regular season win record. Now the Suns have only a record of 17 wins and 12 losses, ranking only sixth in the West. Josh Smith feels very awkward.

However, Josh Smith's average of 21 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.9 blocks per game has exploded compared to last season's average of 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game, making him a favorable competitor for the Most Improved Award. The Suns' scoring champion and inside core naturally want to participate in the Christmas battle as a core.

"If possible, I really want to give you this opportunity..." Liu Mang was a little depressed. In the past, they played Christmas games at home, and they played against Eastern teams. Now they are playing Christmas games against Western teams. The first time they play, they must be away from home, which is conducive to live broadcast.

The core inside and outside players of the two teams, who were teammates in the past, talked about some miscellaneous things together, and did not talk about anything related to tomorrow's game.

It’s mainly because of the two big stars of the Suns, inside and outside, and Calderon, whose stats rose to 11 points and 6 assists after joining the Suns. They had a poor record this year, so I don’t want to mention this aspect.

The Hawks’ record is “poor” mainly compared with their own team’s performance in previous years. If another team with an aging core power forward, a new star, and almost all the role players in the lineup can still have such performance, it can be praised to the sky.

It’s just because they are the Hawks that people think they are bad.

O’Neal didn’t come to participate, the reason is very simple... He himself is embarrassed by his performance this season.

It’s mainly physical fitness and injuries. He is still difficult to defend with his size, but his playing time has dropped from 38 minutes per game and 37 minutes per game in the previous two seasons to 27 minutes per game this season, scoring 14 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists, and his blocks have dropped to a career-low 1.8 per game.

Except for assists, which were slightly higher than his rookie season, all other statistics of O'Neal were career lows. Assists were also the lowest except for his rookie season. His average of 3.8 fouls and 3.2 turnovers per game were the highest since his rookie season, when he averaged 3.8 turnovers and 4 fouls per game... Especially with such negative statistics in 27 minutes of playing time...

...

...

"We can't be careless. The opponent has performed well recently. We can't underestimate the opponent just because the opponent has a poor record. We must win the two games before playing against the Lakers..." Coach Kruger was mobilizing before the game.

Liu Mang thought about the recent situation of his own team. Except for the guys who abused the 03 generation, how could he be careless against other teams! When playing against the Bobcats, they were leading by 27 points at halftime, but they were beaten by the opponent 26 to 10 in the third quarter. In the final quarter, they had to play a critical moment, allowing Liu Mang to get 40 points once...

This season, Liu Mang has scored 40+ points 4 times, and three triple-doubles, and the total number of triple-doubles has increased to 14 times.

However, the Suns cannot be underestimated.

As the season progressed, the Suns gradually shifted from being superstitious about O'Neal's style of play to Nash and Josh Smith as the core. The Suns' record showed some signs of recovery. The recent wave of 4 consecutive wins has climbed to sixth in the West.

The number of wins of the Hawks and the Suns is the same, but the Hawks have to play three fewer games, so the Hawks' record still looks much better than the Suns.

Liu Mang was deeply impressed by Gentry, the head coach of the Suns. In the original time and space, the Suns did not enter the playoffs in the 2008-2009 season and only ranked ninth in the West. Nash was considered old, but after Gentry officially became the head coach in the 2009-10 season, the Suns immediately recovered. Nash won the fourth assist king in his career. The Suns did not simply play run-and-gun, but played a combination of positional warfare, offense and defense, and run-and-gun. They averaged 82 shots per game and scored 110.2 points, playing the highest offensive efficiency in NBA history up to that time. The Suns also swept their long-time nemesis, the Spurs, in the playoffs and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

This head coach may use Nash better than D'Antoni, and he is not so rigid and good at adapting. Liu Mang is very afraid of him.

Take this season for example. The Suns gradually improved as the season progressed, reusing role players, reducing O'Neal's playing time, and reducing the importance of O'Neal's tactics...

If it were D'Antoni, he would never dare to use him like this.

Kurt Thomas, Raja Bell, Sean Marks, Jaylen Rose... These guys who are not clean at all in defense are all here. Although O'Neal is old, he is so big and has never been a good guy... A very troublesome opponent.

...

On the afternoon of December 18, when the Hawks were holding a team meeting, the Suns were also holding a team meeting to mobilize enthusiasm.

Except for Nash, the Suns players were not selected as a member of the Christmas game.

As the record improved, they were still confident because they had Nash!

But Nash himself really didn't want to play in the Christmas game, and he was very happy that they were not arranged.

The dismal record at the beginning of this season was too much torture for them.

For Nash now, defeating the Hawks is much more important than the Christmas game.

The Hawks are still regarded as the favorites for the championship, even if their record is average, they are still the favorites for the championship. Everyone knows that the Hawks are not in their best condition yet. After the regular season, Rondo, David Lee, Granger, the three rookies and sophomores, will definitely make great progress after a long regular season, just like Iguodala and Josh Smith.

The Hawks' advantage in drafting and training rookies is envied by many teams, and a great virtuous circle has been formed.

Nash wants to take a shot at Liu Mang to boost the team's morale!

…

After the team meeting, the Hawks prepared to have a training session in the afternoon to simulate the tactics preliminarily, and the key tactical plan is tomorrow.

Just when Liu Mang was warming up, the first task of the "Wrath of the Wind Chaser" series of tasks related to Nash came!

…

I will update twice today. I am really not feeling well. I cannot eat anything with a strong smell. I cannot eat white porridge. I feel acid reflux and feel very uncomfortable because of the bland soup. I will update more after I recover. From now on, I will update at least two chapters every day. I will write more if I can. I will resume the previous updates after my physical condition recovers.

I am sorry.