Chapter 1538 1537. Reaching the Top (Asking for Monthly Votes)

24 consecutive wins...

The old players on the Hawks side are not that excited.

They have already won 26 consecutive wins.

But the new players are now living in a dream.

They are on the news every day and interviewed by reporters every day.

Now in Houston, a city where the team is still popular in China because of Yao Ming and Andre Iguodala, who once played with Liu Mang. When I arrived at the Toyota Center, I was surrounded by reporters just like when I returned to Atlanta.

The Rockets have two players selected for the All-Star Game, which has continued the Rockets' popularity in China. Because of these two All-Stars and the good record this season, they have not fallen behind in the top nine teams in the West, and they have also gained a lot of popularity in the United States.

After the Hawks arrived in Houston, they rested for a night. On the day the Hawks arrived in Houston, the Rockets played away in Dallas and defeated the Mavericks 92-87 away. Today, they returned to their home court to play back-to-back against the Hawks.

This is the first time the Hawks have played against the Rockets this season. After a year, the Rockets have completely changed.

Without anyone to suppress Bynum, he would not be able to play well even if he had the ability. But with a tough guy to suppress him, it became very different!

After arriving at the stadium, Iguodala and Artest brought their brothers to greet the stars and veteran stars of the Hawks.

While chatting with Iguodala and Artest, Liu Mang looked at Bynum's ability evaluation.

"DeAndre Bynum, ability evaluation 87, offense 87, defense 85, rebounds 95, three-pointers 44, mid-range shots 81, layups 93, speed 81, strength 88... Playing time: 34 minutes per game, data: 17 points, 12 rebounds, 1.9 blocks per game..."

Bynum has played half of his third year in his career, and he is only 20 years, 3 months and 15 days old!

At this age and with such strength, geniuses can really do whatever they want.

Moreover, Liu Mang watched some highlights of the Rockets last night. Bynum is not the same as the traditional center in Liu Mang's impression. He moves quickly, has good explosive power, and has good jumping ability...

Liu Mang thinks that it is probably because Bynum did not experience the serious injury that ruined the season in 2008, and he was trained as the absolute core of the Rockets. Although his brain is not very good, he has good physical talent and high basketball IQ. His progress is much faster than when he was a substitute in the Lakers and his knee was broken by his teammates. He has more ball rights and the inside position belongs to him. Naturally, his data is much better than the original time and space in the 07-08 season when he was the fourth and fifth player of the team, averaging 13 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 28 minutes per game. It's just that his IQ is not enough.

And the defense is not as good as Liu Mang's impression. There is a player wearing No. 24. Although it is hard to say about other aspects, when he suppresses Bynum's jumping personality, Bynum's defense is still top among centers even if his knee is scrapped once.

But Bynum in this time and space has more playing time and more opportunities to get close to the basket, but his rebounding efficiency and blocking efficiency are far inferior to his original time and space, and only his scoring has improved significantly.

In addition to being seriously injured by his teammates sitting on his knees, Liu Mang finds it difficult to judge which training method is better between the Rockets and the Lakers. In the Rockets, Bynum was a natural from the beginning. As the absolute core, he would not work so hard, and no one cared. The offense was better, but the defense improved very slowly. It was not bad, but compared with the original defense.

In the Lakers, the offense has not been used until Mike Brown became the head coach in the 2011-2012 season. He was directly selected for the second team, but his defense is really amazing.

Just talking about Bynum's average of 10.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in the 28 minutes before his serious injury in the original time and space in 2007-2008 season is cruel enough.

Liu Mang feels that if such a center really reaches his peak, it will be quite interesting. He is thinking about whether to remind Iguodala to stop Bynum from going bowling.

But thinking that the Rockets might sell Iguodala after this year to save money by exchanging him for role players, Liu Mang thought about it and decided not to say anything.

What if he really likes bowling and bungee jumping so much?

Just like the Clippers would let geniuses go for free, the Rockets in Alexander's era liked to use geniuses cheaply for a few years and then sell them when the big contract came.

Iguodala's ability rating, however, has improved from the ability rating of 85, a first-class star, in the second half of last season to 86, a year later. The improvement is not very obvious, far less than Bynum.

Sometimes, it's not that you can become a superstar just because you have a high IQ, high basketball IQ, and good physical fitness. Iguodala has many obvious flaws, such as unstable scoring, low desire to shoot, and too steady, etc.

Iguodala is very slow in improving his offensive ability, and has made almost no progress.

And Gay... This year, the Rockets have Artest. Gay, a potential rookie last season, can only be a substitute for Iguodala and Artest this season.

Gay still has talent, and his improvement is obvious. His ability rating has been raised to 79.

Artest, with an ability rating of 90, averaged 20.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game, and only committed 2.1 fouls per game. He is still the best defensive small forward in the league, bar none.

At the beginning of the season, he was still at his peak when he turned 28, but this peak was the peak after he stood up again after being suspended for a season. Artest before the suspension was stronger than now in both offense and defense.

As for O'Neal, he still didn't get along with Artest, but the two teams were friendly teams, so they didn't quarrel.

…

After saying hello, the Rockets players went back to the lounge in the home team's locker room to rest. They returned to Houston in the morning and came to the stadium at noon. Before warming up, their players had to take a nap to make up for their sleep.

The Hawks began to prepare for the game and discussed how to deal with the three-star lineup composed of Bynum, Artest and Iguodala.

No one wants to lose!

The old players of the Hawks want to keep the first place in the league, and the new players last season and this season also want to continue this dream-like feeling.

The Rockets' lineup was pretty good when their "three youngsters" were still on rookie contracts. The highest salary was Artest with 8 million US dollars, so the role players were pretty good.

The three stars of Iguodala, Artest, and Bynum led Alston and Landry's starting lineup, with Gay, Mutombo, Bobby Jackson, and Bonzi Wells as the main substitutes, and Aaron Brooks, Mike James and other substitutes.

That's it, the Rockets' salary is only more than 54 million, which is still a long way from the 61 million salary cap.

With such an outstanding lineup of role players, and led by a tough guy like Artest, the Rockets are one of the toughest teams in the league this year, and the Hawks dare not be careless.

At 3:30, the Hawks players gathered in front of the TV to watch the game between the Spurs and the Magic.

The Spurs are now 45 wins and 6 losses, and their record is the same as the Hawks, or the Hawks have made up for the games they missed in the first two months in January and the first ten days of February.

At six o'clock in the evening, crazy cheers came from the guest lounge of the Toyota Center!

The Magic beat the Spurs 121 to 115 at home!

The Spurs played well on offense, but were still blown up by the Magic.

It wasn't that the Spurs didn't defend well, but that Carter, Turkoglu, and Maurice Evans each made 4 three-pointers, plus the three-pointers of the Magic's other three-point shooters, a total of 21 three-pointers.

When the opponent's touch is so hot, the Spurs' three-point defense is useless.

There was a precedent last season when the Magic's three-point touch exploded in the playoffs and almost made a comeback to the Eastern Conference Finals. This season, the Magic has added Carter and introduced more shooters. In the eyes of many fans and media, the Magic may become a spoiler in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

They are too good at shooting. Once the Magic's touch explodes, they can't be stopped at all.

...

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the live broadcast of the game between the Hawks and the Rockets in the United States and the live broadcast of the court TV and some European TV stations began.

It seems that the Hawks' dream journey will not end here in Houston.

Liu Mang used zombie jump shots in the first quarter and made 5 of 5 shots in a single quarter! Among them, 3 of 3 three-pointers plus two free throws!

With 15 points and 3 assists in a single quarter, Iguodala was so defensive against Liu Mang that he almost doubted his life.

As an opponent, Iguodala could feel how exaggerated Liu Mang's progress was. His half-baked zombie jump shot last season could be used as a regular shooting action this season.

Led by Liu Mang's 15 points and 3 assists in the first quarter, the Hawks scored 26 to 19 in a single quarter.

The focus is still on the defensive end!

When the Hawks' starting lineup was in the first quarter, Kwame Brown did a good job of defending Bynum, and Marion also did a good job of defending Artest. In the second half of the first quarter, Bynum was replaced, and the Rockets played a five-small lineup. Wade came on the Hawks side. When Kwame Brown was replaced, Wade continued the defense of the starting lineup with Liu Mang, Mason, Grant Hill, and Marion, and withstood the Rockets' desire to use Artest to play a five-small lineup.

On the offensive end, except for Liu Mang, who was outstanding, the others played so-so under the defense of Iguodala, Gay, and Artest. Kwame Brown could defend Bynum, and Bynum could also lock down Kwame Brown's dunks.

But the Hawks did a very good job on defense!

The dream winning streak was not interrupted in Houston. With Liu Mang playing 44 minutes, 14 of 24 shots, 7 of 10 three-pointers, 41 points, 12 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocks, the Hawks beat the Rockets 103-87 and won 25 consecutive victories away!

The better the teammates are, the better Liu Mang's performance is!

The Rockets also failed to end the Hawks' winning streak. Although some fans are very sorry, this is also expected. The Hawks' most stable defense during this period is defense. Occasionally, the offense is not working, but since Wade, the Hawks' bench lineup has too strong defensive continuity.

And although the Rockets did a good job defending against other players of the Hawks today, Liu Mang continued his excellent touch from the past few games and could not be stopped at all, while the Hawks defended the Rockets players. Except for Gay who came off the bench and scored 21 points, the highest scoring player of the Rockets was Artest, who scored 17 points, followed by Bynum with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Only three players scored in double digits.

"Only one game away from 26 consecutive wins? That's too easy, we must... umm..." When Liu Mang was about to brag during the interview after the game, he was covered by McGrady and Kwame Brown next to him and was dragged away by his teammates.

Rondo, who scored 4 points, 3 steals and 7 rebounds today, saw the boss's unstable look of showing off after winning the game, and reluctantly took over the conversation: "The opponent is great, it's not easy for us to win today..."

Even Rondo was forced to make polite official remarks to the media.

This is at the other team's home court. If the game is won, it's won. Even Rondo couldn't stand it. Wade didn't want to steal the limelight, Grant Hill, O'Neal and other veterans went back to the locker room early, McGrady and Kwame Brown were stopping Liu Mang from provoking the next opponent, Rondo had no choice but to be steady.

The coaching staff has said many times recently that Liu Mang can't be allowed to provoke the opponent with a big mouth after winning the game. Didn't you see Jason Terry has been quite steady during this period?

Rondo is also helpless, he has to bear the pressure that he shouldn't bear at his age.

What can he do with such a big boss?