Chapter 967 966. You Have to Be Trustworthy when You Are Out There, and You Have to Do What You Say.
After the announcement of the best team and the best defensive team, it was not Liu Mang's "accidental" selection that was complained about, but Stoudemire was placed at the center position.
Liu Mang was teased for being lucky, but no one thought there was anything wrong with it.
If Kobe hadn't been unable to keep up with the pace on the defensive end due to weight gain this season and hadn't played so badly in the first half of the season, Liu Mang's selection for the second defense would definitely be inappropriate.
But apart from Kidd, Kobe, Prince, Wade, Billups, and Larry Hughes, Liu Mang's defensive performance is one of the best among the guards this season. After Rahim left, his outside defense and double-teaming under the basket, as well as his physical fitness to maintain defense for a long time, played a crucial role in the Hawks' defense.
Since McGrady was placed at the forward position in the best team, the best defensive team naturally had no impact on Liu Mang, even though McGrady scored 42 points in the best defensive team vote at the forward position.
Liu Mang was just considered lucky, but his defensive attitude and continuity, when Kobe could not defend and Kidd's defensive performance this season was poor and he could not open up the gap with other second-defense players, Liu Mang, who was lucky enough to be selected as the second-defense, was recognized by the fans.
But Stoudemire was placed at the center position, without having to compete with McGrady, double 21, Nowitzki, or even Rahim, James, Bosh and others. It was clear that they were praising Stoudemire.
McGrady was okay. He played as a forward at the beginning. Although he was a guard, his playing style was still that of an organizing forward. Prince and were placed in the back line to select the best defensive lineup.
But Stoudemire was placed at the center position... He played as a pure power forward...
Every year, some awards in the league are complained about. For the NBA officials, it is not a big deal at all, but it increases the topic.
Just like who is more worthy of this year's MVP between Liu Mang and Nash, it is estimated that it will be discussed by fans not only this year, but for many years to come. As long as there is a topic, it is not a vicious topic, it is good for the NBA.
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Getting the second defense once…Liu Mang actually felt like he had no regrets in his life.
Think about Kobe losing weight, Kidd still strong, Billups and Prince long-term best defensive team, Raja Bell, Paul and Rondo who have been in the best defensive team for a few years, Battier who was occasionally selected, and Tony Allen after 2010…
Liu Mang felt that his fate with the best defensive team came so suddenly and disappeared so quickly…
The best defensive team was not complained about much. In addition to Stoudemire, James was complained about in the third team.
Bosh and Wade had good records, but James was selected to the third team and squeezed out Marion, which was unexpected. It may also be that people are more popular and have more gossip. Fans outside the United States thought it was normal for James to be selected to the third team after seeing the data of 27+7+7. Local fans in the United States complained more, and the record became a strong attack point.
In addition, Nash and Liu Mang were attacked again. The MVP was not unanimously voted in the first team, but Liu Mang, who was the second MVP, was unanimously voted in the first team. Liu Mang and Nash were severely criticized by fans from different groups.
…
The topic was brought up by the best team and the best defensive team, and the league's Eastern and Western Finals are still going on.
Watching the upcoming Eastern and Western Finals, David Stern, who was happy for 24 hours because of the first game between the two teams, is now starting to think about the finals...
It's so frustrating!
After being happy for only 24 hours, the two series were one-sided!
The Suns were no match for the Spurs at this time. After the Pistons failed to counterattack in the first game, they were completely depressed. On May 19 and May 20, the first three games of the Eastern and Western Finals were played, and all of them were 3-0!
On May 19, the Hawks played against the Pistons away, and the Palace of Auburn Hills was terribly quiet!
Detroit fans no longer had any expectations for their team to meet Liu Mang. They did not boo their team, nor did they cheer for Liu Mang. They were just silent. Some fans put a convenience store paper bag on their heads, saying that they could not breathe.
Detroit fans love the Pistons, but they really can't stand such a game.
In the strangely quiet atmosphere of the whole court, the Pistons players had no motivation to return to their home court. They just defended.
The Hawks played their strength steadily. Liu Mang scored 27 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 1 block and 5 turnovers, helping the Hawks to 92 to 84, and the score was 3 to 0 without much waves.
On the Suns and Spurs side, the Spurs also won the second away game on May 17, 114 to 111. In this game, the Suns played a crazy counterattack, but Ginobili played better in the playoffs this season than in the regular season. At the critical moment, he broke into the inside line and scored two 2+1s to win the game.
On May 20, the Spurs returned to their home court and took advantage of the momentum of grabbing two home court advantages on the road. For the first time in this series, they limited the Suns' score to less than 110 points, 109 to 102, killing the Suns' hope of not being defeated 3-0.
Overall, compared with the dull Eastern-style defensive battle between the Hawks and the Pistons, the game between the Spurs and the Suns was very good. On one hand, they shot wildly, and on the other hand, Nash organized the offense to blossom in multiple places. The Spurs played an excellent tactic, with Ginobili and Bonzi Wells as the offensive core, and their personal abilities were fully utilized, and the offense was quite good.
But the Spurs are the villains! All fans dislike the Spurs and prefer the Suns. Many fans still give up watching the Western Conference Finals. It's heartbreaking! After Nash didn't get the first vote in the first round, he played harder, but the harder he played, the more frustrated he felt.
Unlike the Pistons, who were "discriminated" by fans because of their inherent impression of the bad boy army and the Auburn Hills Palace incident, and Billups played so well in the first game that no one paid attention to him. Nash averaged 24 points, 4 rebounds and 11 assists in the first three games of this series, which won the "sympathy" of fans. It was indeed an MVP performance, but the Spurs restrained them too much.
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On May 21, nothing unexpected happened. In the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, Liu Mang scored 13 points and 15 assists, McGrady scored 29 points, Kwame Brown scored 22 points and 15 rebounds, and the Hawks defeated the Pistons 111-85. In the last game, the Pistons had no fighting spirit and could not defend against the Hawks. The Hawks beat them by the largest score difference in this round of the series. The Pistons played their best performance in 14 years and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. They can go fishing with honor.
The Hawks have made it to the finals for two consecutive years!
And they have won all the Eastern Conference playoffs for two consecutive years!
At this time, some fans dug up the video footage of Liu Mang pointing to the floor of the American Airlines Center and saying "This is my horse" when the Hawks went to Miami to play the Heat last season.
At that time, except for the Hawks fans, everyone thought Liu Mang was too arrogant. He had never even stepped out of the Eastern Conference, but he actually claimed that the Eastern Conference was his territory.
But now, no one can beat him in the Eastern Conference playoffs for two consecutive years. Liu Mang has done what he said!
This video went viral online. Wade, who was on vacation with his family in Los Angeles with James, Bosh, Anthony, and Milicic, became a hot news...
This video, which originally made Liu Mang bear the label of "arrogant", now makes Liu Mang crazy sought after.
Most fans think that although Liu Mang is a little shameless, a little mean, a little sinister, and a little conceited... he will do what he says!
It is completely different from the nonsense that a certain Los Angeles player said at the beginning of the season that they would win the championship!
Because of this video, Liu Mang began to have the title of King of the East, but the recognition is not high. After all, he only won twice, but the general public opinion is that Liu Mang will one day dominate the East just like Magic Johnson dominated the West in the 1980s!
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…
After the series with the Pistons, Liu Mang got a random star card from the Pistons in the 2004-2005 season. Although it was not very useful, it was better than nothing. In case a mission failed and the star card had to be deducted, he could use it to make up the number. When the random deduction was made, he might be able to keep the one he wanted to keep.
Like the star cards of Andre Robertson and Terrence Ferguson, Liu Mang had drawn them before, but he could not use them, but he could keep them for deduction.
On May 22, the day of the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals between the Suns and the Spurs, the Hawks returned to Atlanta.
On the first day back in Atlanta, the Hawks had a holiday, and the coaching staff had to make further preparations for the upcoming finals. The Hawks were lucky that they had regarded the Spurs as the imaginary enemy of the finals from the beginning, and they had made a lot of preparations.
However, the Spurs had a lot of changes in the playoffs. The core of the inside and outside offense had obviously changed compared to the regular season, and they needed to further plan tactics based on the Spurs' performance in the Western Conference Finals.
Just when Liu Mang thought the Suns were going to be swept, the Suns went crazy in the fourth game and actually played defense! Mainly blocking the inside line, which scared Bonzi Wells and Duncan. Duncan only scored 15 points in the fourth game. Bonzi Wells averaged 25 points in the series, but only 9 points in this game. Although Ginobili scored 28 points, he couldn't withstand the Suns' desperate impact to save face. Joe Johnson opened the situation and scored 32 points and 12 assists, turning Nash into a shooter. Nash made 9 of 18 shots, 6 three-pointers, 27 points and 7 assists. The whole game was tense. In the end, the Suns won 111 to 106, and the score was difficult to 1 to 3, which was a last gasp.
The sudden attack gave the fans a little excitement.
But this time, it can be seen that the Suns are just trying to survive. The Spurs are famous for not being able to cope with explosive opponents, but the Suns' extreme style of play and the explosive performance of the outside duo, after the Spurs are prepared, the Suns' style of play is useless.
The reason why the Spurs give people a stable and strong feeling in the playoffs is that they have time to adjust. They can't do anything when they encounter an explosion, but if the playoff opponents explode once, they can adjust in the next game. Unless it is the invincible dominance of the OK combination, the Spurs are as stable as a dog in the past few years when Duncan is at his peak.
It's a pity that although Duncan played another peak after his first serious injury, the OK combination happened to be at its peak during this peak period...
The Suns tied the big score to 1 to 3, which gave the league some buffer opportunities to arrange the finals, and made David Stern breathe a sigh of relief, otherwise the finals would start too early!
Not only did the league breathe a sigh of relief, the Hawks also had at least three more days of rest. The fifth game of the Western Conference Finals between the Spurs and the Suns will start on May 25. The Hawks had more time to discuss tactics and conduct training against the Spurs.
And the Suns' win over the Spurs also gave the Hawks coaching staff some tactical inspiration.
…
After returning to Atlanta and resting for a day, Liu Mang continued to train.
Although Alexia was pregnant, she did not disturb Liu Mang's training. This was Liu Mang's career. Dina went to school, and there was only one week of classes left before the four-month summer vacation. Levia was responsible for handling family affairs, so there was nothing for Liu Mang to do. Liu Mang concentrated on various mid-range training and the team's tactical training.
Time passed quickly, and Liu Mang and his teammates complained that the training time was too short. If he could have more time to train, his mid-range turnaround jump shot and fixed-point singles could be practiced better.
Hearing Liu Mang's complaints, the Hawks players didn't want to pay attention to him: You are only in the fourth grade! If you are a first-round pick, you are still on a rookie contract. What else do you want? Like Jordan, you won the MVP, scoring champion, and best defensive player in the fourth grade? And Jordan was between 24 and 25 years old at that time, and you only turned 23 in the summer!
Liu Mang felt so lonely being invincible. Even his teammates didn't understand him. He really felt that time was not enough!
Soon it was May 25th, and the fifth game of the series between the Suns and the Spurs began.
The coaching staff and players of the Hawks watched the last game of the possible Western Conference Finals of the next round of opponents together in the team, and studied and discussed together.
The result was not too surprising. The Spurs won 120 to 107, responding to the Suns' previous play and easily won.
The Suns' head coach Mike D'Antoni's on-the-spot response was too poor. He wanted to do it again after playing well in one game, but was killed by Popovich.
Stoudemire played very aggressively in the fifth game, scoring 42 points and blowing up the Spurs' inside line, but he only had 4 rebounds... As a "center", 4 rebounds...
Duncan was as steady as a dog. Although he only scored 19 points, he got 25 rebounds, which was the key to the Spurs' high offensive efficiency.
Duncan was too stable. As long as the opponent couldn't explode, he was so stable.
4 to 1, the Spurs successfully entered the finals.
The two major regular season teams from the East and West, who are extremely stable in beating weak teams, met on the highest stage of the NBA!
It's finally here!
The Troika!
Liu Mang can't wait to fight the Troika in the finals!
Please recommend~ I can't catch up with the monthly votes, so I'll recommend some. I'll try to update four chapters today! The masters are too scary, with tens of thousands of words and thousands of recommendation votes a day. . I can't even make it into the top five. .