At seven o'clock in the morning on December 25, Liu Mang ran from home to the arena three kilometers away. Today's game was very important.

The Rockets have a big center this year, and with Francis entering his prime, the Rockets have become a playoff contender. They are currently ranked ninth in the Western Conference. They are considered a difficult opponent. The Hawks must ensure that

Try your best to win the games in December and January, when the schedule is relatively easy, and try to increase your winning rate to over 40% before the start of the devilish schedule in February.

Therefore, as long as it is a non-top team, the Eagles want to win as much as possible.

For the game against the Rockets, defensive tactics training for Yao Ming, a retro creature in the NBA, began at nine in the morning.

Originally, although the Rockets were the ninth and tenth team in the Western Conference, the Eagles coaching staff did not pay much attention to it. Although the record was not good, the Eagles as a whole defeated the Bucks and Hornets in succession.

He is still very confident in the strength of his team, but after beating the Hornets, Liu Mang said not to underestimate the Rockets because their big men are difficult to deal with.

Coach Kruger knows Liu Mang well and knows that even if he is a player from his own country, he will never brag about their strength.

Through the Rockets' previous game videos, Coach Kruger discovered that the big guy Yao Ming is exactly what Liu Mang said. His role on the court is very different from the previous super giants. He is not just a two-man blocker under the basket.

A tall man with a height of 2 meters, he is not like the Sudanese big man Manute Bol who is also a super giant.

In fact, it’s not that the taller you are, the better you are at rebounding. Often those who are super tall are average in rebounding. For example, Big Z Ilgauskas and Manute Bol are average in rebounding.

, because he is too tall and his body is too big, even his ability to move around the basket is average, and he can still block shots with his long hands.

Even Big Z, whose defense was not particularly good, had a season in which he averaged 2.5 blocks per game. Not to mention Bol, who averaged an epic 5 blocks per game in his rookie season, but Bol had only one season with the highest rebounds in his career.

6.

Too high, unable to move. He can block shots while standing under the basket, but he has to get stuck. His rebounding is mediocre, and his defense against breakthroughs is not as effective as expected. The data looks good, but his defensive effect is not as good as Mutombo or Ratliff.

There is a huge gap between such a big center of normal height.

Yao Ming has excellent shooting ability and good mobility. Coach Kruger saw this when Yao Ming came to the Eagles for a trial last time, but his blocking ability and rebounding ability were not expected.

Although Yao Ming is also very tall, he has the average mobility of a big man of about 2.15 meters. He rebounds well and is also very capable of blocking teammates.

If you look closely, Team Rocket is really tough!

…

The Christmas game is a holiday for fans, and some players can also celebrate the holiday. However, every year, 150 basketball players and hundreds of coaching staff and medical staff cannot rest. Of course, including security, TV staff, etc., just

More.

But this is an honor for a player, like Kobe, who has not missed a Christmas game almost since his rookie year, and James has not missed a Christmas game since his third season. He has always been talked about by fans. In big data

In the information age, statistics are becoming more and more detailed, such as how many Christmas games have been played; MVP rankings, where the best defensive player rankings are, how many times the top ten has been ranked, etc., etc., etc., will all become things to measure the quality of a star.

.

Liu Mang was very busy today. He went to the arena to train for a while at 7 o'clock in the morning. He started tactical drills and pre-match meetings at 9 o'clock. The tactical training ended at 11 o'clock. People from Nike came and conducted a group training session in the Eagles arena.

The photo of him wearing the new boots was taken as a promotional photo. Liu Mang also wore these shoes during today's tactical training. Let's get used to the new shoes in advance. Liu Mang will wear these shoes in the next games of this season. At home.

It is red and white, and the away game is dark blue and red.

Then at 12:30 noon, the Eagles began to warm up before the game.

Unfortunately, the Eagles' game is the first Christmas game, starting at 1:30 p.m., so today's tactical training and pre-game meeting will be so early.

At 1 o'clock, players from both teams entered the court.

After many years, the Eagles once again became one of the protagonists of the Christmas game. The fans were very excited. In addition, the Eagles were finally on the right track. The atmosphere among the home fans today was very good.

When the fans are enthusiastic, the players will be in a particularly good mood and temporarily forget about the bad record.

There was a very interesting performance in the pre-game activities. The management of the Eagles did not know where to find a group of domestic acrobatic troupes to perform. Liu Mang and Yao Ming were watching their compatriots perform throwing plates, and looked at the little sister who performed acrobatics.

Riding a unicycle with one foot, there were already more than a dozen plates stacked on the head, and they were still throwing the plates on the head with the other foot. Liu Mang and Yao Ming were very worried. Such a big scene, more than 100 people around the world

The game was being broadcast live across the country, and they were worried that the little sister would make mistakes if she was too nervous. Every time the little sister threw the plate, the two of them cheered along with the fans at the scene.

But the quintessence of Chinese culture, those who can perform have been trained for at least ten years in the audience. They are so sure that they have more than 20 plates stacked high on their heads without making a single mistake!

When the performance came to a close, Liu Mang and Yao Ming applauded loudly along with the audience.

Both of them were very excited to see performances in a foreign country that they could only see on the streets in China when they were children. They almost shouted "Chinese traditional culture" to the fans.

After watching the performance, it was time for the pre-match interview. Director Zhang came with a camera.

The Eagles' press officer gave the opportunity for this pre-game interview to Chaoting Sports Channel. Other TV stations could only use the video signal of Chaoting Channel to broadcast it.

"Director Zhang, long time no see."

When Liu Mang and Yao Ming saw their old acquaintance arriving, they both greeted him warmly.

"Long time no see, Dayao, Ace." Director Zhang greeted, "Haha, Ace, seeing you so happy now, I knew you were fine. I believed from the beginning that you would not have any problems in the end.

questionable."

If it is said that what worries Liu Mang the most in China in the past two months, apart from the loyal fans, is this group of seniors.

"Of course, no matter how difficult the situation is, our goal... will persist in reaching the playoffs." Liu Mang was so stubborn that he almost set another flag. Although there is a bottom line for system release tasks, at least it won't be

Set up a task that was absolutely impossible to complete, but Liu Mang still acted cautiously.

"Ace, Dayao, today is the Chinese Derby. It's your first time playing against each other. How does it feel?" Coach Zhang asked.

"It's quite special. I want to try to dunk the tallest big man in the league during the game. It should feel good." Liu Mang crossed his chest with his left hand towards Yao Ming and touched the beard on his chin with his right hand.

, as if looking carefully.

Yao Ming also made the same move and looked at Liu Mang and said: "I also think it's quite special. I want to try blocking the legendary best rookie in history who only knows how to dunk."

Director Zhang won’t talk about it here. Domestic fans who are watching the live broadcast are very happy to see that the relationship between the future No. 1 insider and No. 1 outsider of the national team seems to be quite good.

However...Liu Mang, who was looking at Yao Ming, suddenly had a look of astonishment on his face. But thinking that it was an interview being broadcast live in China, Liu Mang could only continue to laugh, broke his teeth and swallowed it.

"Ding...temporary mission: buckle the little giant..."

After the pre-match interview, Liu Mang sat on the bench with a sad expression on his face, watching his teammates perform their own pre-match rituals.

Raheem's chronic non-ferrous metal poisoning performance, Jason Terry's basket-drilling performance, Ratliff's ghostly yelling, Muhammad's David thinking in clothes, only Dean Grove is the most honest

of magnesium powder.

Perhaps it's because Liu Mang's superstar value is too low, so the system takes special care of him and gives him a mission from time to time.

Just now, after Liu Mang resisted the flag that his goal was to win the championship, he said he wanted to try dunking on Yao Ming, and the task came.

"Little giant dunk: perform a dunk against Yao Ming in the game. The task reward skill card is: the terminator under the basket. The punishment for failure: go to the Six Nations Park Plaza in Atlanta to find at least ten Chinese aunts over 40 years old and teach them square dancing.

"

Liu Mang was speechless to the sky!
Chapter completed!