Chapter 848 847. Hiding the Merit and Fame
"Ding...Feature: Strike back level 3 trigger, ignore teammates asking for the ball, enter your own singles rhythm, from Jason Terry."
"Ding...Feature: King of the substitute level 3 trigger, once the substitute finds the feel, he can't stop, from Jason Terry."
Let him explode, he can explode!
Liu Mang looked at Jason Terry with envy and jealousy. He was just a bench bandit back then, but Jason Terry was the king of the substitute!
Jason Terry is a chaotic and not very rational player, so he is most suitable to be a substitute. When he is super god, he can stay on the court without worry. When he is in trouble, he is a substitute, so it doesn't matter if he plays badly on the bench.
Today, playing against the Mavericks, a singles team, Jason Terry's desire for singles was fully activated. In addition, he found the feeling in the second quarter, and he scored 4 three-pointers in the third quarter!
Liu Mang scored two points, and Jason Terry scored 12 points in a row. At the beginning of the third quarter, the Hawks made all 5 shots!
On the Mavericks side, after Nowitzki missed three consecutive singles, he also brought down the others. It seemed that his touch was contagious. The Mavericks missed all five shots and were beaten by the Hawks 14-0!
It came too suddenly!
The Mavericks didn't understand what happened. Their attention was on Jason Terry's 3 and a half minutes of running and scoring 12 points in a row. The young general Johnson was a little confused when the score was overtaken and quickly pulled away. He was overtaken by 12 points before he remembered to call a timeout.
The Mavericks wanted to target the Hawks' situation of one big and four smalls, so they replaced Harris with Dampier, leaving Nowitzki as the center, and also played a lineup of one big and four smalls, and it was a lineup that could play singles in all five positions.
On the Hawks side, Liu Mang took the tactical board and started to change players again...
...
After the timeout, the Hawks replaced Jason Terry, Liu Mang, McGrady, Rasheed Wallace, and Kwame Brown.
The Mavericks replaced Harris, Stackhouse, Finley, Josh Howard, and Nowitzki.
The Hawks couldn't defend the Mavericks again. Rasheed Wallace did defend against Nowitzki, but Kwame Brown had a hard time defending Josh Howard.
But on the Hawks side, Kwame Brown and Rasheed Wallace stood on the left and right sides of the three-second zone. No matter who Josh Howard defended, Liu Mang would just lob the ball high and throw it into the basket as soon as he received it.
Although Rasheed Wallace's singles skills have regressed, he is still a strong inside player. Unlike Nowitzki, who had a hard time blocking with small forwards in the inside, he really played center for a long time. Kwame Brown is needless to say. Nowitzki used all his strength to prevent Kwame Brown from pushing him to the basket and dunking the ball directly.
Nowitzki has no post-up skills, which is a disadvantage for him when he plays under the basket. Because of his weak strength, he cannot play under the basket, so he almost always attacks from mid-range and long-range. This season, Nowitzki averaged 6.5 mid-range shots per game to get 13 points, 8 free throws per game, and 1.7 three-pointers per game, while his average score was 26.4 points per game, which means that he basically did not score at the basket most of the time. He was okay to break through the basket with a three-threat stance to cause damage, and he made many free throws, but his direct scoring at the basket was very poor.
Therefore, the Hawks were able to defend Nowitzki with a small lineup and disrupt Nowitzki's rhythm because Nowitzki had not yet developed his post-up skills, and his Golden Rooster Stand was not complete at this time. On the contrary, Liu Mang tried his hand at a high-post post-up against Harris, a small point guard who was shorter than him and had shorter hands, and then turned over and made a Golden Rooster Stand jump shot, which was more like Nowitzki's future technically mature style.
On the Mavericks side, after changing to a small lineup, they could not withstand the two strong inside players of the Hawks.
Although the Mavericks also started to attack, the Hawks' scoring did not stop.
The Mavericks played well in the last eight minutes and scored 19 points, and 88 points after three quarters, but the Hawks relied on Jason Terry's three-point run to widen the gap in one fell swoop. Although they only scored 18 points in the last eight minutes, they led the Mavericks by 11 points in three quarters with a score of 99 to 88!
This score is too amazing. In addition to the 133-128 track and field competition between the Suns and the Nuggets, the Nuggets scored 101 points after three quarters. The Hawks scored 99 points in three quarters, which is the highest score of a single team in the first three quarters of this season!
…
Liu Mang learned about the way to deal with the Mavericks. He just tried it out and decisively stopped after taking the lead.
This is one of the strategies that the crazy scientist Nelson has planned for a long time to deal with the Mavericks in the 2007 playoffs. It is also the most important strategy, which is to play after defending Nowitzki to death.
Of course, after the Mavericks made adjustments, the crazy scientist Nelson made new adjustments.
So Liu Mang didn't want to expose this tactic for too long. When the opponent's attention was all on Jason Terry's 12 points in a row, Liu Mang immediately took advantage of the Mavericks' timeout, switched back to the regular lineup, and continued to grind with the Mavericks.
If it was used for too long, the Mavericks would discover this defensive strategy and have a countermeasure. In more critical games in the future, such as the finals, it would not work against the Mavericks.
Give it a year or two, even if the young general Johnson didn't come up with a solution, Nowitzki would have developed his back.
Now, even Nowitzki didn't find any big problems with the Mavericks. It's not unbelievable for a team to miss five consecutive shots, but Jason Terry's 4 three-pointers in a row is really amazing. It's too accurate.
So Liu Mang made timely substitutions. This kind of thing has to be a little insidious...
Others didn't find any problems with Liu Mang's two substitutions, and many players on the Hawks didn't find anything wrong because it didn't take too long, just over three minutes, but Coach Kruger, Mike Woodson, and the smart high school student McGrady discovered Liu Mang's little trick.
Too despicable!
Not letting the Mavericks understand this strategy and improve it, not letting other teams learn it, and if the Mavericks can make it to the finals, then use it, not letting other teams learn it so that the Mavericks can respond. Not everyone has the sharp vision and crazy courage of old Nelson. For now, few people have discovered this problem, and everyone is amazed at Jason Terry's 16 points in a single quarter.
"Ace is really smart!" This is Mike Woodson who was impressed by Liu Mang's wit.
"Why did I accept such a disciple! Fortunately, he is one of our own players." This is Coach Kruger. He has prepared to put this strategy at the bottom of the tactical board and never use it easily unless the Mavericks enter the finals... The master and the apprentice have the same little thoughts...
"Ace... He is really smart, no wonder he can win the championship..." McGrady felt that it was a good decision to come to the Hawks. If he went to another team to form a championship lineup and was targeted by Liu Mang... McGrady shuddered...
...
When there was a difference of 10 points, the Hawks kept grinding against the Mavericks in singles.
It returned to the second quarter's play. Liu Mang threw Jason Terry, Jason Terry threw, and McGrady threw. After the Mavericks' small lineup failed in the third quarter, they also switched back to the regular lineup and grinded against the Hawks.
Nowitzki's face-up shot is really unsolvable. Before the Warriors completely exposed the Mavericks' weaknesses, the Mavericks were very strong. In the 2005 playoffs, they met Nash, who was burning with revenge against the Mavericks and averaged 30 points, 12 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game in the series. The series was tied 2-2 at the beginning. Nash scored 34+13+12 in the decisive game and 39+9+12 in the final game to defeat the Mavericks.
Of course, after old Nelson exposed Nowitzki's weaknesses, the Mavericks were eliminated in the first round in a row...
Liu Mang scored 26 points in the first half, 6 points in the third quarter, and played the entire fourth quarter. The Mavericks' defense against him became increasingly strict. Similarly, Jason Terry, who scored 16 points in the third quarter, was also strictly guarded, giving McGrady many opportunities. McGrady began to enjoy the opportunity to double-team him and shoot in an open position, which was impossible in the previous four years. This feeling was so wonderful! He would not have dared to think about it a year ago. He felt pitiful just thinking about it.
But now, playing against a team that has always been in the top four in the West, he actually got an open opportunity! McGrady felt so amazing.
But McGrady is not the guy who wears No. 1 and No. 31 jerseys. He was double-teamed by Liu Mang and passed the ball. After receiving the ball, he chose to cut into the basket and cooperated with his teammates under the basket. The success rate of playing under the basket was very high. Kwame Brown finally scored 20 points in the 9th minute of the fourth quarter today! It's not easy!
But the sad thing came again. The two teams were too accurate. Kwame Brown only had 12 rebounds today...
Double 20 or something, it doesn't exist...
In the last minute of the game, Liu Mang pushed the ball to the frontcourt and came to the three-point line. He waved to Rasheed Wallace, who was defended by Nowitzki, to come out for a pick-and-roll. The Mavericks switched to Nowitzki again to defend him.
Nowitzki saw Liu Mang was going to play solo, so he defended him seriously. With one minute left and 11 points behind, he still had a chance, such as scoring four three-pointers in a row...
Nowitzki wanted to defend Liu Mang's jump shot, because Liu Mang had always shot jump shots against him in pick-and-rolls before, and he had already scored one in each quarter.
However, this time, Nowitzki saw Liu Mang's playful expression, and he didn't make the fake breakthrough moves as seriously as in the previous times, but just dribbled the ball in a fancy way.
Suddenly, Nowitzki heard the other party call him.
"Hey, Dirk."
"Hmm?" Nowitzki responded subconsciously.
"Dirk, I call your name. Do you dare answer?" Liu Mang suddenly shouted loudly and ran away.
Nowitzki was startled, and then saw Liu Mang flash past him, rush into the basket and dunk directly!
Nowitzki was dumbfounded. Wasn't this guy trying to provoke him and mock him for shooting with his posture? Also, what did that sentence just now mean? He dared to answer!
Liu Mang's inner thoughts were: The mission is completed, who would shoot with you? Who can beat your 98 mid-range shot!
…
Finally, the Hawks defeated the Mavericks by 9 points, 130 to 121.
The Mavericks scored 33 points in the final quarter, but the Hawks relied on Liu Mang and Jason Terry to attract defense, McGrady to organize the offense, and Kwame Brown's active cutting to withstand the firepower of the Mavericks. The Hawks maintained the difference of 10 points until the end. Liu Mang played the full 48 minutes, 14 of 27 shots, 4 of 9 three-pointers, and 8 of 9 free throws, scoring 40 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in a single game.
Jason Terry scored 28 points and 3 assists, McGrady scored 22 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists, plus Kwame Brown's 20 points and 12 rebounds in a single game, the "Hawks Big Four" scored 110 points together!
Liu Mang's average score returned to 36.1 points per game, making up for the previous game against the Jazz where he only scored 27 points.
After the game, Jason Terry, who was the turning point of the game, became the MVP of the game and went to be interviewed. Liu Mang, the person who made the plan, and McGrady, the main executor, left silently and hid in the darkness. It was such a great spirit of dedication. They did not publicize what they did. They were so selfless and did not covet fame...
The next chapter will be around six or seven o'clock. I will start writing it after I finish my work in the afternoon~