Chapter 510
On March 31, 2003, the visiting team's locker room at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Eagles players are ready to start a new chapter!
There was no madness at night when I just lost to the Bulls two days ago, there was no quiet and impetuous heart practicing calligraphy to cultivate sentiment, and there was no watching high school students dunk performance together to relax.
The moment they stepped into Madison Square Garden, Liu Mang and his teammates felt the enthusiasm of the New York fans, especially when the two teams started to enter the field, they were booed all over the sky as if to cover them up.
The fans in New York are very interesting. They don’t have a good record. They don’t boo their own team’s players, but cheer for their opponents. For example, when the Knicks had a bad record last year, when Liu Mang came here and scored 41 points, all the fans turned to Liu. Reckless cheers.
But in the middle of this year's season, the Knicks suddenly broke out, and there is a little hope for the playoffs. Although the hope is not great, it is hope anyway, especially last season. The team gave a rubbish contract. I didn’t expect that Alan Houston played the best performance of his career at the age of 32 this year, which was better than that of the Pistons and Grant Hill and the performance of the Knicks in the peak years. It brought hope to the fans of the Knicks. They felt that there was little hope of entering the playoffs this season just because they did not perform well in the first half of the season. It is only a little bit worse than the 65% winning percentage of the Eagles in the second half of the season. It is only because they "recovered" a month later than the Hawks that they are four or five worse than the Eagles. Otherwise, it is likely that they will stand in the eighth position.
So now the Knicks fans have become the most "loyal" fans, full of hostility towards the away team's Hawks, especially because of Liu Mang's rampage here last season, so they still have past hatred.
Because the Knicks defeated the Eagles in two away games in the previous two matches this month, it gave the Knicks fans more confidence!
Fortunately, Liu Mang had felt the enthusiasm of the New York fans yesterday, otherwise he would not have gotten used to it. New Yorkers are so fickle. At this time last year, they still called him Xiao Tiantian, but this year they booed him to death.
In addition to the very enthusiastic fans, there are also warm welcomes from the opponents. The Knicks are all excited, and the Knicks' owners and players are in a state of embarrassment! Because they felt "humiliated" again yesterday!
Since 1986, except occasionally in Los Angeles or Washington, as long as the McDonald's All-Star Game is held in Madison Square Garden, the opening guests are the Knicks' head stars. In 1986, the Knicks' head star Bernard King , It became Ewing in 1988, Ewing for several years after that, Alan Houston after 2000, and Alan Houston as the opening guest last season.
When the McDonald's All-Star Game was still held in New York this year, Alan Houston had already made the best personal performance of his career. After two years of playing the best performance of his career, he is full of confidence and thinks that his peak period has just arrived. Jordan is 33 years old before he enters the most theoretically unsolvable time. He is a pitcher. Alan Houston is also very confident. , I have just entered the peak.
However, the McDonald's All-Star Game was held in New York, and the opening guest invited was actually an Eagles player!
This is literally slapping Alan Houston in the face!
The Eagles who went to the game yesterday didn't take it seriously at all, but the Knicks were different, they just felt humiliated.
When I saw the Knicks players being interviewed before the game today, they criticized the organizers of the McDonald’s All-Star Game for disrespecting them. When Dolan announced that he would no longer provide a venue for the game, the Eagles players knew that it turned out that the Knicks The Knicks paid so much attention to it. I didn't expect that the Knicks would become more hostile to them because of this.
but……
The Eagles don't care about the hostility from the Knicks players or their boss at all. They came here to take revenge, which will definitely make the Knicks players unhappy. If that's the case, let them be hostile if they are hostile!
Liu Mang enjoyed the boos and practiced shooting for a while. After the preparation time before the game, he returned to the bench, chatted with Boozer and waited for the game to start, completely ignoring the boos.
Liu Mang and Boozer chatted and laughed, which not only made the fans furious, but the Knicks players were even more angry, but there was nothing they could do about Liu Mang.
Liu Mang just likes to see the feeling of his opponent who hates him but can't kill him, and just likes the pleasure of running amidst the opponent's hostility.
For the Eagles, the starters are still Jason Terry, Prince, Raheem, Muhammad, and Ratliff.
For the Knicks, Howard Eisley, Alan Houston, Sprewell, Kurt Thomas, and Osella Harnington were sent.
Generally speaking, after the start of the game, after both starters finish their pre-match actions and go on the field, the boss of the home team will come up to say hello to the opponent's starter, high-five or punch.
Even Kobe would come up and clap hands with Raheem, the relationship between the two is not bad.
But the Knicks said no this time!
No one took the initiative to say hello to the Eagles players, ignoring the scene of "friendship first, match second". The two teams are hostile to each other. The Knicks are regarded as competitors, but they have already torn their faces. The Knicks don't give face, and the Eagles don't want to give face either!
Originally, the Eagles were unhappy with the previous two losses to the Knicks when the schedule almost made the Eagles almost overwhelmed. Now they are more determined to kill the Knicks, and use this game to start the playoffs state!
jump ball!
Ratliff and Harrington came to the middle of the court, the referee blew the whistle to start the game, and the ball was thrown into the air. Ratliff won the jump ball with a clear advantage of height and wingspan.
The Eagles attacked first, and the start was still handed over to Raheem.
Most of the time, Raheem chiseled at the start, and it was all good, and then helped the Eagles' starting lineup to open the situation.
However, this time Raheem had just settled inside, and Sprewell's fierce top defense made Raheem very uncomfortable!
Regardless of his personality, Sprewell is indeed a good player, especially this year is his contract year. He has played like a giant player on both ends of the offense and defense. People only saw Alan Houston's outstanding performance on the offensive end. The Knicks broke out in the second half of this year because Alan Houston played well, but they didn't see the contribution made by this enchanting man with a braid like Nezha.
Sprewell played a very good defensive performance this year and became the defensive gate of the Knicks' back line. Otherwise, Alan Houston and Howard Eisley, who was originally Mark Jackson's backup, were at most average defensively. Defensively, it is impossible for the Knicks to win more than 60% of the games in the second half of the season.
Raheem was made difficult to catch the ball by Sprewell's rough forward movement, mainly because he was not prepared at all. When the two teams played against each other this season, Raheem was not there!
And the other small forwards of the Eagles are not low-post singles, and they are not the main attack point. It is not Sprewell defending them at all, so I don't know that Sprewell will be so rough when defending in the low post.
Jason Terry saw that Raheem was a bit sleepy, so he came by himself!
It was Eisley who defended Jason Terry. Before this season, he played eight seasons with less than 50 starts. This year, he was very lucky. Mark Jackson was sent away by the Knicks in the second round. He became the starter. Played really hard this year, especially in the second half of the season.
Eisley's defensive ability is not very good, but he is very active! Especially today, the entire Knicks team was very desperate. Eisley gave Jason Terry a lot of interference. Jason Terry missed the first emergency stop jump shot when he came up to try!
Harnington, who once formed the Texas Duo with Francis of the Rockets, squeezed Muhammad away with his fat body, stuck in his position and grabbed a defensive rebound!
The Knicks are a bit fierce today!