Liu Mang and McGrady looked at each other. Liu Mang's eyes were full of desire, but McGrady turned his head...

When I needed you, you remained silent...

Liu Mang now feels the context of this lyric, and it turns out that this is the situation now!

Liu Mang made 8 out of 26 shots. Liu Mang's performance was terrible. Except for 6 out of 15 three-pointers, which was pretty good and a 40% three-point shooting rate, he did very poorly in other aspects.

Get rid of it!

Liu Mang and his teammates were playing around until the middle of the third quarter. When coach Kruger called a timeout, Liu Mang and the others realized they were so far behind!

The Eagles have 73 wins, and the Pacers have only 39 wins, a gap of 34 games. The Eagles say that they should pay attention to every opponent in the playoffs, but as soon as the game started, everyone let themselves go and played for fun. In the third

The opponent beat him 20 to 6!

When Coach Kruger called a timeout to get the players nervous, he tried to tighten the rhythm, but it was no longer possible.

There was no sense of urgency, no defensive pressure, and the offensive end was not bad, but it was not great either. They only scored 22 points in the third quarter, and the remaining 16 points were obtained only after the offense was more serious in the second half.

The Pacers, on the other hand, played harder and harder. Sometimes they played better when they had a lead. They even showed off the long-lost high and low post coordination between Artest and O'Neal.

After three quarters, the Eagles were 67-88, 21 points behind the Pacers!

Coach Kruger was furious!

He trained so seriously before the game that Liu Mang and Tracy McGrady even went to him to talk about tactical changes. That's why Coach Kruger still sat tight in the first half when his team's offense was poor and the defense couldn't guard it.

Taishan felt that with the opponent's strength, he could easily overtake in the second half.

Who knew that the opponent would be the first to launch the offensive in the second half. The opponent hit a wave of 20 to 6, suddenly widening the point difference.

The Hawks were outscored by the Pacers by 39 points in the third quarter!

Artest had 13 points and 4 assists in a single quarter, and he defended very well in the first half of the third quarter, leading the Pacers to a defensive explosion in the first half of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the furious Coach Kruger pushed Liu Mang on the bench. Although it was Tracy McGrady's Rumble mode, there had to be someone who took the blame, and Liu Mang was regarded as the one who took the blame.

After three quarters, coach Luger pointed at Liu Mang, who took 26 shots in the three quarters and only made 8 shots to score 25 points.

As for McGrady’s 4-for-14...

Generally speaking, commanders will choose to punish the comrade with whom they have the best relationship to alert others.

If the NBA is a battlefield, the relationship between the head coach and the players is like that of comrades-in-arms. From a company perspective, it is a colleague relationship. If it is more, it is a mentor-disciple relationship, and it will not be regarded as a superior-subordinate relationship.

Rasheed Wallace, who missed 1 of 7 shots today, and also missed 4 of 14 shots. The two combined did not have as high a score as Liu Mang, but Liu Mang was the one who was criticized by Coach Kruger.

.

The Pacers are already on the rise, with three first-class stars, and Artest, a guy who is very tough on both offense and defense. It will be too difficult for the Eagles to come back!

Just like the second round of the 2009 series between the Lakers and Rockets in the original time and space, the Rockets just had a 30-year-old Artest who was already past his prime, but he transformed in an instant and scored in the second round.

In the first round, Artest still led the team in seven bloody games against the Lakers, who were obviously underestimating their opponents. Even when the Rockets lost Tracy McGrady from the beginning and Yao Ming in the fifth game of the second round, Artest led the team.

Reached the tiebreaker.

Artest is a player who can transform a team. He is not the strongest on the offensive end, and perhaps not the strongest on the defensive end. He has obvious shortcomings, but as long as the team is willing to work together,

, he can create miracles!

In the fourth quarter, coach Kruger simply put Liu Mang on the bench, let McGrady and Jason Terry go up and fight, and then kept attacking Liu Mang, letting others feel his anger.

Jason Terry and Tracy McGrady went up and fought for a quarter, but still didn't narrow the point difference too much.

Liu Mang was yelled at by Coach Kruger. With 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter and 21 points behind 81-102 and entering garbage time, he asked McGrady, who was replaced, for help. McGrady pretended

As if he didn't know anything, he went to discuss today's issues with Stockton.

McGrady was very calm and knew that he was the one responsible for the trouble today, but since someone was taking the blame, McGrady turned into an ostrich...

Liu Mang watched Jason Terry, who scored 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting, in 30 minutes, and Rasheed Wallace, who scored 5 points on 1-of-8 shooting in 29 minutes. He watched Jason Terry score 33 points in 29 minutes.

McGrady scored 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting...

These three guys, who usually call each other so affectionately, sold him out at the critical moment!

The Eagles replaced the main force and announced their surrender. In 4 minutes, the difference was 21 points. It’s not that they couldn’t catch up. The key was that the opponent had boosted their morale. The Eagles scored a goal, and the opponent tried their best to butt their heads and arms.

Scored two points and returned one.

109 to 91, when the final buzzer sounded for the Pacers, the three major stars of the Pacers who stayed on the court even during garbage time cheered and celebrated as excitedly as if they had won a championship!

Artest, who had 33 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, and Jermaine O'Neal, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds, were guarded by Liu Mang and missed 3 of 9 in the first three quarters, and were guarded by Tracy McGrady and only missed 2 of 6 in the fourth quarter.

Stephen Jackson, who only scored 11 points on 5-of-15 shots but worked hard to grab 10 rebounds, looked like he was back two years ago, hugging each other to celebrate.

They actually beat the Eagles!

Before the series started, they didn't even expect that they could beat the Eagles, and they defeated the Eagles in the opening game of the playoffs!

They don't care what the future will bring. The three of them have put aside their usual grudges against each other for the time being. Now they have won!

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Eagles won 73 games and the defending champion Eagles won two consecutive championships!

…

After the game, the Eagles locker room refused to be interviewed. Coach Kruger scolded Liu Mang bloody in the locker room.

This situation has almost never happened. Even Jason Terry, a veteran who has been the team's second-best player since Liu Mang entered the team, has never seen Coach Kruger scold Liu Mang like this. Everyone in the Eagles team

I know I played really poorly today.

After scolding Liu Mang miserably, Coach Kruger finally vented his displeasure and left the locker room, which was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, leaving behind a group of staring players.

Seeing that Coach Kruger had indeed left, Liu Mang, who had been miserable before, immediately became energetic and looked towards Tracy McGrady, Jason Terry, and Rasheed Wallace, who were sitting next to each other. Three of them had performed better than him today.

The bad teammate walked over.

The three of them were in a mess, and McGrady hid behind Rasheed Wallace: "Ace, what are you going to do? Don't come over!"

Suddenly, Rasheed Wallace directly pulled McGrady from behind to in front of him, using McGrady as a shield: "Ace, just do whatever you want, Jason, we haven't showered together for a long time, let's go take a shower...

…”

Jason Terry immediately ran away with Rasheed Wallace, leaving McGrady huddled in the corner of the locker room.

Maddie looked at Liu Mang with a ferocious look on his face. He didn't expect that he would be like this...

…

Outside the locker room, Stockton asked Coach Kruger: "Lon, did you scold him too much? What if Ace has a mental problem?"

"Is there something wrong with the kid's mentality? No, if you don't put any pressure on him, he will completely treat the playoffs as a playground. He has not lost a series except the Eastern Conference finals, and he has not considered the first two rounds of the series at all.

The opponent takes it seriously.” Coach Kruger said it was okay.

"Yeah, Ace has never lost the first game of a series. He's such a scary guy." Stockton then remembered how terrifying Liu Mang's dominance in the playoffs was before this game.

"We can't be careless anymore. We have lost our home court advantage. We must win the game the day after tomorrow. It will be bad if we are two games behind..."

Coach Kruger and Stockton are actually not that worried about losing this game.

The main reason for the loss was that from the very beginning of the game, Tracy McGrady and Liu Mang started to play around with their teammates, causing the usually cautious role players to start having fun.

So much so that in the second half, even if I wanted to pick up the pace and play more compactly, I couldn't.

But coach Kruger has no doubts about winning the series.

The main purpose of scolding Liu Mang is to make those role players angry when they see him.

Just scold Liu Mang, but don't scold everyone else, just hide it. Against the Pacers, the Eagles could still win by hiding a few inactive substitutes.

The main thing is to focus!

The Pacers were beaten by 18 points in the first game, couldn't make any shots, and the defense didn't have any cohesion.

It is better for problems to arise early than to have temporary problems, and the Eagles' coaching staff is open to it.

As a coach, I see a lot more than the players. In addition to being blocked by the Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals for two years, the Hawks have beaten all the playoff opponents in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks' mentality is too relaxed.

Especially after winning two consecutive championships and winning 73 games, I didn’t take my opponents seriously at all.

The Hawks have gradually developed the "aristocratic disease" of the Lakers. This kind of mentality is not bad at all. The team should be proud of being a strong team, but it must be nervous.

The Lakers have someone like Kobe who is paranoid about even complaining about his teammates, so there is no need to worry about that, but the Hawks don't have someone like Kobe who is someone who can complain about everything, so they need the coaching staff to handle these things.

…

In the locker room, Liu Mang and McGrady, who had been having a fight, took a shower together and went home early without being interviewed. McGrady went to Liu Mang's house first to have a good discussion with Liu Mang about today's game.
Chapter completed!