"Ace, look at our arena, has it become great!" Duncan took Liu Mang to show off their brand new arena after they expanded last season, merged last summer and partially renovated the old arena.

"It's really great..." Liu Mang looked at the newly built museum in the ATT Center and felt... a little scared...

Through the introduction of Tim Duncan, one of the two master's degree students with the highest level of education among NBA players, Liu Mang learned that the area of ​​the ATT Center has been expanded by one-half compared to before, and it has the function of a museum.

ATT Telegraph was acquired by SBC Radio and Television and merged into ATT Radio and Telegraph. Antique appraisal programs previously owned by SBC were recorded at the ATT Center.

Liu Mang looked at the increasingly bright colors of the Spurs Arena and felt a wave of panic...

In the past, there were occasionally other colors, but now it has completely changed to black, white and gray. In addition to the game previews, ticket prices, remaining votes and other information on the LED screen, which are in red and yellow, the entire arena is filled with a large

The sense of déjà vu in Yizhuang...

After Duncan's disdainful reminder, Liu Mang found out that in September 2006, Duncan had completed his graduation thesis in his 2.5-year academic master's degree and was still half a year away from getting his master's degree. Another NBA player appeared.

The player who successfully passed the master's degree program is Duncan's long-standing opponent... Shaquille O'Neal...

The two of them entered their prime at about the same time, both in the late 1990s. One was a rookie and at his peak, and the other was at his peak.

After O'Neal arrived in Phoenix, he heard that Duncan was going to get a master's degree. Not to be outdone, he went to take the master's degree program in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Phoenix, and he actually got admitted...

Liu Mang followed Duncan around the ATT Center for two hours. He arrived in San Antonio in the morning. Just after lunch, Duncan came to see Liu Mang. He didn't look for anyone else. He didn't even call Tracy McGrady of the same class. He only brought Liu Mang with him.

Let's go see their new arena.

Liu Mang originally thought that this sultry man was going to take him somewhere to have some fun, but instead he was going to the gym.

And after shopping, Duncan drove Liu Mang back to the hotel in his pickup truck, and nothing more happened...

Liu Mang felt that Duncan was too uninteresting, and his whole body was filled with a feeling of "boring". He finally understood why Duncan was deceived by his wife...

Duncan was very satisfied with taking Liu Mang to visit the new arena. He thought Liu Mang would be very happy because he liked the renovated arena very much, with simple and earthy tones...

Rookie No. 21!

Duncan got a nickname that made him feel pretty good.

This nickname sounds much more distinctive than some basic skills...

…

…

Playing against the Spurs is different from playing against other opponents.

The Lakers and Spurs are the two teams in the Western Conference that Liu Mang believes have the best chance of reaching the finals this season.

The Mavericks were very strong in the regular season, but Liu Mang felt that they might go too far in the regular season.

It’s not just tactics being restrained, it’s as simple as the gap in coaching ability. In Liu Mang’s memory, in the original time and space, in the first round of the 2007 Western Conference playoffs, the Mavericks were unable to even fight back against the Warriors, and Nowitzki was the regular season MVP.

His performance in the playoffs was extremely sluggish, and it wasn't just as simple as being restrained. When Nowitzki played against Garnett, his shooting percentage was only four percentage points lower than Garnett's.

It's just a few points drop in scoring and a few fewer rebounds. It's not like the shooting rate is less than 40%. Moreover, there is no breakthrough in the series. The overall sluggishness. At first glance, it seems that they have worked too hard in the regular season.

Already.

Therefore, the stronger the Mavericks are in the regular season, the less Liu Mang worries about how far the Mavericks can go in the playoffs.

Nowitzki doesn't play well, and the Mavericks are no different from the Bulls without Garnett.

Relatively speaking, Duncan's Spurs have entered another peak mode. With Artest, Liu Mang is even more afraid, and Parker has also reached his peak!

Liu Mang and the coaching staff read relevant posts and news about the topic "How to limit Tim Duncan" that has been very popular online recently. They did not get any effective suggestions on how to prevent Duncan. Basically, Liu Mang gave them all.

Some of the methods I have mentioned are otherwise just nonsense.

However, Liu Mang got some inspiration on how to use the mid-range advantage of Mitaka to target the strongest internal and external defense in history composed of Duncan and Artest...

Although some media have been saying that Artest has not integrated into the Spurs, as professionals, Liu Mang and the Eagles coaching staff found that Artest has not integrated into the Spurs only on the offensive end. The Spurs' current offensive tactics are very simple.

With a troika, of course it can be as simple as possible. If it is complicated, it will not bring out the star's strength. Artest has no ball in his hands, his movement is average, and of course there is no performance on the offensive end.

Moreover, Liu Mang discovered that the Spurs deliberately did not give Artest any offensive performance and used him as an enhanced version of Bowen.

This is Popovich's idea. Maybe he didn't think about how to use Artest's offensive ability. After all, Popovich has never used such a star.

But the Spurs have done a good job on the defensive end. While the league's average scoring this season has increased to 97.9 points, the Spurs are only averaging 98.1 points per game, which will exceed the league average.

Among the only two teams in the league that have conceded less than 90 points, one of them is the Spurs and the other is the Bulls in the Eastern Conference.

Among them, the Spurs ranked first in the league's defensive efficiency list with an average of 87.8 points conceded per game!

They only averaged 98.1 points per game, which is a margin of victory of more than 10 points. That means that except for the Spurs' own poor offense, it is difficult for them to lose and limit their opponents' scoring too low.

The Spurs' opponents averaged only 78 shots per game, ranking first in the league for allowing opponents the fewest shots! The league's average number of shots this season is 81!

Therefore, how to deal with the Spurs' defense is the focus of the Eagles coaching staff's research. It just so happens that there are tens of millions of netizens, and there are always some who really understand the game and come up with ideas. Although it is a bit weird, Liu Mang and others really think it is feasible.

After further research, there are several methods that can be tried.

Anyway, this is the first match this season, and the Eagles decided to give it a try. Regardless of whether the effect is good or not, they have to give it a try...

…

On November 30, the last day of the first game month, the Eagles ushered in the seventeenth game of the season, the last of three consecutive away games in the Southwest Division and the most difficult game.

After the team held a tactical meeting in the morning, Liu Mang and his teammates came to this greatly changed arena again.

Suffering from the lack of compatriots, this group of American black guys and white guys don't understand what the Spurs' colors mean to the Chinese. Liu Mang can't find a friend to complain about, which really makes him feel a little sad...

In the afternoon, we conducted training on the new tactics discussed by Liu Mang, Coach Kruger and others last night. It is still a tactic with Princeton as the core. The prerequisite for beating Princeton is that Liu Mang does not play alone. If Liu Mang plays alone, then he cannot win.

For Princeton, it's a Larry Brown-style four-man rush and one-man wave tactic.

But there are no hard requirements. Liu Mang feels that singles is the best way.

For superstars, this has always been the case, otherwise there would be no success in the triangle offense.

…

The Hawks are preparing for the game, the Spurs have been waiting for a long time, and Popovich has been struggling with something this season.

For example, the use of Artest is very suitable for the role he wants to play as the outside core in the construction of the new system after Duncan ages. However, Duncan is in his prime again, which caught him off guard.

The future Spurs system has begun to take shape, but Duncan is too strong, so why should we use the Spurs system? The troika are all at their peak, so just start. Is there any more effective tactic than this?

Popovich wants to keep Artest for a long time, but he is unwilling to pay too high a salary. Now Popovich's use of Artest is enough, that is, he uses him as a defensively enhanced version of Bowen.

.

It's not that I can't integrate, but I don't want to give so many offensive opportunities.

The media and scouts expressed their inability to integrate because Artest averaged 9 points per game, which was the lowest in his career.

To suppress the value of one's own stars, one has to rely on favours, like Duncan and Ginobili did. Parker has never had his salary cut. Parker's contract extension price is the same as Duncan's 2000 contract extension after the rookie contract ended.

Yes, both have a starting salary of more than 9 million. The difference is that Duncan's starting salary of more than 9 million in 2000 was a maximum salary. At that time, the salary cap was only that high, and Parker's was not a maximum salary.

But it’s true that Parker can’t get the maximum salary.

Ginobili's contract was renewed in 2004 with a starting salary of 6 million. Ginobili already had an All-Star performance in the 2004-05 season, which is obviously lower than his worth.

On Artest's side, Popovich feels that, like Parker, there will definitely be no agreement on a salary cut, so Artest must be made "not worth" a higher salary. If his scoring data is even worse, he must be the best.

choose.

The team culture of a team is not only about the team atmosphere, the coach's human touch, but also whether the team has money. The Spurs' lineup this season has a salary of only 59 million, which is less than the luxury tax threshold. The boss

Since he was invited not to pay taxes, what else could Popovich do?

If you want to keep Artest, you have to do this.

Fortunately, even if Artest doesn't score, even if he is just a player like Tony Allen who doesn't know how to attack, he can still be of great use to a team!

Any team can have a qualitative improvement with one more perimeter player of the best defensive player level.

The Hawks are making offensive adjustments against the Spurs, and the Spurs are also making defensive adjustments against the Hawks.

With Artest, the biggest difference for the Spurs is that from shooting guard to power forward, defending in the mid-range is no longer as painful as before!
Chapter completed!