Chapter 1372 1371. Top of the Scoreboard

"Steve's joining is a great thing for us. He is an NCAA champion and can bring great help to our team..."

Liu Mang was surrounded by reporters as soon as he arrived at the stadium on the morning of the 15th, and was asked about the latest Blake trade.

The Bucks fancied giving Blake, who was in the last year of his rookie contract, to the Hawks for free, which made many fans complain that the Bucks would do anything to get into trouble.

Look at the Knicks, who would never give up, even if there was no hope for the playoffs, they still fought hard in every game, and they have 17 wins, which is not much different from the 19-win Heat, and they are already far away from the bottom three in the East.

However, Blake is in the last year of his rookie contract, so it is understandable that the Bucks let him go. Blake partnered with Reed this season, averaging 11 points and 5 assists per game. He can't be retained without a contract close to the middle class.

Moreover, although the Bucks have only won 11 games this season, they have won many games against strong teams, and they have won 11 games in less than half a season, which is too much for them...

The Bucks have been dreaming of getting a super center again since they got Kareem Abdul-Jabbar decades ago, but unfortunately Bogut is not good enough, so they can only do it again.

Blake is also a player of the 2003 class. He was selected by the Wizards with the eighth pick in the second round. After being selected, the Wizards gave this second-round pick a four-year rookie contract, which was regarded as a "lost pearl" at the time.

Blake's strength lies in his leadership temperament. He was a winner in college. He entered the finals twice in his four-year college basketball career, entered the quarterfinals for four years, and won the 2002 NCAA championship.

Although his talent is limited, he was born in February 1980 and was 23 and a half years old when he participated in the draft in 2003, but leadership ability has little to do with strength.

If you lead troops to fight, too many people with strong leadership ability will be concentrated in one team, which will cause a lot of trouble.

But basketball is different. A team has more people with leadership ability, and it is easier to adjust their mentality.

As the core point guard who helped the University of Maryland win the NCAA championship, Steve Blake is an outstanding leader. Liu Mang has always wanted to partner with such a guard.

Except for Stockton, Liu Mang has never partnered with a guard with such outstanding leadership ability.

Although McGrady and Jason Terry are strong, and Rondo's control ability is also good, but when it comes to leadership ability, these two are not as good as Blake.

After the interview, Liu Mang entered the stadium. Unexpectedly, Blake had already arrived early in the morning and was undergoing a team physical examination.

The Hawks were still worried about getting such an outstanding point guard for free. After the deal was reached yesterday afternoon, the Hawks contacted Blake and asked him to come for a physical examination today.

Blake was also very excited to play for a team in the playoffs. He couldn't wait to rush to Atlanta last night.

Liu Mang did not disturb them and watched Blake's ability evaluation next to him.

"Steve Blake, ability rating 79 (peak), offense 77, defense 78, passing 83, three-pointer 84, mid-range shot 71, layup 82, speed 88, strength 84..."

The 27-year-old Blake is at his peak, which makes Liu Mang very satisfied with such a backup double guard.

Although the ability rating is less than 80, it is enough for a substitute.

After watching the trial for a while, Blake's basic skills are very solid. His strength is not strong, which is related to his physical condition. The solid basic skills he laid in four years of college are still very good. He has a skilled passing and control ability, a steady three-pointer, and a height of 1.91 meters can barely play as a shooting guard.

Liu Mang watched for a while and went to practice shooting. Blake's joining is very important for the relatively weak back line. If McGrady and Battier play small forward, Granger plays small forward and power forward, the back line will only have Liu Mang, Jason Terry, and Rondo. There is one more backup double guard who is close to the first-class, and there are more choices.

Liu Mang practiced shooting for a while, and his teammates who had rested for a day yesterday arrived one after another, and began to prepare for the games against the Suns tonight and the Jazz tomorrow night.

Both games were not easy to play, as the Suns, Jazz and Supersonics fought hard for the fifth place in the West.

If they were sixth, they would have to face the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs, and seventh they would have to face the Lakers, and fifth... they would face the Nuggets, which was quite a big difference.

After passing the physical examination, Blake came to the training ground and greeted his teammates in the new team.

"Hi, Flash, we are teammates now." Liu Mang said when he shook hands with Blake.

Blake was puzzled. They were opponents before, and Liu Mang called him Flash. He could understand that Liu Mang was mocking his slowness, but now they are teammates, why does Liu Mang still call him that?

"Ace, why do you call me Flash?" Blake finally had the chance to ask.

Wade in the United States does not have the nickname "Flash". "Flash" is a nickname given to Wade by domestic commentators. Wade's nickname is D-Wade, and D stands for defense. Wade, who was a sophomore in the 2004-05 season, was known for his defense and got this nickname.

In the United States, the nickname "Flash" was given to Blake by Liu Mang. Of course, fans and the media treated this nickname with a mocking attitude.

"Uh..." This question was so embarrassing that Liu Mang was at a loss for words. Although a few years later, Blake used his strength to explain what it means to be a Flash when facing the league's top shooting guard, but now Blake is a slow defender, defensive The end usually has to defend shooting guards or even some small forwards less than two meters tall to keep up.

Liu Mang thought for a while, and he got it!

"I've always thought you look a lot like Barry Allen. You have a small face and a thin face..." Liu Mang said without blushing or out of breath.

"looks like?"

Blake thought of that comic character. It was true that he had a small face and was tall and thin...but was he similar? Blake wanted to continue questioning, but the person who came to Liu Mang's rescue came.

"Hello, my name is Rajon Rondo. We will be teammates from now on." Rondo greeted Blake.

When Blake saw Rondo's expression, he didn't seem very friendly... He didn't remember offending this young man! When he was still with the Bucks, although Blake scored 16 points to help the Bucks beat the Hawks, he and Rondo did not face each other, and the opponent was Tracy McGrady...

Seeing Liu Mang and Blake chatting animatedly, Rondo became jealous...

Originally, he was the only backup point guard in the Hawks, but now there is another one who is better than him. With the sense of crisis and Liu Mang's good attitude towards Blake, Rondo is jealous...

They all got to know Blake, as well as Feizer and Mark Madsen, who completed further physical examinations immediately after Blake.

The rest of the Hawks didn't care much about the latter two. They were just ten-day short contracts. Blake's side received more attention.

Although Blake is skinny, he has a very tough style of play and his ability is just that, but he leaves a very outstanding impression on his opponents, which is reflected in the fact that he is not timid no matter how strong the opponent is.

McGrady, Jason Terry and other stars who have played against Blake all admire Blake.

With Blake joining the Hawks, they have one more person who can catch the ball and throw it at critical moments, and he can shoot from open positions with good accuracy. The Hawks' perimeter players, except for Rondo, who feels a sense of crisis, are quite happy.

…

The 13-man rotation has been assembled for the time being, and two emergency tactical training sessions were held in the afternoon. At 5 p.m., there are still two hours left, and the second game between the Eagles and the Suns this season is coming. The Eagles will rest. After five o'clock, we started to warm up.

The Hawks are 25 wins and 13 losses, and the Suns are 23 wins and 18 losses. The Suns have played half of the schedule and are now ranked sixth in the Western Conference. They have the same record as the Jazz and SuperSonics, but they were previously beaten by the new pair. After two games, he ranked second to the Jazz.

There is greater motivation when there is pressure. After being blown away by Liu Mang, the Suns have been under the greatest pressure since the beginning of the season in recent games. Previously, their record collapsed at the beginning of the season, and once it collapsed, it was a Month, no one noticed them for a while, but Liu Mang helped them get back into people's sight.

After all, the strength of the stars is there. After other teams paid attention to them and listed them as strong opponents and went all out, they have made rapid progress and have become the fourth team in the West after the Lakers, Ma and Niu.

And one thing... Thomas Carter is awesome!

The knee pain that bothered O'Neal last season was taken care of by Thomas Carter after he played half a season with the Suns!

Except for a few games at the beginning of the season, O'Neal has not missed a game since December.

In the past month, O'Neal averaged 23 minutes per game, scoring 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. He performed well and was very efficient.

Nash ranks first in assists, averaging 12 assists per game in recent times.

Josh Smith's average of 22 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists per game is also very impressive.

They gradually played the role that people expected of them when they first acquired Josh Smith and O'Neal.

After the warm-up, Liu Mang studied the Suns' scouting report.

He was really an opponent that Liu Mang was very interested in.

Because O'Neal left for the Heat more than a year early, Stoudemire and Marion exchanged for Josh Smith's rookie contract, and there is still a year of bonuses to be paid. If Josh Smith fails to score in the past two years, The best team, Josh Smith's next contract is 4 years and 50 million with a starting salary of 10 million.

The Suns may also become a continued strong enemy in the future. After all, Nash can maintain his peak in assists until 2012, and coupled with Josh Smith, who is in better health and younger...

…

…

At 6:40 pm, Liu Mang entered the stadium.

The Suns just defeated the Heat yesterday. O'Neal scored a season-high 36 points to help the Suns win their 23rd game, beating the Heat 126-91. O'Neal let out a bad breath.

So today, Josh Smith and Calderon didn't go to the arena first during the day, and spent the entire day catching up on sleep.

Liu Mang briefly said hello and chatted with the Suns players. They were back-to-back games. The Suns were still playing the second game of the back-to-back. However, the Eagles did not take advantage of the physical advantage. The Suns won too easily yesterday.

At 7 p.m., the nationally broadcast game began.

One day later, the Eagles were on the line again.

The starting lineup for the time being is Rondo, Liu Mang, McGrady, Marion, and Kwame Brown. Let's use it like this first, and then let McGrady return to the back line when a suitable starting small forward is found.

At the beginning of the game, the Hawks took advantage and played a 9-4 start. Taking advantage of the two weaknesses of the Suns' center O'Neal, who had no ability to run fast and was slow to return to defense, the Hawks had a clear advantage in the first three minutes.

However, the Suns took advantage of Rondo's passing error on the Hawks' side and replaced O'Neal with Nash, Raja Bell, James Jones, Josh Smith, and Dio. After that, neither team could defend the other.

The score of the two teams in this game was not as explosive as the last game between the Hawks and the Nuggets, mainly because the two teams played more organized in this game.

Rondo played well. In addition to scoring, he was better than Nash in passing, rebounding, and defense. Moreover, even if Nash tried his best, he could not prevent Rondo from breaking through. It was difficult to limit Rondo's breakthrough. Rondo used his breakthrough and the containment brought by Liu Mang who had just scored 56 points to organize the offense very well.

However, even if the defense was very good, the Suns' point guard, power forward and center were connected, and they could pass the ball. With Raja Bell and Barbosa, two shooters who could cut and shoot, the Hawks could not defend.

After the first quarter, the Hawks led the Suns by two points, 29 to 27.

When it came to the second lineup, the Hawks fell behind.

Fizer was quite useful. He was like a stone pile in the low post, and it was difficult for O'Neal to squeeze in. But O'Neal was ten centimeters taller than Fizer and was very good at hook shots.

Although Liu Mang had more scoring opportunities after continuing to play in the second quarter, he scored 14 points in a single quarter after only scoring 5 points in the first quarter, but he could not withstand the positional offensive of the combination of Calderon and O'Neal.

However, the substitute lineup was not without highlights. David Lee was replaced when Fizer really couldn't defend O'Neal. Although the defense was still the same, the offensive effect was good. He turned and cut in outside the three-second zone twice in a row to score.

But generally speaking, the Hawks failed in the second and third quarters. After three quarters, they were already 12 points ahead of the Suns with a score of 93 to 81.

Although Liu Mang scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and his personal score increased to 51 points, he could not make up for the disadvantage.

In the end, the Hawks lost to the Suns with a score of 113 to 121, an 8-point difference.

Liu Mang scored 51 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. McGrady also performed well, scoring 30 points and 8 assists. Rondo had 4 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

The defense against Nash was also good, Nash only scored 7 points and 13 assists.

But without Prince, Dio's defense was not good, and Dio scored 33 points. In addition to O'Neal's 17 points and 9 rebounds, Calderon's 15 points and 6 assists, although the Suns did not defend the Hawks, they scored more.

25 wins and 14 losses, the Hawks lost again.

But there is good news, Liu Mang topped the scoring list...

Averaging 30.3 points per game, Arenas was in poor form and only scored 17 points. After his average score dropped to 30.2 points, Liu Mang surpassed him!