Chapter 1531 1530. An Opponent that Can Never Be Defeated
The Hawks, who returned to their home court, defeated the Trail Blazers 111-103 on January 21. The Hawks swept the Trail Blazers in the regular season.
Liu Mang scored 30 points in both games, with 6 assists away and 30+10 at home.
The more his teammates integrate into the team, the more comfortable Liu Mang's performance becomes.
However, the Hawks just won 14 consecutive games, bringing their record to 35 wins and 6 losses, and the Spurs also won 9 consecutive games, bringing their record to 37 wins and 5 losses.
"Three shameless men who cut their salaries are fighting with me!"
Liu Mang was reading the morning newspaper after breakfast.
Liu Mang knew that the Spurs had won nine consecutive games last night, and the news he was reading now was the interview the Spurs accepted last night.
"This year may be our last chance to try to get 70 wins. We really want to give it a try. Now we want to try to tie the record of Ace and others in the 2005-2006 season of only losing 5 games in the first half."
Looking at the Q&A record of Duncan's interview, Liu Mang felt that the reporter did not write nonsense, but directly copied Duncan's original words. This implicit but domineering speech is that shameless man who cut his salary!
Duncan's entire answer revealed a kind of confidence, "Try to get 70 wins and try to lose only 5 games in the first half. The problem is not strength." Liu Mang got this feeling from Duncan's answer.
Also, although Duncan did not talk about the first place in the league, the goal was to lose only 5 games in the first half, which means that Duncan wanted to not lose until the All-Star Weekend!
This is clearly a disguised declaration of competing for the first place in the league.
"Okay uncle, you are the best, good boy, let's go quickly." The little girl was very excited carrying her schoolbag.
"Dina, why did Levia ask you to go with me to consecutive away games?" Liu Mang was puzzled. When Levia left yesterday, she asked Liu Mang to take the little girl with him when he went to the away games, so that Alexia would not be able to take care of her alone.
Levia has even arranged for Price. The team will help Liu Mang arrange a room with at least two bedrooms.
"Mom said she would go back to New York for a few days. Grandpa's birthday is coming." The little girl replied.
"Then why don't you go?"
"Those relatives don't like Dina and mom."
After hearing this answer, Liu Mang didn't ask any more questions and chose to change the subject: "You Americans are really enough. Junior high school winter vacation is 50 days."
Junior high schools in the United States only have two grades, and they have little to do with further studies, especially for private middle schools like the little girl. After finishing the eighth grade, you can go directly to the high school department.
During this period, American students have a lot of spare time, allowing them to cultivate a variety of interests and hobbies.
Just like the holiday that starts with the Double Holiday, the next semester's classes will not start until Valentine's Day on February 15.
"Uncle, are you jealous of Dina?"
"No, by the way, are you going to take this thing with you again?" Liu Mang asked when he saw the big stuffed bear in the car after arriving at the parking lot.
"Of course! Dina said that she can't sleep without hugging the bear that uncle gave her!"
"Okay, okay... Aida, let's go."
Liu Mang looked at the luggage in the trunk and saw that he didn't take anything and kissed Alexia who sent them to the garage, got in the car, started the engine and left.
Alexia looked at the back of the car that disappeared at the gate of the yard, hoping that the little loli would follow along this time so that she could keep a closer eye on Liu Mang.
Liu Mang had to go to Los Angeles for the last game of his five consecutive away games. Alexia was not at ease at all, so she spent a "large sum of money" to buy off the little loli and let her follow Liu Mang to play consecutive away games.
What if Liu Mang really wants a Chinese girlfriend...
Levia doesn't feel a sense of crisis, but Alexia, who has become a full-time housewife, feels a strong sense of crisis.
...
Liu Mang doesn't know Alexia's little thoughts, and he doesn't think too much about anything else. He is in the rising period of his career, so how can he have the leisure to think about anything else.
With the little loli who eats and drinks for free, he took the team's chartered plane and went to the snowy Toronto together.
The Hawks' first opponent is an Eastern team in this five-game away game, and the next four are all Western teams.
After getting on the plane, Liu Mang sorted out some of the itineraries for this five-game away game in his little notebook, such as inviting Harden to dinner when he arrived in Phoenix the day before the away game against the Suns on the 29th.
The little girl sat next to Liu Mang and leaned forward to look. She pointed to the place where it said "No. 29, Xiao Deng Deng" and asked, "Uncle, who is Xiao Deng Deng? Why do you want to have dinner with him?"
"This is a loyal fan of mine, James Harden. You should have heard of him, Dina. He wrote to me last time and wanted to meet me." Liu Mang replied casually without any doubt.
"James Harden? The Los Angeles guy who imitated the uncle in college?" The little girl thought about it for a while. It didn't matter if she was not a woman. She continued to peek. There was no other special schedule. The little girl shrank back in her chair, adjusted the backrest, and prepared to sleep.
...
It's time to play against the Raptors again.
Every time Liu Mang played against the Raptors away, it was a very sad thing. After the plane landed, Liu Mang began to put on clothes, and put on a coat on the outside.
Then he put on the loose clothes for the little girl and wrapped her in a coat.
It's too cold!
Fortunately, because of the greenhouse effect, summers are getting hotter and winters are getting colder, and the league's schedule is also much more reasonable. The Eastern teams in the southern United States basically only play the Raptors three times a season. The four Southeast Division teams, including the Hawks, Magic, Heat, and Bobcats, only come to Toronto once a season.
However, the Wizards, who are in the same division as the Hawks, Magic, Heat, and Bobcats, are too far north, even further north than the Cavaliers in the Central Division. They are almost bordering New Jersey, and they have to play the Raptors four times a year.
The worst thing was for Rondo. It was winter and he had a lot of luggage. He had to help Liu Mang pick up the luggage and push a mountain-like luggage cart to the parking lot.
Fortunately, Gasol and Scola were there to help, and someone helped Rondo share the six large boxes of luggage of Liu Mang and Xiao Loli.
Looking at the two ball-shaped "fathers and daughters", one tall and one short, one male and one female, who were walking in the front, Scola asked Rondo: "Rajan, do you have so much luggage when you play away games in the winter? I thought I was going to The reason he went to Los Angeles for the first time was because his girlfriend and children were also here, so there was so much luggage.”
"They have a villa in Los Angeles, and the women buy their things now..." Rondo sneered, but did not say it out loud. He just responded, "Yes."
Watching Rondo speak only one word, Scola, a mature and steady old man, didn't know how to find something to talk about...
After arriving at the hotel and putting everything away, and resting for a while, the teammates gathered in the living room of Liu Mang's suite.
The competition with the Spurs for first place in the league is becoming fiercer, and the Eagles players attach great importance to this five consecutive away games.
It is not easy to continue the winning streak against the Raptors, Nuggets, SuperSonics, Suns, and Clippers. The end of the month is not as brutal as the games against the Hornets, Cavaliers, Bulls, Nuggets, and Cavaliers at the beginning of the month, but it is not far behind.
The Raptors are second in the Eastern Conference, and the Suns have temporarily climbed to third in the Western Conference. Although the second place in the Western Conference was taken away by the Lakers, and the third-place Suns also climbed up, the Nuggets have a better record than the Trail Blazers. Ranked firmly among the top four in the Western Conference.
Fortunately, the Eagles rarely have back-to-backs. They have only had two back-to-backs in 16 games this month, and they have played them all before.
Under such a schedule, the coaching staff did not arrange for the players to train. It was already in the middle of the season, and there were consecutive away games. After the next game, when they arrived in a new city, the coaching staff asked the players to stay in the hotel to rest.
But the Eagles players spontaneously arrived in the city where the new opponent was the day before each away game, and they all gathered together to discuss how to deal with the upcoming opponents.
The little Lolita, who was playing games on the TV in the bedroom, stretched out her head and glanced at the Eagles players who were having a heated discussion, and sighed: "It's so tiring to be an adult, but Dinah should just be a cute beauty." Just be a girl..."
…
…
With consecutive away games and one game every other day, the schedule is very tight.
This situation is not just for the Eagles, this is basically the case for popular teams.
None of the Raptors stars are popular stars individually, including Milicic, who was not very popular during the All-Star voting.
But when discussing strength, Milicic is often regarded as the strongest among the four young centers. Many people even think that Milicic is stronger than Yao Ming.
It is true that Yao Ming is more dominant in the basket, but as the core of the team, Milicic is almost recognized as the best inside core in the league.
Therefore, the Raptors are also considered a popular team, and their schedule in January is also very tight.
The Raptors have only lost 11 games so far, with 31 wins and 11 losses, ranking second in the Eastern Conference and third in the league. Their performance is quite outstanding.
However, the Hawks took a small advantage here. When the Hawks came to the Raptors, the Raptors were playing a game with the Bobcats in Charlotte. They rushed back today and they will soon have back-to-back games with the Hawks at home. The second game.
In today's game, the Eagles' starting lineup is still Rondo, Liu Mang, Tracy McGrady, Marion, and Kwame Brown.
For the Raptors, the starting lineup of Ford, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Lewis, and Milicic appeared.
Speed up!
It is the core of the Eagles' tactics today!
No matter how much the Raptors try to slow down the pace and play position, the Hawks speed up.
At the beginning of the game, the steady Raptors had the upper hand.
With Milicic as a big center, Lewis as a power forward, and Joe Johnson as the core of outside offense, they played very well in positional warfare. The Raptors can rank second in the Eastern Conference and third in the league, becoming only three teams in the league. Teams that have a chance to win 60 games are capable. Positional warfare and controlling the rhythm are their specialties.
Because they retreat very quickly, despite Milicic's white appearance and huge weight of 120 kilograms, he looks like a standing center, but his mobility is very good, ranking third in the league with 3.5 blocks per game. It can be seen immediately that he is very quick when assisting in defense and also very quickly in retreating from defense.
The Eagles wanted to speed up the tempo. Liu Mang, McGrady, and Marion started a fast break as soon as the opponent shot. In order to speed up the tempo, the opponent retreated quickly from the basket. The Eagles shot a lot of three-pointers, and their shooting percentage was not good. Well, the Raptors were outscored 26-21 in three quarters.
The Eagles trailed by 5 points in the first quarter entering the second quarter.
The Eagles were lagging behind at the beginning of the second quarter. Liu Mang, Jason Terry, Wade, Grant Hill, and Kwame Brown were all running around and playing, but they couldn't get enough from the Raptors. How many benefits.
When the official timeout came in the second quarter, the Hawks were already 10 points behind 34-44.
However, this official timeout was a turning point.
The Hawks deliberately sped up, forcing the Raptors to quickly retreat. Although the Raptors' players who could run suppressed the Hawks' fast break at the beginning, in the second half of the second quarter, the Raptors' physical problems began to emerge.
If it were normal, the Raptors would not have physical problems so early, even if they kept running with the Hawks, like the last time they played, the Raptors held on to the end and played an overtime with the Hawks before losing.
However, now is the middle of the season, the physical fitness of each team has been affected to some extent, and the Raptors are back-to-back, falling into the trap of the Hawks' "physical tactics"!
As soon as the official timeout came back in the second quarter, Liu Mang and Brad Miller each made a three-pointer, and within 1 minute, they scored 6-0, chasing the score from 34-44 to 40-44.
Just after 1 minute after the official timeout ended, the Raptors were forced to call another timeout!
Milicic was a little depressed, or rather, when he played against Liu Mang, no matter how many points he led, he was always scared. This time was the same. When he was leading by 10 points, he saw that the opponent only scored 34 points in one and a half quarters and didn't look depressed, and he still felt unstable.
Sure enough, after the timeout, the Hawks scored 6-0!
This feeling of fear coming true made Milicic even more depressed.
"How can I beat Ace? Even if I win once! I don't want an opponent I can never beat!"