Chapter 1411 1410. "Big Victory"
Indeed, Isaiah Thomas's star card is far less technologically advanced than other star cards that have brought Liu Mang. Isaiah Thomas's technology... Liu Mang really has nothing to learn. Liu Mang can be said to be all-round. Better than him.
But Isaiah Thomas' star card gave Liu Mang a new tactic!
Is this tactic a good tactic?
Obviously not, but it works!
The Eagles' offense has become Liu Mang's one-man move around the pile. No matter how much time it takes, Liu Mang's first goal is to find good shooting opportunities. If the opportunities are not good, he will not shoot... Of course, his chances are good and ordinary. Opportunities don't mean the same thing in a player's eyes.
There is really no good chance, and the violation is approaching 24 seconds. Liu Mang throws the ball to McGrady, or to Jason Terry, who replaces McGrady. Of course, when McGrady goes down, Grant Hill has to come up. One of the two is always on the court to guard Kobe.
Regardless of whether they scored or not, once the shot was made, the Hawks immediately retreated and used their sluggish defense to make the already lagging Lakers become impatient.
It doesn't matter whether the Lakers can score or not, and whether the Hawks can score or not. What's important is that the Eagles are in the lead. Liu Mang only needs to maintain his success rate and his success rate at this position, and that's enough. .
Such tactics are indeed "anti-basketball science".
Any tactic does not simply serve a certain person. Tactics are all about stars and role players complementing each other. Although there are emphasis, it is ultimately the star using the role player and the role player in turn using the star.
The tactical system built by Brad Stevens for the young assassin completely goes against this common sense.
Except for the ball-holding core who is fast and has strong finishing ability, the others, apart from helping to block people, only use their own threats to open up space. The ball-holding core does not even need to consider passing the ball.
Under coach Stevens, Isaiah Thomas ranked third among point guards in the league in ball possession rate, but his assists were only half of those of the top two, which is enough to show that this tactical system is not scientific at all.
But it was this "anti-basketball science" tactic that made Zen Master unable to start!
No tactic is perfect, this is Zen Master's philosophy, so he often just lays out a tactical structure and lets the players solve the problem on their own.
Although Zen Master's defensive accomplishments are not noticed by others, they are the foundation of the team he coaches.
Strategists who are good at conquering enemy positions are often masters of defense themselves.
But this time, when the Zen master encountered this strategy full of loopholes arranged by Liu Mang, he really didn't know how to solve it!
It is a tactic full of bugs, but it is effective. The most fundamental problem is Liu Mang. He is fast and can shoot. If he takes a slow shot, he will shoot directly, regardless of whether he can grab the rebound or not. After the reckless shot, the Eagles immediately retreated and fell into a defensive position.
However, Liu Mang was able to score again. He would hold the ball for fifteen or six seconds in one round and then throw it himself. With this style of play, Zen Master did not dare to double-team Liu Mang in advance. He did not believe that Liu Mang would not pass the ball even if he was double-teamed in advance.
This is the psychological tactic used by Coach Stevens. No matter how unique his style of play is, Isaiah Thomas still averages about 5 assists per game.
And Liu Mang was the assist king last season. This tactic was put into better use by Liu Mang, who has the skills of a pick-and-roll master!
Higher than Isaiah Thomas, with the same speed and explosive acceleration after the pick-and-roll that Isaiah Thomas does not have, and better finishing ability at the basket, evenly matched or even better, completely eliminating this bug-filled tactics to the extreme.
Liu Mang made 6 of 10 shots in a single quarter, including 2 of 4 three-pointers and 3 of 3 free throws. Liu Mang scored 17 points in a single quarter!
As for the Lakers, the team only scored 19 points in the third quarter!
This quarter of the game made the fans drowsy. Coach Stevens did allow the Celtics to quickly rebuild and become a strong team, but the Celtics' games have never been very good to watch, even if They have reached the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years and only rank 20th in the league in points per game. Of course, they also allow one of the fewest points per game in the league.
For the Hawks, in addition to Liu Mang's 17 points in a single quarter, McGrady, Jason Terry, and Kwame Brown played a key role. Kwame Brown worked diligently to grab rebounds and block people. McGrady and Jason -Terry received Liu Mang's pass and actually shot 3 of 6 three-pointers. The Eagles scored 28 points in a single quarter!
91 to 78, at the end of three quarters, the Eagles led the Lakers by 13 points!
With 34 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in three quarters, Liu Mang's explosive performance left the Lakers stars a little confused.
It was completely different from what I imagined. It felt like I had fallen from heaven to hell.
From the beginning of the game, the Lakers players thought not to let the Hawks bite the score, and then it turned into a tight grip, and then it turned into a half-time deficit, and they just needed to catch up in the third quarter... It's not just the Lakers players, they The coaching staff thinks so too.
The Lakers championship, of course, is confident.
Now entering the fourth quarter, the Eagles, whom no one was optimistic about, beat them 28 to 19 in the third quarter, widening the point difference to 13 points!
The game got out of the control of the Lakers players and coaching staff little by little, and developed into a situation they had not expected. Their morale also declined little by little as the third quarter progressed.
After three quarters, the Lakers were almost defeated by the Hawks by 10 points in a single quarter. The Lakers' morale collapsed. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jason Terry, who was in a good mood after receiving a pot ball, was stunned!
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jason Terry, who replaced Liu Mang who was forced to rest for a few minutes by Coach Kruger, scored three goals in a row. Facing two three-pointers and a mid-range jump shot against Kobe's defense, Jason Terry scored 8 points in a row.
On the Lakers side, Kobe and Yao Ming seemed to be anxious. Yao Ming missed a forced throw against Marion and Kwame Brown's defense, and Kobe's high-post turnaround jump shot against McGrady was also crooked. The Hawks beat the Lakers 8-0 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
99 to 78, the Hawks led the Lakers by 20 points!
Stable!
Jason Terry and McGrady's double eagles performed well, and compared to the unreliable... mainly because of Liu Mang's overly jumpy thinking, Coach Kruger saw that the situation was stable, so he did not let Liu Mang play in the fourth quarter, and let Blake, Jason Terry, McGrady, Marion, and Kwame Brown play the entire fourth quarter.
Kobe obviously did not want to give up, and wanted to turn the tables with Gasol and Yao Ming, but morale is something that cannot be touched or seen, but it does exist. When morale declines, the confidence in shooting decreases. Gasol's mid-range shots in the final quarter and the passes to Fisher and Barnes were missed continuously. Kobe was quite efficient in the fourth quarter, and Yao Ming also scored 7 points in the final quarter. The two scored 18 points in the final quarter, but it was no use. Jason Terry scored 13 points in the final quarter, and McGrady scored 7 points, 2 assists, and 1 block in the final quarter, helping the Hawks maintain a lead of more than 10 points.
In the end, the Hawks beat the Lakers 119-105 at home and won four consecutive games!
Liu Mang scored 34 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks. The key is that Liu Mang clocked out in the third quarter!
It was because Liu Mang did not play in the fourth quarter and the score difference was 14 points that the media used the word "big win" to describe this game after the game.
In addition to Liu Mang's 34 points, there were also McGrady's 21 points and Jason Terry's 25 points. The two played a key role. Kwame Brown's 8 points and 14 rebounds and Swift's 10 points in half a quarter were also excellent. Marion's ubiquitous help in blocking was also crucial.
On the Lakers side, Kobe scored 37 points, Yao Ming scored 26 points, and Gasol scored 12 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.
…
…
“It seems that the Hawks still have many cards that they haven’t used. We were careless this time. Other teams should also re-examine the Hawks. They are still the biggest obstacle on our way to the championship.”
Looking at the face of the Zen Master on the TV screen, Liu Mang wanted to print his size 46 big feet on his face.
Yesterday, Liu Mang clocked out after three quarters. He never thought that he could clock out after three quarters against the Lakers.
After the game, Kobe stayed in the Hawks training hall and refused to leave. Liu Mang had finished his physical therapy, but the guy was still practicing shooting.
Although Kobe scored 37 points, compared with Liu Mang, who had a high efficiency of 11 out of 24 shots, Kobe’s efficiency was far worse. In the third quarter, he made crazy shots and lowered his hit rate. He only made 12 out of 32 shots in the whole game.
Seeing that the little blacksmith made his team’s employees work overtime, Liu Mang really wanted to turn off the switch for him...
The next day, when Liu Mang got up in the morning and had breakfast with the little Lolita, he saw what the Zen Master said on the TV screen.
"This old guy, he still wants to cause trouble for us even after losing." Liu Mang said angrily.
"Uncle, don't worry, come and see, the fans on the Internet think the same as you do, saying that the old man from KFC deliberately wants to draw attention to our team." The little girl who knows basketball flipped out a few posts for Liu Mang to see.
"Is that so?" Liu Mang looked at the news, saw the replies, and said, "Dina, the Lakers are really hated. This is the Celtics fan, this is the Bulls fan, they are actually helping us to complain about the Lakers."
"BEAT-LA!" The little girl shouted a slogan.
"No, kill Los Angeles, that old man from KFC wants to trick us, I also want to give them a big gift, Dina, send an email to Uncle Jeff and ask him to make an appointment with the TV station."
"TV station? Got it!" The little girl's eyes lit up!
...
On February 21, after the Hawks defeated the Lakers and won four consecutive victories, they had two days of rest on the 22nd and 23rd, and then there was a five-day four-game schedule.
On the 24th and 25th, the Hawks played back-to-back games against the Bucks and the Nets at home.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, Liu Mang went to the Atlanta branch of ESPN to shoot some programs. He shot 5 episodes in a row, analyzing the players of the same team...
On the 22nd, the Hawks had a rest day. On the 23rd, the Hawks started a tactical meeting and simple training.
The reason for the simple training is that they have to discuss all the next four opponents.
The rotation also began. After playing against the Lakers, the Hawks had 40 wins and 16 losses. There was no pressure on the record for the time being. It was difficult to catch up with the top two. The Hawks coaching staff did not want to catch up. If they had to catch up, there might be a chance, but the mid-season signings and trades would be in vain.
The Hawks coaching staff had only one small goal - to maintain the chance of winning 60 games.
When Liu Mang heard this small goal, he was very curious about the expressions of the players of the top two teams in the East who were desperately trying not to be surpassed by the Hawks if they knew Coach Kruger's "small goal".
But it is really difficult to win 60 games.
On the 24th, Liu Mang and his teammates who were taking turns to rest truly started the second half of the season.