Chapter 640 639. McGrady's Challenge

The entire basketball world was in shock about the Nets forming a "Big Three," but life went on as usual, and the Hawks' season continued.

The Eagles ushered in the first back-to-back game against the Bucks at home.

The Bucks have become opponents that the top four in the Eastern Conference do not want to meet in the first round this year, mainly because of Reed and TJ-Ford. Except for the Pistons with Hamilton, the Eagles have Liu Mang, the other two players in the top four in the Eastern Conference Teams are afraid of TJ-Ford.

In this game, Stockton was mentioned in the starting position, starting with Prince, Raheem, Boozer, and Ratliff.

The Bucks are doing very well this year. After Reid became the absolute core, he led the Bucks to play better and better. They have returned to the top eight in the East, surpassing the record of the Hornets.

The lineup sent by the Bucks is TJ-Ford, Reed, Desmond Mason, Van Horn, who is about to be dissatisfied with his girlfriend, and Joe Smith, who got the most tragic No. 1 pick last summer.

At the beginning of the game, Stockton had a tragedy on the defensive end. He was passed by TJ-Ford in a row. The average is almost 7 assists per game. This time, facing the historical assist king Stockton, he played quite coquettishly, continuously breaking through and passing the ball to create opportunities for his teammates.

Reed showed off his catch-and-shoot ability, as he and Desmond Mason ran an off-ball pick-and-roll off Prince as TJ Ford scrambled the defense and Raheem was forced to help. Defensive catch-and-shoot jump shot was steady.

Today, Liu Mang and Rasheed Wallace are not here. The defensive combination of the fastest opponent on the outside is gone, and the best defensive master on the inside is gone. The Eagles' defense in the starting stage has a big problem.

TJ-Ford's speed cannot be defended by one person. Almost all teams can only use team defense to prevent him from scoring against this rookie. This makes TJ-Ford's average organizational ability rely on breakthrough points. The average is close to 7 assists, not to mention the old Stockton, even when he was young, he may not be able to defend against this possibly the fastest player in the league.

However, although Stockton failed to guard TJ-Ford, he responded offensively.

Liu Mang couldn't play in the last two games. Of course, he had to take on more important tasks. The cooperation with Boozer seemed to be the reappearance of the two evil spirits. Boozer showed a strong desire to attack at the beginning. Cut in, squeeze out Joe Smith's consecutive easy scoring, forcing the Bucks to flank him, and no one dared to release Stockton's mid-range shots. Although Stockton only had one game this season The data averaged 5 points and 4 assists, but the shooting rate was terribly high, easily getting a shooting rate of 50+44+91.

Boozer's offensive strength is not much worse than when Rasheed Wallace was in the West, but the team needs defenders. He didn't complain about his role and was willing to work with Stockton Support the second team, but he is definitely one of the best power forwards in the East!

The Hawks also relied on Boozer's consecutive cuts to the basket to attract flanking attacks. Raheem and Prince got a lot of easy shots.

The Bucks' new-generation backcourt combination and the Eagles' young and old version of the Shuangsha combination played back and forth.

It's hard work for the leading star these years. In the starting stage, he just had a wave with Stockton and Boozer. When the rotation lineup time was officially suspended in the first quarter, Reed would come up to confront Jason Terry.

It has to be said that Jason Terry's height problem has limited his talent at the shooting guard position. Reed, who entered the NBA a year later than Jason Terry, is already better than Jason Terry.

However, every time Jason Terry stands up from the bench, he doesn't have to think too much like Reed, just score!

From the second half of the first quarter to the middle of the second quarter, the Eagles suppressed the Bucks led by Reid after Jason Terry came up. Jason Terry had Raheem, Boozer and Kwame Brown have a huge inside combination with great rebounding advantages. They dare to throw and score. In the middle of the second quarter, Jason Terry helped the Eagles get a 7-point lead. 47 to 40 lead.

After both sides switched back to the starting lineup, the two teams fell into a stalemate again. Stockton rested and came back to lead the team's offense with Boozer, and a few teams led by the back line composed of TJ-Ford and Reed. The Bucks teammate of COSCO continued to start the tug-of-war.

After halftime, the Eagles still maintained a 5-point lead 61 to 56.

The key turning point of the game was in the third quarter. After the intermission, the game continued in the third quarter.

The Eagles once again dispatched the combination of Stockton and Boozer, paired with Jason Terry, Prince and Ratliff to guard the basket, trying to attack by position in the third quarter Pull the score apart.

But at this time, the head coach of the Bucks made a targeted change. The former Trail Blazers All-Star guard and now the Bucks head coach Terry Porter let the starting lineup play the entire quarter in the third quarter, and has been trying to speed up. , consuming Stockton and Ratliff.

If Liu Mang and Rasheed Wallace were there, not many teams in the league would dare to speed up when facing the Hawks.

But today Liu Mang and Rasheed Wallace are not here. The Bucks' trick worked. Stockton can now maintain his form for 20 minutes a game, and when the rhythm of the court is controlled by the Eagles, Playing slow-paced positional warfare is good for attacking. He played 13 minutes in the first half, but was forced to slow down by the Bucks as soon as he started in the second half. Mond Mason runs extremely fast, and he is a super dunker with great physical fitness.

Stockton was soon too tired to run, coach Kruger had to replace him, and Ratliff couldn't hold on in this style of play and was replaced.

Then only Willie Green and Jason Terry were replaced in the backcourt, and Prince, Raheem, and Kwame Brown partnered inside.

The backcourt combination of Willie Green and Jason Terry is really blind, mainly starting from Willie Green. As a "point guard", his assists are outrageous. The Eagles have also played 30 games, with a total of 15 assists...

Willie Green came up with the ball and did it, and then the Eagles' offense became Willie Green, Jason Terry, and Raheem. You play one, and I take turns.

Jason Terry is the wildest gun, Raheem is the most stable gun, and Willie Green, as a rookie, it's good to be confident, but he doesn't have that ability.

In this trio, Jason Terry is playing the role of Liu Mang, although it has been weakened a little, but it is still enough, and Raheem is still the one who only needs to focus on the offensive end, and he can play every game. He can score five or six points steadily in every quarter of the game, but his characteristic is stability, and he rarely has explosive performance, especially now that he is defensive.

There is no problem with these two points. The biggest problem is that Willie Green, who plays Jason Terry's position, has become a part of the collapse of the Eagles.

Jason Terry broke out in this game. He played 37 minutes and scored 41 points on 16 of 33 shots. But in the second half of the fourth quarter, he couldn't shoot anymore. He didn't even know Liu Mang How did you throw more than 40 times in a game?

For Raheem, after losing weight, it is more difficult to get inside. Relying on air cuts and mid-range singles, he also scored 20 points and 14 rebounds, but it did not play a role in deciding the outcome. Boozer also scored 20+ 10, but apart from these three, no one in the Eagles scored in double figures.

Six players of the Bucks scored in double figures. TJ-Ford scored 17 points and 15 assists in the contest against Stockton relying on his youthfulness. Reid soared without Liu Mang. He scored 40 points and made 17 of 28 shots in the game. No one could guard him. Prince was strong in single defense, and he really couldn't guard the ball after the pick-and-roll.

In the end, the Hawks were reversed by Reid and the Bucks led by TJ-Ford, who may be faster than Iverson, to open the score. The Hawks lost to the Bucks 103 to 110, and their six-game winning streak came to an end.

...

For the Eagles, after the brawl, the most difficult thing was not that the core player Liu Mang was suspended, but that the two suspensions were back-to-back.

If the Bucks defeated the Eagles by relying on the team basketball led by Reed and TJ-Ford, the next game against the Magic will face a real superstar.

Although the Magic team has a bad record, but with Tracy McGrady, they will always be an opponent that cannot be ignored. After Rivers was fired, the Magic team's record is still difficult. It is only 6 wins and 28 losses, but at least it has started to win. Although the recent record of 6 wins and 9 losses is bad, at least they have the strength to fight.

Maybe McGrady has no motivation to play against other teams in this situation. He is not a particularly motivated person, but McGrady is very excited every time he plays against the Eagles!

After less than 24 hours of rest after the Eagles and Bucks fought to the last minute, they immediately ushered in back-to-back home games against the Magic.

Stockton was exhausted yesterday, and today he can only rest in rotation. It is too difficult to defend against TJ-Ford.

As a result, the Eagles could only put Jason Terry in the starting position.

Maybe it’s because I’m used to playing as a substitute. It’s hard to get comfortable with McGrady’s defense when I come up. I’m so defended by McGrady, but McGrady played against the Eagles today and completely broke out. I scored 11 points in the first quarter. 3 rebounds and 4 assists revitalized the Magic.

As for the Eagles, Jason Terry was defended by McGrady. Although Raheem scored 10 points in a single quarter, he only scored 3 of 9 points. Section 10 points.

Liu Mang was suspended, Stockton couldn't play, Calderon Taicai, and Willie Green were 4 of 14 yesterday, which means that there is no usable point guard. Not very able to play, Boozer can only go low to go hard when he comes up, and fouls his body like Raheem.

In the first quarter, the Eagles were beaten 27 to 17 by the Magic, trailing by 10 points in a single quarter.

Afterwards, McGrady started a performance show of scoring and assists. He scored 20 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists in the first three quarters, leading the Magic to a 14-point lead over the Hawks in three quarters. The Magic led 83 to 69.

In the fourth quarter, Jason Terry and Raheem still wanted to try to make a comeback, but McGrady, who was running away, seemed to want to use points to meet the Hawks again two days later, and wanted to use points to make a comeback. Stimulating Liu Mang, he scored 15 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist in the fourth quarter, opening the point difference to 22 points in one fell swoop. The Magic led the Eagles 100 to 78.

After McGrady played the first three quarters, he continued to run wild in the fourth quarter, and has already scored a large triple-double of 35 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.

The Eagles are completely at a loss. Liu Mang, Stockton, and Rasheed Wallace are all three passing masters. They were overthrown by McGrady who ran away. Coach Kruger had to replace the main force and announced his surrender. .

This is the first time for the Eagles this season!

In the end, the Eagles were slaughtered by the Magic 92 to 115.

After two consecutive losses, the record fell to 27 wins and 7 losses.

Liu Mang could only watch the game at home for two consecutive days. He also saw the efforts of his teammates, but it is true that this lineup was built for him. Without him, it was okay to have Stockton in the first game. At that time, it completely became a mess.

Seeing that after the game, his players could only go back to the locker room with a livid face, Liu Mang felt very uncomfortable, it was all his fault!

Maddie...

Liu Mang watched Time Warner's live TV broadcasts in Georgia and Florida. McGrady was invited to participate in the post-match news interview after scoring a large triple-double and leading the Magic to beat his own team.

McGrady has a rare high fighting spirit this season. In an interview, he said: "I just looked at it, and it seems that my scoring average has returned to 29.3 points per game. Like Ace, it happens that Ace will come back in the next game. We will continue to play against the Eagles in the next game, I really want to see whether I am stronger or Ace is stronger, this game should be regarded as welcoming Ace's comeback!"

Liu Mang didn't expect that he was still struggling with how to announce the competition for the scoring champion after two consecutive losses. He didn't expect that McGrady would challenge him first!