Chapter 879 878. The Sun Is Coming!

After beating the Bobcats, the Eagles continued to play consecutive home games, and Liu Mang's journey to score points officially began.

First up is the game against the Wizards on the 17th.

Arenas continues to improve this season. As the leader of the Wizards' Warriors' Three Musketeers, his progress is the key to the Wizards' ability to firmly rank among the Eastern Conference playoff teams.

After entering January, if Liu Mang's scoring was not so explosive, Arenas would be the most explosive person on the scoring end. He scored 50+ in a single game once and 40+ three times. In the 9 games played by the Wizards in January, Arenas averaged 33 points per game, and this month may become the first glorious month in his career in which he averages 30+ points per game. Before playing against the Hawks, his scoring average also successfully increased to 25.1 points per game, becoming a The eighth player to average 25+ per game this season.

It's just that Arenas was afraid of the cold, and he got sick again during the game against the Hawks.

In this game, Larry Hughes said he couldn't handle these scumbags anymore!

In this game, the Hawks' defense changed, and McGrady began to work like a coolie, and he was willing to do so. Considering that he was surprisingly effective in guarding Nowitzki's pitching power forward, in this game with the Wizards In the team's game, McGrady was used to guard Jamison when he chose to attack from the outside, and Rasheed Wallace guarded Jamison when he chose to attack inside. He successfully locked up Jamison. Prince occasionally He has to guard power forward Jared Jeffries, mainly guarding Larry Hughes.

On the other side, Liu Mang is very experienced in guarding Arenas. He knows Arenas at his peak better than Arenas himself. Arenas, who has not yet reached his peak, is completely restricted by Liu Mang.

Mainly due to psychological pressure, Arenas was tortured so badly by Liu Mang!

James and Wade were miserable enough. Anthony managed to beat Liu Mang once, Billups also beat Liu Mang once in the Timberwolves, and twice in the 2002-03 regular season with the Pistons, but only in the playoffs. The abuse was even worse.

But Arenas has never won since he entered the league in the same year as Liu Mang. The key is how unlucky he is. When the Hawks were so bad in the first half of the 2002-03 season, it was unfortunate that he There were no games against the Warriors. By the time the Warriors played against the Hawks, the Hawks had already regained their glory...

After all, Arenas was the worst among Liu Mang's opponents.

What's even worse is that the Wizards are currently ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference. If they enter the playoffs like this, they may directly face the Hawks...

When Arenas thought of this, he no longer wanted to play.

Liu Mang is now fully involved in scoring and defending. It is impossible to pass the ball. It is impossible to pass the ball this season... It is another matter to play against competitive teams.

The Wizards actually played pretty well in this game, mainly because some players broke out!

Not the power forward Jared Jeffries who is five centimeters taller than Prince, but Larry Hughes!

Originally, the Hawks blocked the inside line, but unexpectedly Larry Hughes rushed in with a bag of explosives. Haywood, who felt that he should be the No. 1 pick when he saw Kwame Brown, actively picked and rolled, and various Inside kill Larry Hughes scored 41 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, 40+ for the third time in his career!

Larry Hughes made 14 of 22 shots from the field and 13 of 14 free throws. He didn't make a single three-pointer, but he shot 63% from mid-range and short range.

The most important contribution made by Larry Hughes was not just scoring, but causing Kwame Brown to foul 5 times! Three of them were fouls caused by Kwame Brown caused by Larry Hughes, and the other two were fouls each caused by Kwame Brown's normal defense of Arenas and Jamison.

In addition to causing Kwame Brown three fouls, Mourning also committed two fouls and Muhammad three fouls. One person caused 8 fouls, 7 of which were converted into passes!

It seems that one of his artificial fouls is not too many to spread to each opponent, but they have other fouls. Kwame Brown played 16 minutes in the three quarters with five fouls, Mourning played 11 minutes with 4 fouls, and Muhammad fouled 4 fouls in 11 minutes. 4 fouls in 17 minutes, which caused a big problem for the Eagles inside. Continuous fouls will make the referees have the habit of calling penalties. Some players usually commit one or two fouls in a game, but sometimes they commit six fouls in half a game. He left the game because the more worried he was about to commit a foul, the less he dared to do his actions well. On the contrary, the easier it was to be targeted by opponents who were strong in drawing fouls, and the Wizards were the kind of team that was very good at drawing fouls.

At the end of the first half, Arenas and Jamison played so badly that the Wizards led the Hawks by three points 59-56, mainly between the second half of the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter. - Terry failed to make his due contribution. In the previous few games, Jason Terry had been fishing for the moon, but today he was a turtle in the river.

In the first three quarters, due to the team's continuous fouls, Liu Mang failed to counterattack and had a poor sense of rhythm. He only scored 13 points in the three quarters, which was far from his usual average of 29 points per game in the three quarters.

At the end of three quarters, the Eagles were still two points behind the Wizards, 81-83.

In the final quarter, the Hawks were forced to rotate inside with Josh Smith, Rasheed Wallace, and Varejao. Liu Mang, McGrady, and Iguodala started to grind defense with Josh Smith and Rasheed Wallace in the third quarter. On the offensive end, McGrady broke through and Iguodala and Josh Smith cut inside, forcing the opponent to shrink the defense under the basket. Rasheed Wallace helped Liu Mang pick and roll so that Liu Mang could catch the ball and shoot. In the final quarter, after Josh Smith and Rasheed Wallace, two inside combinations with better foul control, were put on, the Hawks finally got the rhythm right. When grinding with the Wizards until the last three minutes, the Hawks finally relied on Josh Smith's alley-oop to overtake the score.

The key to victory still lies in the stars. In the last three minutes, Liu Mang and McGrady each made a three-pointer. With 57 seconds left, Liu Mang rushed to the basket. Even though Haywood's footsteps were slow after 40 minutes of hard work, Liu Mang was able to directly jump up and smash the ball into the basket through Haywood, making it 2+1.

After the free throw, Liu Mang scored 22 points in the final quarter, helping the Hawks to score 36 to 24 in the quarter. With 57 seconds left, the score was reversed to 117 to 107, taking a 10-point lead.

At this time, Larry Hughes, who scored 41 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, could not run anymore. The Wizards led by one point with three minutes left, but did not score a single point during the Hawks' 11 to 0 scoring wave, and were directly reversed by 10 points.

Neither team scored in the last 57 seconds. Liu Mangqiang threw two three-pointers but missed. He finally got 35 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists. McGrady got 27 points, 9 assists and 4 rebounds. With the outstanding performance of the two in the last quarter, the Hawks reversed the Wizards in the last quarter and won two consecutive victories, and the record improved to 32 wins and 6 losses.

…

It is so difficult to improve the average score by 1 point! Liu Mang only got 35 points against the Wizards. The simple addition is still good, which means that he has to get at least 41 points in the next game… Fortunately, the average score increased to 36.2 points in the last game did not go back because of this game.

Larry Hughes's rampage was indeed unexpected. In this game broadcast by T.N.T, Larry Hughes' performance made people amazed. If Arenas hadn't played so badly, he only scored 10 points with 4 of 13 shots. As long as he could perform normally and get more than 20 points, the Wizards would have a chance to win.

Previously, because Arenas was too dazzling and Jamison was a player who had scored 50+ consecutively and was once regarded as a super scoring forward swingman, Larry Hughes had always been the one who was ignored among the three musketeers of the Wizards.

After this game, people found that Larry Hughes was the most stable of the Wizards, averaging 22 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game, superstar-level data.

However, the Wizards had too few national live broadcasts. There were three musketeers, but only 6 national live broadcasts this season. People only knew that the Wizards had Arenas and Jamison, and many fans didn't even know Larry Hughes.

But now, Larry Hughes has successfully entered people's sight through the game with the Hawks.

When it was discovered that Larry Hughes' contract would expire after this season, some teams began to have the idea of ​​poaching him.

…

After playing against the Wizards, the Hawks rested for a day and immediately won the game against the Kings.

Liu Mang did not dare to be careless in this game. Although the Kings lost Webber, Bibby was a tough guy. Brad Miller and Kenny Thomas' inside combination offense was still very good. Peja was always awesome in the regular season. Mobley also played well when he came to the Kings, which has now become a purely offensive team.

Bibby's ability rating was 87, Peja's ability rating was 85, Brad Miller's ability rating was 79, Kenny Thomas' ability rating was 75, and Mobley's ability rating was 81. The Kings' starting lineup was particularly strong in offense, and there was also Bobby Jackson on the bench.

Although the Kings only had a record of 22 wins and 16 losses and ranked sixth in the West, Liu Mang did not dare to underestimate the Kings' strength, and the Hawks were also ready.

However, when the Hawks used the attitude of playing against the Heat to defend the Kings in the game, the Kings now only relied on offensive play. As long as the Hawks put some pressure on the defensive end, the advantage was obvious all of a sudden!

Because the Kings can't defend at all, and the Kings' offensive firepower is not as strong as the Hawks, but the Kings are a team that wins purely on offense. This season, they average 104 points per game, second only to the Suns, Hawks, and Mavericks, ranking fourth in the league. They are very good at playing against weak teams this season, but they have lost their former style when playing against strong teams.

Liu Mang played 41 minutes, 17 of 29 shots, 6 of 13 three-pointers, 3 of 4 free throws, and easily scored 43 points. With so few free throws, we can see how lax the Kings' defense is.

It is said that the Suns have poor defense. In fact, the Kings' defense has also been poor in the past two years. So far, the Suns have allowed the opponent to score an average of 103 points per game when the opponent has an average of 93 shots per game, while the Kings have allowed the opponent to score an average of 102 points per game when the opponent has only an average of 84 shots per game. In fact, the Kings are not much better than the Suns, but their offense is mostly positional warfare, and the rhythm is not particularly fast.

This is just like how O'Neal was so bad at free throws that people ignored Duncan's 60% free throw shooting percentage in the first three years of his career. They forgot that Duncan also played with a wild and flying style in the first three years, and forgot that his mid-range shooting percentage in the first three years was exactly 30%, making him the second best inside killer in the league at the time after O'Neal.

Relying on Liu Mang's 43 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, McGrady's 10 points, 14 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, the Hawks easily defeated the Kings 109-92 and won their third consecutive victory, while improving their record to 33 wins and 6 losses. .

When Liu Mang came off the field, he really despised a guy who was wearing No. 3 and was assisting. When he was already leading 100-80 by 20 points with only 4 minutes left, he still shot a ball to increase the score to 10 points...

…

…

"Ace, wake up!" Alexia squeezed Liu Mang's chest with her shoulder.

"I can't get up, I'm too tired." Liu Mang played for 41 minutes last night. When he came back in the evening, he couldn't help but do something to Alexia first and then again several times. He didn't go to bed until after two in the morning.

Mainly because Jason Terry performed poorly in the Wizards game and only scored 7 points. Therefore, when McGrady went to rest in the first half, Liu Mang pressed Jason Terry. Although he had the ball for about 10 minutes, he Jason Terry lost, but Liu Mang played very hard on the defensive end. He was not physically tired, but his mental concentration was still very tiring.

"Nash sent a text message. They have already arrived at the hotel. Ace, didn't you make an appointment with Nash for lunch? Get up quickly!" Alexia reminded, when Liu Mang picked them up to watch the game yesterday afternoon, Said this.

"What time is it?" Liu Mang asked, burying his head in Alexia's hair, and his hands began to become dishonest.

"It's half past ten! Get up and take a shower! Hmm..." Alexia suddenly snorted.

"It's so late..." Liu Mang had no choice but to get up, release Alexia who was sleeping in his arms and put her on the bed.

When Alexia was put on the bed, something came out of her body, and she couldn't help but groan again.

Watching Liu Mang go to the bathroom, Alexia now had a strange idea: Do you want to stand on your head? I heard Madonna did this...

…

Liu Mang took a shower, took a shot of physical potion to relieve physical fatigue, and drove to the Emery Hotel, where the Suns were staying.

Liu Mang couldn't help but get excited when he thought about playing a game with Nash, who had now completely released his shackles!

With a record of 33 wins and 6 losses since the new century, only the Lakers in the same period in January 2000 and the Eagles themselves in the same period last season have a better record than the Eagles now.

But the Hawks' record is not far ahead. The Pistons are also 32-8, 1.5 games behind the Hawks. In the West, the Suns, who have played two more games than the Hawks, are 34-7. The record is the same as the Eagles' record!

The situation where the three heroes stand together is one of the biggest highlights of this season!