March 31, 2003, the visiting team's locker room at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Eagles players are ready to start a new chapter!

There was no craziness at night when we just lost to the Bulls two days ago, there was no calming down the impetuous heart to practice calligraphy to cultivate sentiment, and there was no relaxation by watching the dunk performance of high school students.

The moment they stepped into Madison Square Garden, Liu Mang and his teammates felt the enthusiasm of the New York fans. Especially when the two teams entered the stadium, the boos in the sky seemed to cover them up.

The fans in New York are very interesting. They don't boo their own team's players when the record is not good, but cheer for their opponents. For example, when the Knicks had a bad record last year and Liu Mang came here and scored 41 points, all the fans in the audience switched sides and supported Liu Mang.

Mang cheered.

But starting from the middle of this year's season, the Knicks suddenly broke out and had some hope of the playoffs. Although the hope was not great, it was hope at least, especially last season, they originally thought that Alan Houston's 100 million yuan contract would be another one.

The team gave a garbage contract, but I didn’t expect that this year, at the age of 32, Alan Houston would have the best performance of his career, which was even better than when he was with the Pistons and Grant Hill, and even better than when he was at his peak with the Knicks in the past few years.

It brings hope to Knicks fans. They feel that there is little hope of entering the playoffs this season just because they did not perform well in the first half of the season. They will definitely enter the playoffs next season because their winning rate in the second half of the season is

They won 63%, which is only a little bit worse than the 65% winning rate of the Eagles in the second half of the season. It is only because they "recovered" one month later than the Eagles that they are four or five points behind the Eagles.

A win, otherwise they would probably be in eighth place.

So now the Knicks fans have become the most "loyal" fans, full of hostility towards the away team the Hawks, especially because of Liu Mang's rampage here last season, which makes them still have past hatred.

Because in the first two games this month, the Knicks defeated the Hawks twice in away games, giving Knicks fans more confidence!

Fortunately, Liu Mang had experienced the enthusiasm of the New York fans yesterday, otherwise he would not have gotten used to it. New Yorkers are so fickle. At this time last year, they called him "Tiantian," but this year they booed him to death.

In addition to the very enthusiastic fans, there are also very warm greetings from the opponents. The Knicks team is very excited. The Knicks boss and players are in a state of shame and anger! Because they felt "humiliated" again yesterday!

Since 1986, except for occasionally being held in Los Angeles or Washington, the McDonald's All-Star Game has been held at Madison Square Garden, and the opening guest has been the Knicks star. In 1986, the Knicks superstar Bernard King

, became Ewing in 1988, and it was Ewing for several years after that. After 2000, it became Alan Houston. Alan Houston was also the opening guest last season.

When the McDonald's All-Star Game was still held in New York this year, Alan Houston had already prepared to become a "success model" in the eyes of high school players when he played the best personal performance of his career.

After having the best performance of his career in his second year, he was confident that his peak period had just arrived. Jordan was already 33 years old when he entered the most theoretically unsolvable period. He was a pitcher, and Alan Houston was also very confident.

, I have just reached my peak.

However, the McDonald's All-Star Game was held in New York, and the opening guest was actually an Eagles player!

This is a slap in the face to Alan Houston!

The guys from the Hawks who went to watch the game yesterday didn't take it seriously at all, but the Knicks were different. They just felt like they were humiliated.

When they saw the Knicks players being interviewed before the game today, criticizing the organizers of the McDonald's All-Star Game for disrespecting them, and when Dolan announced that he would no longer provide a venue for the event, the Eagles players found out that the Knicks were

The Knicks paid so much attention to it, but they didn't expect that the Knicks would become even more hostile to them. It was an unforeseen disaster. They didn't get a penny, but they only got five tickets. It was really a pot coming from the sky.

but……

The Hawks don't care at all about the hostility of the Knicks players or their boss. They are here to take revenge, which will definitely make the Knicks players unhappy. In this case, if they are hostile, let them be hostile!

Liu Mang enjoyed the boos and practiced shooting for a while. After the pre-game preparation time was over, he returned to the bench and chatted with Boozer while they waited for the game to start. He didn't care about the boos at all.

Liu Mang and Boozer were chatting and laughing, which not only made the fans furious, but the Knicks players were even more furious, but there was nothing they could do about Liu Mang.

Liu Mang just likes the feeling of seeing his opponent hate him but not being able to kill him, and he just likes the pleasure of running in the opponent's hostility.

For the Eagles, it's still Jason Terry, Prince, Raheem, Muhammad, and Ratliff.

The Knicks sent Howard Isley, Alan Houston, Sprewell, Kurt Thomas, and Osella Hanington.

Generally speaking, at the beginning of the game, after both sides have finished their pre-game actions and other things, the boss of the home team will come up to say hello, high-five or fistfight with the opponent.

Even Kobe would come up and clap with Raheem. The relationship between the two is not bad.

But this time the Knicks said no!

No one took the initiative to say hello to the Hawks players, and ignored the scene of "Friendship first, competition second." The two teams were so hostile. Although the Knicks were unilaterally hostile, there was no such thing as the Hawks.

They regard the Knicks as a competitor, but they are already at odds with each other. The Knicks don't want to give face to them, and the Eagles don't want to give face to them either!

Originally, the Hawks were dissatisfied with their previous two losses to the Knicks when the schedule almost made the Hawks unable to survive. Now they are more determined to kill the Knicks, so they will use this game to start the playoffs.

state!

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Jump ball!

Ratliff and Hanington came to the center of the court. The referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air. Ratliff used his obvious height and wingspan advantages to win the jump ball.

The Eagles attacked first, and it was left to Raheem to start the game.

Most of the time, Raheem starts the game with an advantage, and then helps the Eagles lineup to open up the game.

However, this time, as soon as Rahim was positioned inside, Sprewell's fierce top defense made Rahim very uncomfortable!

Putting aside his personality, Sprewell is indeed a good player, especially since this is his contract year. He plays like a giant player on both offense and defense. People only saw Alan Houston's outstanding performance on the offensive end and felt that

The Knicks' explosion in the second half of this year was due to Alan Houston playing well, but they didn't see the contribution of this enchanting man with Nezha-like braids.

Sprewell played a very good defensive performance this year and became the defensive gate of the Knicks' back line. Otherwise, Alan Houston and Howard Isley, who was originally just a substitute for Mark Jackson, were average at best in defense.

Defensively, it is impossible for the Knicks to win more than 60% of their games in the second half of the season.

Rahim was made difficult to catch the ball due to Sprewell's rough circling movement. The main reason was that he was not prepared at all. When the two teams played against each other in the first two times this season, Rahim was not there!

The other small forwards of the Hawks are not low-post players, and they are not the main offensive point. Sprewell is not guarding them at all, so I don't know that Sprewell will be so rough when defending in the low post.

Jason Terry saw that Raheem was a little sleepy, so he came by himself!

Isley is guarding Jason Terry. Before this season, he played less than 50 games in eight seasons. This year he was very lucky. Mark Jackson was sent away by the Knicks in the second round. He became the best player this year.

I have to work really hard, especially in the second half of the season.

Isley's defensive ability is not very good, but he is very active! Especially today, the entire Knicks team worked very hard. Isley gave Jason Terry a lot of interference, and Jason Terry came up to try his hand.

Missed his first pull-up jump shot!

Hannington, who once formed the Texas duo with Francis of the Rockets, used his fat body to squeeze away from Muhammad and get stuck in position to grab the defensive rebound!
Chapter completed!