Chapter 857 856. A Brief Opportunity to Become the Top Center
How unlucky can a person be?
After the game, Liu Mang drove San Niu home, but it broke down on the road.
After driving against his teammate's car, McGrady forgot to refuel... McGrady was not in the habit of replenishing oil... As a result, he took a taxi home and parked the two cars on the road waiting for the towing company to tow them away...
The party was quite normal. Liu Mang sat down and had a drink, watching the little Lolita play with a group of friends.
It is the same whether at home or abroad. This kind of birthday party or something, the protagonist of the party looks like the birthday girl. In fact, except for the initial congratulations and the cutting of the cake, everyone else is enjoying themselves, and the little loli is also brought along. Stockton's son and daughter, Rasheed Wallace's family, etc. went to play games and watch movies together.
The party ended happily, I didn’t drink too much tonight. The season is in progress, the boss and the coaching staff are here, and there will be the next game soon after a day off, so I got a little tipsy.
Liu Mang called the car rental company to send someone to take his teammates home. There was no need to worry about the messy party scene. Cleaners would come to watch tomorrow.
Liu Mang returned to the room to take a bath and go to bed. However, the water heater for bathing in the winter was broken and the water was cold.
Liu Mang wiped his body with cold water and prepared to light a fireplace to relieve the cold. Who knew that the smokeless firewood left in the warehouse last winter got damp and filled the house with thick smoke. The fire alarm went off, and the fire police in the wealthy villa area It came very quickly, and I don’t know who gave the order. When I saw the thick smoke coming out, I fired directly to put out the fire...
The three girls were fine, but Liu Mang was soaked in the rain...
The three girls were so scared that they did not dare to approach Liu Mang...
The god of plague is possessed!
…
Liu Mang's misfortune didn't stop there. When he arrived at the arena the next morning, the air conditioner at the training ground was broken. Liu Mang had to train in the cold. His teammates said, hey, the air conditioner will be back on soon.
After training in the morning, I went to take a shower. The bathroom light was broken, so Liu Mang could only block the door and take a shower... But after taking a shower, Liu Mang kicked the door against the wall with a bang, and the light came on. Colleagues from the engineering department I came to check it out and found that it was in disrepair and had poor contact. After a little maintenance, it was fine again...
There are countless similar unlucky times. We went to the shopping mall next to the arena to buy something at noon, and Liu Mang was the only one in the elevator. Liu Mang finally overloaded the elevator when he went up, but it was not overloaded when he came down.
Teammates accompanied Liu Mang to walk on the escalator, but a child pressed the emergency brake...
As long as things related to Liu Mang are as unlucky as they are, although they are all trivial matters, Liu Mang was not actually hurt, but it was a bit too unlucky... The sudden bad luck caused his teammates to They were all frightened.
In just one and a half days of preparation, from the team's tactical training on the morning of the 20th to the preparation time before the game on the 21st, Kevin Willis, who returned to the team to discuss the transaction with the team, had a lot of time. After a while, when Liu Mang was in the same space as them, Liu Mang's unlucky situation occurred a total of 33 times, with an average of once every half an hour...
In the evening, Liu Mang called Levia and asked Levia to drive Dinah, Alexia and bodyguard Christine Wagner to watch the game.
The three girls at home all said on the phone that Liu Mang’s suggestion was a good one, as they would avoid breaking down when they left home...
Liu Mang took Tracy McGrady to have tea with Gasol, Battier, and Mike Miller.
Tracy McGrady and Mike Miller have a good relationship, so Liu Mang and Gasol called them up. They hadn't seen each other for a long time to catch up on old times.
"Ace, have you met a black cat?" McGrady and Liu Mang separated themselves from each other, as if Liu Mang was the cause of an infectious disease.
"Yes, I met the black cat. I met it at the door of your house, and then I didn't invite you to breakfast." Liu Mang rolled his eyes at McGrady.
This is only the second day, there are still five days!
"What's wrong Tracy, has Ace been unlucky recently? Didn't he just score 61 points? His scoring average is almost more than Jordan's!" Gasol asked curiously.
After Liu Mang scored 61 points in the victory over the Knicks, his scoring average increased to 36.7 points per game, which was 0.4 points short of the 37.1 points created by Jordan.
It's easy to say, but now every time Liu Mang wants to improve by 0.1 points, he has to score three points more than 37 points. That is to say, he must score at least 40 points in every game to increase his average points per game.
It's not easy to maintain an average of 36.7 points per game, let alone 40 points per game, and the more games are played, the more it takes to increase the average points per game.
"Oh, Paul, you don't know how unlucky Ace has been these past two days..." McGrady began to complain to Gasol.
Liu Mang cursed "Ba Po" in his heart, picked up the coffee and took a small sip. He carefully felt the taste stimulation and then swallowed it cautiously.
Now I am really afraid of choking to death when I drink water!
Tonight’s opponent is the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have not made as much progress as expected this year and have declined, mainly because of the poor health of their coach Hubie Brown. He did not finish the first game month because of There was a problem with liver function, and it was not advisable to stay up late, and he could not even maintain normal concentration for three consecutive hours of game time. After coaching 10 games this season, the coach chose to resign.
Hubie Brown was the most important mentor who made Gasol the league's top power forward. The old coach announced his retirement and would never come back, and the Grizzlies' momentum of continuous improvement was curbed.
However, because the defensive foundation left by the coach is still there, the Grizzlies are still one of the best defensive teams in the league this season, averaging only 90.3 points per game. This is a bit higher after the coach retired. At the beginning of the season They averaged only 89.5 points per game, which was completely against the times. It was quite successful. Their lineup could only play this way.
Now that the old coach has retired, the defensive foundation is still there. The Grizzlies still rely on defense to barely compete with the Rockets, Lakers, Nuggets, and Kings for the fifth to eighth positions in the Western Conference.
The Grizzlies were beaten by Kobe Bryant for 51 points yesterday, and my sister-in-law has already begun to enjoy the "bullying" of the little blacksmith.
Today is a back-to-back game for the Grizzlies. Gasol arrived in Atlanta in the morning, took a nap, took the president and made an appointment with Liu Mang for tea after a nap, and then went back to Phillips Arena to warm up for the evening game.
Watching Mai Mama and his sister-in-law gossiping about his misfortune, Liu Mang felt desperate. There were still more than five days like this...
The good thing is that when the game comes, the unlucky things will be temporarily suspended. This unlucky thing is pure bad luck and will not affect the game, otherwise Liu Mang would have cried.
…
…
At 7 p.m., the Hawks faced off against the Grizzlies for the first time this season.
Liu Mang himself didn't know when he became a "social butterfly". He actually has so many friends in the NBA. Of course, he thinks there are probably more people who hate him and people who dare to be angry but dare not speak out.
Anyway, every time Gasol comes to Atlanta, he can be cheered.
When the Grizzlies players came out, there was no movement when others came out, except Gasol who received cheers when he came out.
The Memphis people want to poach Liu Mang, and the Atlanta people also want to poach Gasol. Although Gasol has already renewed his contract before the start of the season, the fans just like Gasol and he has such a good personality. Well, good image is the hallmark of European players in the NBA.
Nowitzki wants to be stronger, much better. After all, he is the favorite for the first team and MVP, but Nowitzki is too low-key. Gasol is the most profitable among European players. He has more than 30 endorsement contracts. European players Ranked first.
At the beginning of the preseason, Gasol and the Grizzlies signed the largest contract among the 2001 players for six years and a total of US$86 million. It took effect in the summer of 2005 and was larger than Liu Mang's total contract. It’s close to 8 million U.S. dollars more, but the starting salary is 2 million U.S. dollars lower than Liu Mang’s, which is not the maximum salary. The six-year contract is only less than 8 million U.S. dollars more than Liu Mang’s five-year contract, but it is already a big deal in this era. The contract is different now and in the future when a high-ranking rookie with a high value cannot renew the contract without the maximum salary and cannot keep it, the current contract is relatively rational.
When the Hawks home team players came out, everyone else was normal. Rasheed Wallace came out first, then Prince. When Kwame Brown came out, everyone in the audience started chanting "The best center in the Eastern Conference." ", the cheers received were louder than those of the two superstars Tracy McGrady and Liu Mang who appeared later!
"This damn parallel import, don't pass the ball to him!" Liu Mang was unhappy when he saw Kwame Brown cheering louder than himself.
"But this guy is getting better and better at rebounding, and today he met his sister-in-law who is easy to push down..." Liu Mang became even more unhappy!
In the game the day before yesterday, Kwame Brown scored a double-20 of 21 points and 20 rebounds. At that time, Liu Mang’s 61 points overshadowed all the light. McGrady’s triple-double and Kwame Brown’s double-20 were both missed by Liu Mang. was overshadowed by the light, but after the game, Kwame Brown's confrontation with O'Neal continued to ferment, people discovered that Kwame Brown had double 20 for the third time in more than a year, more than O'Neal!
This "favorable" evidence was immediately publicized by the Atlanta media. Fans also liked to watch the excitement, mainly basketball fans who were not Hawks fans or O'Neal fans. They all wanted to see how O'Neal would go berserk when he met the Hawks, so online They are all saying that Kwame Brown is the number one center...
Kwame Brown is now slowly beginning to believe that he is the number one center in the Eastern Conference. He probably has ignored the fact that the number one center in the Eastern Conference is the number one center in the NBA. Anyway, he is sure that he is the number one center in the Eastern Conference.
Kwame Brown deceived himself, and maybe only himself, but for Kwame Brown, Liu Mang felt that this was a good thing.
Because Kwame Brown is more active now, more motivated in training, and he is still young, only 23 years old. Theoretically, there is still room for improvement. What I am afraid of is that this guy was used to being a parallel import before, but now he sees that he can average per game. 13+12 is enough to satisfy this achievement and stop there.
Now Kwame Brown is self-hypnotizing, which can be regarded as setting a higher goal for himself. This is even beyond Liu Mang's expectation, but it is not bad, and it is always a good thing.
Speaking of which, Liu Mang feels that Kwame Brown may not have the opportunity to truly experience the taste of the No. 1 center in the Eastern Conference. Compared with Amar'e Stoudemire and Yao Ming in the Western Conference, Kwame Brown may not be just... basically impossible , both of them can average 25+ points per game. Yao Ming, who did not receive Liu Mang's guidance, both averaged 25 points per game in the 06-07 season. Although Stoudemire is not regarded as a center, in order to provide double 21 To free up the power forward position, Stoudemire will be ranked at the center position when he is honored in recent years.
But Liu Mang thinks that Kwame Brown really has a chance to try to be the top center. For example, he can try to improve faster than Howard. Before O'Neal and Ben Wallace get old and Howard has not fully grown up, Kwame Brown may take advantage of the gap in the Eastern Conference center and become the top center in the Eastern Conference!
It's always good to have a goal. Whether it can be achieved or not, if Kwame Brown has the opportunity to become the top center in the Eastern Conference in a short period of time, Liu Mang is happy for this guy.
It's just that... Kwame Brown has stolen Liu Mang's limelight now, and Liu Mang is very unhappy.
...
There is no big trouble in the game with the Grizzlies. The lineup of the Hawks is Liu Mang, McGrady, Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Kwame Brown.
The lineup sent by the Grizzlies is Jason Williams, Mike Miller, Sean Battier, Gasol, and Lorenzen White.
The Grizzlies used the style of play of the Hawks in the past three years, with triangle offense plus Princeton on offense and collective defense on defense. As for the lineup... except for Gasol, who is similar to the offensive version of Rasheed Wallace, all other positions are weakened versions of the Hawks.
The Grizzlies were completely restrained by the Hawks. The Grizzlies played very hard. Gasol scored 29 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists in the first three quarters, which was a three-quarter triple-double, helping the Grizzlies score 67 points in three quarters, only 8 points behind the Hawks with 71 to 79.
Liu Mang played 28 minutes in the first three quarters and scored 24 points, which was a few points less than Gasol.
It was mainly because McGrady started the team offense, mainly for the sake of the team, and also for the sake of Liu Mang, so that other teammates would not feel that they had no sense of participation, and the fighting spirit of teammates who were fully activated after playing small ball was wiped out.
Mama McGrady's heart is full of children!
In the last quarter, after Gasol played the first three quarters and got beautiful data and played a key role, he began to run out of energy in the fourth quarter.
In the system left by Hubie Brown, Gasol should play for 31-32 minutes, which is the effective time to maintain the best condition. Gasol played so well last season because Hubie Brown used him well, but he played for 36 minutes in the first three quarters today. In the fourth quarter, he could not play except for grabbing rebounds and passing assists with his height and rebounding sense.
Jason Williams has become an ordinary point guard now, and he can be regarded as an excellent point guard. He averages 6.4 assists and 1.6 turnovers per game, with a perfect assist-to-turnover ratio, but he has become a very ordinary point guard. He has lost his spirit and has no ability to lead the game that reverses the gap in strength.
In the eighth minute of the final quarter, the Hawks were already leading by 20 points with 106 to 86. There were 4 minutes left and a 20-point difference. Although Gasol scored 2 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in the final quarter, he made 0 of 4 shots. Except for two free throws, he could basically not score.
Gasol played beautiful data with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but he was unable to make up for the gap in strength between the two teams. When the Hawks played normally, Gasol's explosion could not make up for it.
The game entered garbage time, and the Grizzlies' interim head coach Lionel Hollins replaced the main players and announced his surrender.
Liu Mang scored 10 points and 3 rebounds in the final quarter, 34 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in the whole game. McGrady got a double-double again, 13 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists, Kwame Brown scored 14 points and 14 rebounds, Jason Terry scored 21 points and 5 assists, and the Hawks finally defeated the Grizzlies by 18 points with a score of 112 to 94, winning 7 consecutive games!
22 wins and 4 losses!
…
After the Hawks won seven consecutive games, they regained the top spot in the league!
Because the Suns' 10-game winning streak in the West was ended!
After the game between the Hawks and the Grizzlies, the Suns got a rare live broadcast in the United States to play against the old Western powerhouse Spurs. As a result, the Suns were hammered by the Spurs.
Stoudemire has earned the title of the most violent center in the league this season, and many fans and media thought that Duncan, who plays steadily, would be beaten.
As a result, Duncan played more violently than Stoudemire, and he directly knocked Stoudemire into the basket and dunked several times in the game...
The Spurs slaughtered the Suns 115 to 94. Duncan scored 37 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocks against the third-year Stoudemire, and only defended Stoudemire to 16 points and 7 rebounds.
People then remembered that Duncan's previous nickname was the Flying Devil...
After Liu Mang finished physical therapy, he saw the post-game report of the Suns and Spurs, and could only say that Duncan was too strong!
The current Suns are still a little bit worse, mainly because they are too young. If Stoudemire, who developed a mid-range shot two years later, had been able to deal with Duncan, it would not have been so difficult. Now Stoudemire can only run to the basket, and it is too easy for Duncan to deal with him.
In 2007, Nash was still at his peak, Stoudemire also entered his peak, and the Suns had a better lineup. Liu Mang felt that season was the strongest season for the Suns.
As far as Liu Mang remembered, the Suns had a hard time playing against the Spurs and the Mavericks in the past two years. The biggest problem was that there was no single player who could really defeat the defense of the two teams.
Nash was the bottom line of the Suns. When he was at his peak, as long as the Suns had a suitable lineup, he could guarantee a minimum of 60 wins, and Stoudemire was the one who raised the ceiling.
…
With 22 wins and 4 losses, the Hawks and the Suns with 23 wins and 5 losses tied for first place in the league. Because they played two fewer games, the Hawks ranked ahead of the Suns.
After playing against the Grizzlies, the Hawks continued their tight schedule.
The Hawks only have 14 games this month, which is very easy, but very tight, because they have not encountered back-to-back games so far, only the last two games at the end of the month are back-to-back, and there are rest time in the previous games.
This schedule is easy, but also tight.
After playing the Grizzlies, the Hawks set off for Denver the next morning, and their opponent on the 23rd is the Nuggets.
Just before the Hawks went to Denver, the trade that the Hawks had been waiting for for a long time finally came!