Chapter 966 965. First Team, Second Defense!

Becoming the third victim of 60+ in a single game in the playoffs in history, the Pistons saw Liu Mang receiving the ball and double-teamed him like crazy. Liu Mang received the ball in the high post with his back to the basket and made good use of this position to attract defense and pass the vision on both sides of this position. In the second game, he changed from a scorer to a high-post transfer setter, helping McGrady to organize the offense.

The Pistons focused on defense and rhythm in this game, but no matter how the coaching staff emphasized the defense of Liu Mang, they couldn't help but double-team him. Although not all of Liu Mang's passes turned into assists after being double-teamed, McGrady would pass the ball to him. When Liu Mang received the ball, he tore the opponent's defense in half!

On the other hand, the Pistons' offense began to wane, and they felt discouraged. The ball that should have been thrown in didn't go in, and they could only rely on defense to prevent the score difference from being completely widened.

At the end of the first half, the Hawks led by 9 points 47 to 38, mainly because they were very stable! The Hawks were inspired with the strongest fighting spirit and unprecedented attention to the Pistons, playing steady offense and defense without messing around.

The game was only halfway through when Pistons coach Philip Saunders was criticized by Barkley, saying that he had tried desperately to win in the last game and ruined the Pistons.

Kenny Smith was relatively professional and felt that there was nothing wrong with Coach Saunders' approach. In the first three years, the Pistons played against the Hawks, and there was a characteristic that no matter how well they played in the regular season, they would be beaten to death when they met the Hawks.

If they still maintained the same style of play and the mentality of wanting to win in a stable manner, the Pistons would have no chance of winning against the Hawks. Coach Saunders' approach was correct in Kenny Smith's opinion. Instead of dying slowly, it was better to inspire the strongest morale of the players and fight for their lives. They wanted to win the first victory in one go and build confidence, but they were defeated by the Hawks. The Pistons' desperate style of play failed, and they failed completely!

In this game, the Pistons completely lost the spirit of the first game, while the Eagles were aroused by the Pistons in the first game and played very well on both offense and defense.

The game seemed very dull. The Eagles attached great importance to the Pistons, so they played a steady defense. On the offensive end, Liu Mang also mainly passed the ball, using the Pistons' defensive tendency to slowly grind the position, so the game was very dull.

In the end, this game that made the fans drowsy finally ended. The Eagles won 97 to 85, holding a difference of 10 points and ended the game.

Liu Mang scored 18 points and 9 assists, McGrady scored 17 points and 7 assists, Jason and Terry scored 15 points, Kwame Brown scored 13 points, and Persson scored 9 points. Four Eagles scored in double digits and steadily defeated the Pistons to win two consecutive victories.

Coach Sanders understood where the despair revealed by the Pistons players came from.

Just as Kenny Smith analyzed in the game, he wanted to use the first game to boost morale, but unfortunately failed.

In the first game, Coach Sanders used their familiarity with the Hawks to target the Hawks, but in the second game, he found that the Hawks were more familiar with them! That kind of stable feeling makes people feel desperate!

Even Liu Mang did not make any comments on Delfino's foul in the previous game. He used Delfino to defend Liu Mang alone, but Liu Mang broke into the inside and caused Bosh to foul. Coach Sanders deliberately did not let Delfino apologize in front of the media, so that Delfino, the sunny boy of Argentina's golden generation, was criticized by the media, just to anger Liu Mang, but Liu Mang was not affected at all, and played the most stable game with the most correct defense.

The opponent has already played them!

Not afraid of losing miserably, but afraid of the feeling of being held in the palm of the opponent's hand! Coach Sanders has no choice, even a good cook can't cook without rice! The lineup is only good with five starters, but the morale is gone...

The third Pistons coach Liu Mang has met in his career, and he failed again...

The first game was so exciting, and the fans were so excited, but the second game was dull, and the Hawks won like that. The fans didn't know what to say. The online discussion about the Eastern Conference Finals, except for Liu Mang's 60 points, suddenly cooled down...

It's so different, the Hawks' games are always beyond people's expectations.

ESPN and Time Warner, who grabbed the live broadcast rights of the Hawks' Eastern Conference Finals series, didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Their ratings in the second game reached a new high so far in the playoffs this season, but in the next two games... They all felt the despair of the Pistons, and the ratings absolutely plummeted...

Everything is so familiar, it has been like this in the past few years...

...

...

The day after the Hawks played the second game, May 17, the day of the second game of the series between the Suns and the Spurs, the Hawks had already boarded the 8:40 a.m. flight to Detroit.

Today is the time to announce the best team and the best defensive team, but they are already on the plane. They will not know the results until they arrive in Detroit.

For McGrady, this feeling is like the feeling of waiting for the lottery after buying a lot of money, and not knowing the results in the first time, which makes him feel itchy.

On the plane, McGrady sat next to Liu Mang and asked again: "Ace, do you think I have a chance to be selected for the first team?"

"You can't be selected! You are only the third guard! Do you really want me to tell the truth?" Liu Mang really couldn't help it. He asked no less than ten times this morning.

“…” McGrady felt so heartbroken that he could hardly breathe. Don’t be so direct. Can’t you comfort him like you did a few times before? He also knew that he couldn’t win no matter if he was competing with Liu Mang or Nash.

At this time, Coach Kruger, who was next to the window on the right, took over the conversation: “Tracy, do you still have a chance?”

McGrady smiled awkwardly: “Coach, you don’t have to comfort me, I know.”

“No, I’m not comforting you,” Coach Kruger took out the 439-man NBA roster he received when he voted yesterday from his bag, “Although I don’t know if the player list for the best lineup is the same, when I voted for the best defensive lineup, your name was in the forward list, and I voted for you. You did a good job on defense this year.”

“Huh?” Liu Mang took the list and took a look. It was true! This guy… It seems that the All-Stars were also placed in the forward list. Then there might be two first-team players on his own team?

McGrady snatched the player list for the best defensive lineup from Liu Mang and found the player’s name starting with T in the forward list. He really was one of them! McGrady was in ecstasy!

…

After arriving at the hotel in Detroit, McGrady couldn't wait to borrow Liu Mang's computer and opened the homepage of the NBA official website. The headlines were the winners of the best lineup and the best defensive lineup.

Liu Mang was unanimously selected for the first team of the best lineup and scored a full score of 500 points!

Steve Nash scored 471 points, but only 91 first-place votes were cast!

McGrady was selected for the first team with 416 points and Tim Duncan, who scored 405 points!

O'Neal was still stable at the center position, and was selected for the first team with 466 points.

The second team consisted of Iverson, Francis, Rahim, Nowitzki, Garnett, and Stoudemire. Garnett and Rahim both received 297 points, tied for fourth place in forward votes, while Stoudemire was placed at the center position.

For most players, the best team and the best defensive team cannot improve their popularity, and are not as useful as the All-Star substitute, but for popular stars, they are very useful. This award is used to make popular stars more popular, so McGrady and Stoudemire were placed in a more advantageous position.

McGrady was placed in the forward position to avoid competing with Liu Mang and Nash. Stoudemire could not compete with those big guys if he was placed in the forward position, but if he was placed in the center position, Yao Ming and Ben Wallace could not shake him in the second team based on his record and data.

The third team was jointly selected by Billups, Wade, Kobe, James, Bosh, Yao Ming, and Ben Wallace. Yao Ming and Ben Wallace had the same number of votes, and Kobe and Billups had the same number of votes. They were selected in the third team together, tying the NBA record of seven people selected in the best team. However, the historical record is that seven people were selected in the second team. At that time, there was no third team, and the competition for the best team was more intense.

McGrady was selected in the first team again after two years, and he was about to cry... It hurts! Looking at his teammates cheering excitedly behind him, he silently covered his wallet in his inner pocket...

He was happy, but after being happy, his wallet hurt...

For the best defensive lineup, Larry Hughes, Prince, Garnett, Duncan, and Ben Wallace won the award together.

Without Bowen and Artest's self-explosion, Prince finally got a taste of the first defense.

Liu Mang was also happy for Prince, but when he saw the second defense, he was surprised!

The center selected for the second defense was Marcus Camby, which was no problem. Kwame Brown unfortunately lost to Camby, who was second in the block list, by 11 points.

Forwards of the second defense, Kirilenko and Shawn Marion were selected.

Shawn Marion's selection is an anomaly in the Suns, but his defensive efficiency is damn good, almost catching up with Duncan. Marion's defensive efficiency this season is 5.6, Duncan 5.7, Garnett 5.9...

The guards in the second defense are amazing, and their scores are extremely low! Kidd, Wade, Billups, the three point guards all scored 68 points and were selected for a second defense spot. Liu Mang scored 43 points and was selected for another guard spot in the second defense...

These days, coaches vote for the best defensive team. The guard line is 5 points, 3 points, and 2 points multiplied by two. The guards have a total of 600 points, and 4 spots were voted for 6 people...

Liu Mang feels that he has completely picked up a bargain!

If any one of Wade, Billups, and Kidd gets one less vote, even the third vote, those three people will not be affected, but Liu Mang will not be selected for the second defense!

Liu Mang remembered something, and seeing his teammates making a fuss around McGrady, he decisively wanted to turn off the computer and leave.

At this time, Kwame Brown, who had seen that his position in the second defense center was not on the top, wanted to come up and watch it again. He happened to see the picture of Liu Mang being selected for the second defense with 39 points.

Kwame Brown was about to vomit blood!

The center position had a total of 300 points. Ben Wallace was selected for the first defense with a unanimous vote. The remaining 150 points, he scored 52 points, and he was not selected for the second defense, losing to Camby with 63 points.

And Liu Mang only had 39 points, but he was selected for the second defense!

"Boss! The world is so unfair! I have 13 more points than you, why are you in the second defense and I was not selected!" Kwame Brown cried miserably.

Is there any justice in the world!

What the hell are you yelling! Liu Mang really wanted to kick this bastard to death! I should have known not to play with this bastard!

The teammates who were originally discussing with McGrady what to do for fun in the summer, suddenly focused their attention on Liu Mang... Liu Mang felt the same as McGrady, being selected as the second defensive player, he was not happy, but surprised! But his heart... No, it was his wallet that hurt!

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