Chapter 1384 1383. Warm and Innocent Duncan
“700.”
On Liu Mang’s Facebook, there was only one picture.
Nothing else was written, just that one picture.
But people who follow the NBA know what it means.
No one was surprised to see Liu Mang being so direct. This is Liu Mang. He will say what he wants directly and then do it.
The Spurs came to Atlanta on the morning of the game against the Hawks. The league will never be very friendly to the Spurs, at least before the Spurs’ popularity increases.
Last night, the Spurs were beaten 85 to 77 by the Bulls, and today they have to play back-to-back with the Hawks.
In general, the Hawks and Spurs are facing similar situations now, both of them are in a state of physical limitation.
If the Lakers and Celtics like to come openly, rob openly, and offend other teams openly, they will eventually end up with no team willing to trade with them in the future. Popovich likes to play dirty.
Popovich did not respond directly to the matter of Liu Mang getting 700 points, and also prohibited the players in the team from expressing their opinions on this matter in interviews, as if they did not know about it.
But when the game came in the evening, Liu Mang felt the malice from the Spurs.
Artest defended alone, Parker and Ginobili assisted in defending Liu Mang in the mid-range, Duncan squatted inside to guard Liu Mang's attack under the basket, Liu Mang had no ball in his hand, Artest and Liu Mang fought, Liu Mang ran, other outside players came to block Liu Mang's position, Liu Mang went to the inside, and stuck tightly in the mid-range.
When Liu Mang had the ball in his hand, there were at least two people in front of him, unlimited double-teaming!
The Spurs were not a team that had much desire for the regular season record. Anyway, they could not be less than 50 wins, could not get the first place in the West, and could not get the full home advantage in the Western Conference playoffs. Their goal was to have the home advantage in the first round, and they didn't care about losing a game to disgust their opponents.
Liu Mang tried his best to shoot, but he only took 19 shots. Facing the Spurs who put the focus of defense on him, Liu Mang got 14 free throws and made 11 of them, but only made 6 of 19 shots, including 4 of 12 three-pointers. He scored 27 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
Liu Mang was surrounded when he entered the inside. Although he got a lot of free throws, his own touch was blown up and his hit rate was just over 30%.
The key to the victory of Brandinggui lies in the other two eagles. McGrady scored 31 points with 11 of 23 shots, Jason Terry scored 25 points with 9 of 15 shots, and Kwame Brown and Marion grabbed 29 rebounds together. McGrady and Jason Terry scored a lot of points when Liu Mang missed shots, and took advantage of Liu Mang's attraction to the defense, grabbed offensive rebounds and passed them out, giving them the opportunity for a second attack.
The Spurs' defense against Liu Mang really made it difficult for Liu Mang to take more shots. If the 7 offensive opportunities used up by 14 free throws are counted, Liu Mang played for 36 minutes and actually took 26 shots, which is not a small number, but compared with the past dozen games, Liu Mang's effective shots in this game were much less.
But the Spurs' defense made their rebounds and defense against other outside players except Liu Mang very poor, and the Hawks took 95 shots, which is far higher than their average of 83 shots per game this season.
The Hawks easily defeated the Spurs with a score of 108 to 91.
…
Only 27 points!
This was beyond Liu Mang's expectations.
Originally, Liu Mang thought that this game with the Spurs was the easiest game for him to score high points. He felt that the Spurs would definitely try their best to beat them, after all, the Spurs were definitely aiming to win the championship.
But he didn't expect that the Spurs would prevent him from scoring high points regardless of winning or losing!
Liu Mang was replaced in the second minute of the fourth quarter because the Hawks were already leading by 25 points, 91 to 66 at the time. When he was replaced, he saw Duncan's grim smile at him.
From Duncan's warm and innocent smile, Liu Mang felt the "dignity of the background emperor". As a background emperor, of course, he least wanted to be a background. No one wanted to be a background all the time.
Duncan was the most active one in assisting Liu Mang. Liu Mang got 6 free throws from Duncan.
The good news is that the game was won. The Hawks won a four-game winning streak and briefly started a winning streak.
But the task suddenly became very difficult!
There are still 127 points left in the remaining three games, which means that the average of 42.4 points per game in the remaining three games can get 700 points!
After Duncan created a big trouble for Liu Mang to hit 700 points in a single month, he took his teammates back to San Antonio in a chic manner. After playing five consecutive away games, the Spurs were also exhausted.
The most annoying thing about the Spurs is that they either have to play four games in five days or five games in eight days, and they have to play consecutive away games or consecutive home games, or they have to take a long break. Now the Spurs, who have 31 wins and 16 losses, have only two games left this month, back-to-back games on the 30th and 31st, but they have three days off in the next three days...
Popovich would rather not have such long rest days and spread out the schedule a little. They have too many three- or four-day rest days, but there are 17 back-to-back games in the whole season.
Liu Mang was tricked by Popovich, so he had to accept it. The day after playing against the Spurs, he immediately flew to the cold north with the team. Tomorrow, which is the 27th, they will play away against the Raptors, led by the King of the North, Dako Milicic, and the Toronto Youth Trio.
…
…
"Ah..."
Kwame Brown sighed sadly, he missed O'Neal so much!
When O'Neal was in the East, Lakers fans would vote for Kwame Brown, not wanting O'Neal to be in the All-Star starting lineup.
But after O'Neal left, Kwame Brown became the target of public criticism. Non-Hawks fans would never vote for Kwame Brown, but chose to vote for Kwame Brown's opponents.
The one competing with Kwame Brown for the starting center position of the Eastern Conference All-Stars was Dwight Howard, whose popularity soared after O'Neal left the East this year.
Howard's smiling personality, coupled with the league's support, allowed him to win the starting center position of the 2007 Las Vegas Eastern Conference All-Stars with 1.51 million votes, beating Kwame Brown, who received 1.39 million votes.
Kwame Brown's consecutive years of being selected as the starting center of the All-Stars were interrupted.
"It's okay, Kwame, you will definitely be in the All-Star reserve lineup." Marion comforted.
"I hope so, but with you here, my chances of becoming an All-Star substitute are not that high." Kwame Brown complained a little.
"Then let's go together!" Marion has a good mentality and is very confident.
He looks like that, but he doesn't have a twisted personality like an alien. Marion's mentality is great.
Liu Mang saw someone comforting Kwame Brown, so he didn't say anything. He was depressed. He only scored 27 points yesterday, which was too miserable. Tomorrow he will play against the Raptors... He has a very ominous premonition!
Fortunately, there is a little comfort today. The list of the All-Star starting lineup was announced today.
Liu Mang has 2.96 million votes. With his recent crazy performance, he successfully overtook Kevin Garnett with 2.57 million votes and won the All-Star vote king.
McGrady won another All-Star starting guard position in the East with 2.21 million votes.
Garnett got the second highest number of votes in this All-Star game and was selected as the starting forward of the Eastern All-Star Game. James won another starting forward position in the Eastern All-Star Game with 2.18 million votes.
In the West, Yao Ming won the All-Star vote with 2.51 million votes, and has occupied the starting center position of the Western All-Star for five consecutive years.
For the Western forwards, Duncan continued to be selected as the All-Star starter with 2.06 million votes, and has occupied this position since his rookie season.
Gasol was selected as an All-Star for the second time in his career and became an All-Star starter for the first time. He won the All-Star starting forward position with 1.41 million votes, beating Carmelo Anthony with 1.3 million votes.
For the guards, Kobe and Iverson were selected as the All-Star starters together, Kobe with 2.33 million votes and Iverson with 2.19 million votes.
Looking at Kobe and Duncan, the two "nail households" who have occupied the two starting positions of the Western All-Star since 1998, Liu Mang really wanted to blacken them for occupying the positions.
After being tricked by Duncan yesterday, Liu Mang felt angry.
What surprised Liu Mang the most was that the third-placed guard in the East was actually Rondo!
Rondo received 690,000 votes, more than Kidd's 650,000 votes, Wade's 490,000 votes due to injury, and Terry's 410,000 votes!
Carter is really out of favor, along with Kidd. The conflict between the two continues to escalate, which has a great impact on their popularity.
The fact that the Maimang combination was once again selected as the All-Star starters is a small consolation for Liu Mang. He needs to score more points in the next three games.
In Toronto, a cold place, it is better to stay in the hotel in winter. The schedule is tight recently, and the other players of the Hawks have no intention of going out in the snow.
They all stayed in the hotel to rest.
Liu Mang did not watch any videos or anything. Rest is very important. The other players of the Hawks are physically tired. McGrady, Jason Terry, Kwame Brown and others have accumulated fatigue from playing so many games in the past few years in the middle of the season. They broke out at this stage. After Prince and Korver left, the first and second year players played important roles for the first time. Compared with college basketball, adult basketball is not on the same level. Liu Mang is mentally tired. He reads a book to relieve his fatigue.
…
The announcement of the All-Star starting lineup is a very important event in the NBA and has become a hot topic among fans.
Kwame Brown, Howard, Milicic, and Chandler all have their own opinions on who is more worthy of the All-Star starting center position. Relatively speaking, although many fans voted for Howard, there are more arguments that belittle Howard.
Choosing Howard and attacking Howard... fans are always so stubborn.
On the evening of the 27th, when the media and fans were hotly discussing the topic of who was worthy of the All-Star starting lineup and who was not, an unknown reporter, Wojnarowski from Google Sports, broke a bombshell!
"Grant Hill and the Magic are negotiating a buyout"
Then it was revealed that "The Magic opened the right for other teams to communicate with Grant Hill."
This news came very suddenly. Although Grant Hill is old and has suffered countless injuries since the new century, new fans do not think he is that good and think his contract has delayed the Magic, who have always been excellent in the draft. However, in the 1990s, Grant Hill was very famous. Jordan, who won 72 games and was the only player in history to win 70+ games at that time, could not take away Grant Hill's All-Star votes.
Old fans still like Grant Hill very much. In 2007, Grant Hill's All-Star votes still ranked fourth among Eastern Conference forwards, higher than Rahim, O'Neal, Bosh and others, which is enough to prove Grant Hill's popularity.
If fans like to watch, the media will dig deep, and then a bunch of revelations from major media came out.
In general, Grant Hill played well this season, averaging 11 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists per game, and his attendance rate was also good. The Magic played 48 games and played 39 times, which is his highest attendance rate since the new century.
But the salary of 16.9 million, which ranks tenth in the league... Grant Hill's data is too worthless.
In addition, there is Rahim, a star with the fifth highest salary in the league who uses the veteran designation clause to get 19.1 million US dollars. Although the Magic team only has the sixth record in the Eastern Conference, the salary has reached 81.3 million.
So although their strength will be damaged by losing Grant Hill, if the agreement is bought out, they don't have to pay Grant Hill's remaining three months of salary. In addition to spending a large amount of salary, they can also avoid the same amount of luxury tax!
As for the trade… Grant Hill was out for the first year of his 7-year, maximum-salary contract with the Magic in 2000, and then he was out for the season every year. If he could have been traded, he would have been traded earlier. The Magic didn’t want an injured player who was out for the season to occupy salary space, but no team wanted him, and they couldn’t even give him a draft pick.
The Magic could only hold on, and finally made it to the last year, and they had been paying luxury taxes for several years.
According to media calculations, if Grant Hill was cut before the All-Star Weekend, and the Magic made some small trades before the trade deadline, it is very likely that the salary would be reduced below the luxury tax threshold for the first time in five years, so Grant Hill’s application for a buyout is very attractive to the Magic.
Moreover, the Magic team also has Turkish forward Hedo Turkoglu, who showed excellent passing ability in the Kings, and Trevor Ariza, who was signed by the Magic team for two years and 6.6 million, at the end of the bench. The Magic team has enough depth, but their head coach cannot use it. Grant Hill is famous, with a salary of more than 16 million, and can sell tickets. Grant Hill finally has two years of good health. If Grant Hill is not used, his boss will strangle him.
…
After Liu Mang talked to Xiao Loli on the phone in the afternoon, he turned off his mobile phone and did not turn on the computer. He was reading a novel about how a junior high school boy became a bad guy to divert his recent tense thoughts. In the evening, there was a bang on the door.
"Who is it!" Liu Mang opened the door angrily and found that it was Stockton.
Liu Mang adjusted his breathing and asked, "What's wrong, John?"