Chapter 920 919. When Excellence Becomes a Habit

When people regard the excellence of a team as normal performance, it is undoubtedly the greatest compliment for this team.

Just like the Spurs, they won 56 games starting from Duncan's rookie season. After that, they won the first place in the Western Conference three times through the 2002-03 season. Since Duncan's second year, the Spurs have not fallen out of the top three in the Western Conference. People have already regarded the Spurs as Excellence is regarded as normal performance.

I don’t know when the Eagles’ excellence began to be regarded as normal performance.

When Liu Mang scored 20 times of 40+ and 5 times of 50+ in a single season, his outstanding personal performance and the outstanding performance of the Eagles were considered the norm.

It is impossible to have a live broadcast of the Warriors game. Even the Eagles game is not live broadcast. Today's live broadcast resources are precious.

The attention of this game is also average. The battle for victory in the playoffs between the Eastern and Western Conferences is now the highlight of the NBA. Which teams will fall behind and which teams will counterattack after the All-Star Weekend. Fans' favorite game to watch.

Of course, strong matchups are also an aspect that fans pay the most attention to, and the ranking battle between strong teams usually lasts until eight to ten games in the last month of the season.

Therefore, the Eagles' game against the Warriors is neither a positional battle nor a strong matchup. There is no live broadcast, and not many people care.

In addition to playing the Suns and Mavericks in the rest of the Hawks' games this month, even Chinese fans cannot cheer up and pay attention. It is not easy for the Hawks to abuse the opponent. Coach Kruger has not announced the next game. The Jazz will rest four starters.

So the game against the Warriors seemed uneventful.

However, after the news came out that Liu Mang scored 60 points in three quarters, and the Warriors also scored 60 points in three quarters, it was like detonating a depth charge on a calm sea, attracting the attention of all fans!

When the news came out that Liu Mang scored 60 points in the third quarter, most people didn't believe it.

People's first reaction was "Holy shit, are you kidding? It's not April Fool's Day, 60 points in three quarters?".

When they saw that the news from all the major media was consistent, and the NBA official website updated the score, the scores of each quarter of the two teams, and the specific data of the players after the game between the Hawks and Warriors, people's reaction was "Fuck, that Guys are really kidding! 60 points in three quarters!”

Liu Mang's third quarter... to be precise, it was two quarters, 11 minutes and 9 seconds. Liu Mang scored 60 points. The Warriors only scored 60 points. The Eagles led the Warriors by 28 points in the third quarter, 88-60. !

The Warriors called a timeout and Liu Mang's score reached 60. Coach Kruger replaced Liu Mang.

Although something terrible might happen after 60 minutes in the third quarter, coach Kruger still replaced Liu Mang. If the opponent did something and something happened to Liu Mang, it would be bad.

Kobe originally scored 81 points against the Raptors in time and space because the Lakers trailed by 14 points after halftime.

Sure enough, after returning from the timeout, the Warriors went crazy trying to score. Coach Kruger felt that if Liu Mang was put on the court, something might happen due to the opponent's crazy mood.

However, the Eagles saw that Liu Mang scored as many points as the Warriors, and they defended like crazy, trying to help Liu Mang hold on to this great miracle.

The referee did not give the Warriors a whistle in the last 51 seconds when the Warriors played three offenses in a high-confrontation situation. The Eagles did not score in the last 51 seconds. At the end of the three quarters, the Eagles still had 88 points and the Warriors still had 88 points. The team still has 60 points!

If the Warriors made the ball, there would be nothing to say, but the referees knew that they must not let Liu Mang's 60 points vs. the Warriors' 60 points be ruined because of their whistle!

This is truly one person versus a team!

The referees were shocked by Liu Mang's performance!

The referee can be considered a person who has seen the world, but this is the first time he has seen such a performance!

If the opponent is very defensive and scores more than 40 points or 50 points in the third quarter, and someone scores as many points as the opponent, this is acceptable.

But if a player scores 60 points in three quarters, even if the average score per quarter is calculated, if he plays the whole game...

Of course, it cannot be calculated like this. In the season when McGrady won the scoring title, he scored 52 points in three quarters twice. But after the first 52 points in three quarters, he scored 24 points in the third quarter. He wanted to rush to 70+ points in the fourth quarter, but In the fourth quarter, he only made 1 of 6 shots, and he couldn't shoot at all. It was the opponent's rough defense that allowed him to get 12 free throws in the last quarter, but he only made 8 of 12 free throws.

Although McGrady finally scored 62 points in the first game with 52 points in three quarters, after the second 52 points in three quarters, he no longer had the motivation to go up and score 60 points. He was too tired.

But Liu Mang is different! Liu Mang's physical fitness is notoriously good. The only players who can compare with his physical fitness are Kobe, Iverson, Hamilton and other very few players before they gained weight. Liu Mang has the ability to continue to be strong in the fourth quarter. !

There were even 51 seconds left in the third quarter. Liu Mang and Tracy McGrady once scored 17 points in 37 seconds together. That miracle happened just a month ago. There was no reason why the referee would not notice what Liu Mang would have done if he continued to stay on the court. Score 70+ or ​​even higher!

In the end, Liu Mang was not replaced in the fourth quarter. The first and fourth small lineups of Calderon, Jason Terry, Korver, Iguodala, and Varejao played the entire fourth quarter.

The Warriors failed to overtake Liu Mang in the last 51 seconds of the third quarter, and their mentality completely collapsed. In the fourth quarter, the Eagles couldn't defend themselves. They still threw casually from the outside, hoping to end the game quickly.

The fans at the scene kept chanting "We want Ace", but coach Kruger never replaced Liu Mang.

The fans at the scene turned against each other from the beginning, and Liu Mang was the only one who criticized the game for three quarters and the game ended in a tie. The Warriors had no intention of playing anymore.

In the end, the Eagles defeated the Warriors 120-83, a score difference of 37 points.

Not only the referee thinks that Liu Mang can cause bigger things if he continues to play, but the fans also think the same. With Liu Mang's physical fitness, he will definitely not be like McGrady who ran out of energy after three quarters and played the whole game. Big things could happen!

Liu Mang did not continue to play in the fourth quarter, which became a regret in the hearts of fans and media.

However, even if Liu Mang did not play in the fourth quarter, a statistic on the NBA official website and major portals and forums once again shocked everyone.

People suddenly discovered that Liu Mang fought against the entire Warriors team with one hand. After making 21 of 38 shots in the three quarters, 7 of 12 three-pointers, and 11 of 14 free throws to score 60 points, his average points per game had increased to 37 points!

Since the merger of the NBA and ABA in 1976, apart from Liu Mang, only one player has averaged 37 points per game, and even apart from Liu Mang, only one player has ever averaged 35 points per game.

That is Jordan in the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons. He scored 37.1 points and 35 points in back-to-back seasons. Before the All-Star Weekend in the second season, Jordan still averaged 36.8 points per game, but the Bulls traded him Former Celtics champion Sam Vincent and Pippen also made great progress in the second half of the season. After the All-Star break, Pippen averaged 11 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game, while Vincent averaged 13 points per game. Taking away some of Jordan's shooting rights, Jordan's scoring average began to decline, but in the end he averaged 35 points per game.

Since 1976, apart from Jordan, the only player who can maintain such a high scoring average is Liu Mang!

Liu Mang's scoring performance has continued this season. This is already the 21st time this season with 40+ points, the sixth time with 50+ points and the second time with 60+ points!

So far, Liu Mang has scored 60+ points 4 times in his career, tying Jordan's 60+ times!

Liu Mang averaged 37 points per game. Jordan's career high was 37.1 points per game, which was also the highest scoring record since Chamberlain averaged 38 points per game in the 1964-1965 season.

Liu Mang is going to surpass Jordan's career-high scoring average!

…

After the game, Liu Mang attended the press conference.

Liu Mang himself never thought that he would perform like that.

As for why I didn’t go up to score points in the fourth quarter...

Just kidding, after seeing the Warriors' crazy look at the end of the third quarter, he knew that he would definitely encounter the same defense as when he played the Bulls.

A good three-quarter tie with the opponent's entire team is not an officially recognized record, but it will definitely be recorded in NBA history as a "miracle". Go ahead and break this fixed "miracle" yourself. That's not a brain problem. Already?

At this time, Liu Mang understood Kobe's mentality of not playing in the fourth quarter when he scored 62 points in the third quarter against the runner-up Mavericks, which was one point more than the opponent. This was more compelling than scoring 70 points!

But when answering the media, of course he couldn't answer like this. Liu Mang said indifferently: "I'm not the kind of person who is keen on scoring points. I only played in the third quarter because my teammates took turns. I need to shoot more. It's just shooting." It’s just a goal. After the third quarter, we were almost 30 points ahead. I didn’t need to play anymore. Getting 60 points is a win, and getting 101 points is still a win. What’s the difference?”

The media are all rolling their eyes. Who said you could score 101 points in the fourth quarter?

Liu Mang's shameless answer made the media slanderous, but they wrote everything Liu Mang said in the news...

…

Not only were the fans going crazy, Liu Mang's 60 points in three quarters also caused a big shock among the players.

McGrady, who was on the same team as Liu Mang, watched the game from the sidelines. When he was interviewed after the game, he didn't know what to say other than laughing.

Iverson learned the news when he was interviewed after the game and said: "He made me want to win the scoring title, but forget it. The playoffs are more important to me. Winning the I took quite a few things.”

Carter received a phone interview from the TV station that night. He still had the same attitude: "Ace does this every time. He will teach the children bad, and the children will think that is the right way to play..."

Kobe hung up the phone directly. The Eagles' game against the Warriors was not broadcast live across the country, but Time Warner had live broadcasts in Georgia and California. Kobe didn't want to say anything now.

Jordan did accept an interview. When asked about the possibility of being surpassed by Liu Mang with 37.1 points, Jordan laughed and said: "Hahahaha, that's great. I always look forward to someone challenging me. Ace did a great job..." "

What else could Jordan do? I can only smile on my face and XXX in my heart...

Many stars commented on Liu Mang's performance this time. Of course, reporters took the initiative to come to them. Except for a few, even opponents who had a bad relationship with Liu Mang, their answers were mainly congratulations.

There is no way, the scoring is really just right! The points that other players "casually" get are more than 30 points, and they burst out like this. Some players have played for a lifetime and have never scored 30 points a few times.

…

…

On February 23, the day after the Hawks played the Warriors, Liu Mang took the other nine teammates except McGrady, Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Kwame Brown and others to Salt Lake City. McGrady and other four starters went to Phoenix to wait for the meeting with the Suns in Phoenix on the 25th.

The next day, the hot discussion caused by Liu Mang's 60 points in three quarters continued. The main reason was that there was no national live broadcast, and the information was very slow. Especially in China, many people did not believe it. When it was confirmed repeatedly, the entire fan circle exploded.

Just when Liu Mang's matter triggered a wave of discussion among fans, a signing with the Hawks happened quietly.

On the morning of February 23, the Hawks officially announced that they had reached a one-year, $860,000 base salary contract with Wesley Persson, with only two months left. In fact, the contract was signed for $286,000 until the end of the season.

Wesley Persson was once a sharp shooter for the Cavaliers, with a career three-point shooting percentage of 42%, and an average of 1.7 three-pointers per game so far in his career.

Persson served as a backup small forward and backup shooting guard for the Heat this season. Last night, Persson reached a buyout agreement with the Heat, and flew to Atlanta early this morning for a physical examination, and then immediately flew to Salt Lake City to meet with the Hawks to prepare for tomorrow's game.

In order to join the Hawks, Persson gave up a large sum of money.

Last summer, Persson signed a three-year, $9 million guaranteed contract with the Heat. In order to reach a buyout agreement with the Heat, Persson gave up the remaining salary for this season and half of the salary for the next two years. He could have received a total of $6 million in the remaining two years, but now he can only get $1.5 million per year. He signed a base salary contract of $860,000 with the Hawks, and there are only two months left, which means he only has less than $300,000 in income. It is still unclear whether he can continue to play next season.

Persson played 25 games for the Heat this season, averaging 14 minutes per game, 5.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists. The most important thing is that he averaged 1.1 three-pointers per game with a three-point shooting rate of 43%!

Persson, who will be 34 years old in a month, is still in good shape, but I don’t know what Van Gundy thinks. When he lets him play, he lets him play the whole quarter directly, and when he doesn’t let him play, he is benched for several games in a row.

Pat Riley signed Persson with a 3-year, $9 million contract last summer, but Van Gundy refused to use it.

In order to save salary and Persson really didn't want to play for the Heat, Pat Riley agreed to Persson's buyout request to reduce luxury tax.

The Hawks took advantage of Liu Mang taking away all the attention and quietly strengthened the team. When Liu Mang arrived in Salt Lake City, he found that a strong reinforcement had suddenly arrived!