Time passed very quickly. Liu Mang trained with his teammates for a few days, and soon May 31 came, the last four days of preparation for the finals.

Last night at 9:33 pm, the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Timberwolves came to an end at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Lakers, who returned home in Game 6, did not give the Timberwolves another chance, and the Timberwolves failed to create a miracle.

Different from the last game, this game Kobe kept an eye on Szczerbiak from the beginning and did not give Szczerbiak a chance to get out and shoot. In this game, Payton finally played the role that the Lakers wanted to bring in him.

The task he was asked to complete, the defensive end performed at the same level as last season, preventing Sprewell from making 4 of 17 shots and only scoring 14 points and 4 assists. For the first time in the six games of the series, the Madman did not score more than 20 points.

.

Even the madman was guarded. Szczerbiak met Kobe and was bitten to death. Garnett tried his best to get 22 points and 17 rebounds in this game, but because the madman was guarded, Garnett held the ball.

Forced to increase, the Lakers prevented 11 turnovers. Wang Zhizhi, who looked stupid with a chubby face, steals Garnett 3 times. Malone even caused Garnett to make 5 turnovers.

Garnett once again left a mark on the Timberwolves' team history, with an embarrassing triple-double and the highest single-game turnover record in team history.

The Lakers defeated the Timberwolves 87-75 and advanced to the Finals 4-2.

The start time of the finals between the Hawks and Lakers has also been determined to be June 4.

In recent days, after the team training is over, Prince will drag Liu Mang to challenge Liu Mang in a duel.

Liu Mang's success rate in singles against Prince was greatly improved compared to before!

Although it was a bit difficult the first time, he became more and more proficient as he fought, changing hands in the air, and changing his footsteps. Liu Mang was desperate at first to be entangled by a guy who was obsessed with single defense, but he felt

After seeing his progress, Liu Mang was also happy with it.

Prince tried to defend Liu Mang in various ways, but the more ways he thought of, the more Liu Mang became more and more proficient in using his left hand in breakthroughs. A ten-ball duel was better than Liu Mang's practice alone.

The effect is even better after two or three hours.

Liu Mang was right. It is much better to hone his offense against a real defensive opponent than to practice alone.

Similarly, Prince also found room for improvement in his matchup with Liu Mang. In the past, when he defended left-handed players like Ginobili and Reed, he always had some discomfort. Now he is gradually getting used to it.

The feeling of left-handed players facing each other, although the two feelings put different defensive pressure on Prince, it is always good to get used to it, and it is also suitable for some players who are obviously right-handed but are very good in singles on the left side.

With more understanding.

The Eagles' preparations for the finals are proceeding steadily. Liu Mang's singles skills are honed, Prince's single defense continues to strengthen, and the team's offensive and defensive tactics are also steadily preparing for the next finals.

…

…

The Hawks and Lakers met in the finals, and their influence was huge. If the basketball circles around the world were included, it would even exceed the level of Jordan and Shuangsha's two consecutive finals!

Naturally, the attention contributed by Chinese basketball fans accounts for the bulk of it. Chinese players, who have led the team to the finals as core players, have already made a huge difference in the country.

Domestic hardware strength is increasing year by year, and has been improving rapidly since the 1990s. The economic aggregate has continued to break through, especially the economic growth rate, which has exceeded 10% again after the Asian economic crisis in the mid-to-late 1990s.

From a national perspective, it is indeed very gratifying.

However, in terms of software strength, it seems to have regressed. Entertainment and culture have been invaded by other countries, and the atmosphere of worshiping foreigners and foreigners has reached its peak. Chinese football, which originally had high hopes from the Chinese people, has become a national humiliation, and the atmosphere of worshiping foreigners and foreigners has further expanded.

In addition, people have more and more money in their pockets, and with the capital to worship foreign countries, it is even more out of control.

Of course, in such an atmosphere, there will definitely be many people who are disgusted with this kind of atmosphere of worshiping foreigners and favoring foreigners, and certainly in terms of number of people, there are more people who are disgusted with worshiping foreigners and want to correct them than those who worship foreigners.

However, I am disgusted and want to correct it, but there is no way to correct it, because the domestic software strength has experienced a serious decline in the lost decade. Even the sports that people have high hopes for are not getting worse year by year.

Small ball sports such as table tennis and badminton and fringe sports such as diving are great, but their influence is too low; football has high hopes, but the greater the hope, the deeper the despair; high-end tennis, golf, etc., 89% of domestic sports

Ten cities don’t even have a venue, and ordinary people can’t access it; basketball has always been good, but basketball is a sport dominated by Americans. The gap between first and second is almost a chasm, and the Chinese team only has about ten players at most.

, it’s not bad, but it’s hard to be glorious enough to be publicized to the outside world.

Under such circumstances, even if the country wants to correct the atmosphere of admiring foreign things, it cannot find any arguments that can be used to correct it.

Therefore, when Liu Mang established a foothold in the NBA, the highest palace of basketball in the world, especially after winning the MVP this year and leading the team to the finals, this finals was highly publicized by the official media in China, and he was promoted from the Hawks

At the beginning of the finals, almost every day there were special documentaries on basketball on the Imperial Sports Channel, covering the origin and development of Chinese basketball, the hardships of reaching the top in Asia and entering the world... Then came Battelle, Wang Zhizhi as a pioneer, Liu Mang, and Yao Ming entered successively.

The NBA has gained a decisive position, and finally Liu Mang is about to touch the pinnacle honor of the NBA.

Liu Mang's rogue value has been rising in the past few days, even faster than when he won the MVP and won 70 games in the regular season. Just as the system predicted, this season is the first step for him to establish his status in the NBA and the domestic sports world.

Year.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Liu Mang also pays attention to domestic news from time to time, but one thing that is beyond his expectation is that there is not much media hype about the Chinese Derby between him and Wang Zhizhi in the finals.

All the hype in China is about him and Kobe Bryant, the Hawks and the Lakers.

From this point of view, Liu Mang feels a kind of confidence in the domestic basketball community!

The less confident you are, the more you will paralyze yourself with small things that are not important to others.

For example, in the future, Jeremy Lin will be forcibly tied up, and Zhou Qi, who has no dominance in the Development League, will be promoted as a superstar embryo, etc. This was almost impossible when Yao Ming was at his peak.

But now, Chinese players include Liu Mang in the east and Yao Ming in the west. They are both top players in their respective positions, which has given domestic basketball fans strong confidence. In the same way, it has also inspired many children to want to play basketball.

If it were just the original Yao Ming, although many people in China fell in love with the NBA and basketball because of it, the distance between Yao Ming and ordinary people was too great. There is only one Yao Ming in China. In addition to Yao Ming, there are no other players with his height in the world of basketball.

The most powerful one is Sabonis. Although Big Z is taller, the gap between him and these two people is not that big.

There is only one Yao Ming, and it is almost impossible to copy it. Although fans fall in love with basketball, they have no urge to devote themselves to sports, no urge to become a dream.

But Liu Mang is different. Although 1.93 meters is very tall, it is not out of reach. In 1999, the average height of domestic adult men reached 1.67 meters. In other words, every Guo Jingming who appears is at least 1.67 meters tall.

There must be a Guo Ailun.

The proportion of adult men in China who are over 1.83 meters tall has exceeded 10 percent, the proportion of adult men over 1.91 meters tall is close to 3 percent, and the proportion of people over 2 meters tall has reached 5 out of 1,000

about.

Although proportionally speaking, it is a bit far behind the 12% of people in the United States who are over 1.91 meters tall, but the domestic population is large, the base is large, and the number of tall people is no less than that in the United States, and from the National College Basketball League and volleyball competitions

It can be seen that the height requirements are more stringent than those of American college athletes, and the average height is higher. The average height of the CBA is also higher than that of the NBA.

In the past, most of the successful basketball players in China were insiders. Director Zhang, Battelle, Wang Zhizhi, and Yao Ming. Those who had a little influence in the world were almost all insiders. The outside players could only be famous in Asia, but they were not overwhelming.

sexual strength.

But now that Liu Mang has appeared, everything has changed. Children in China are even more enthusiastic about basketball!

Because compared to Yao Ming, Liu Mang's height is not out of reach. There is no shortage of players of this height in universities. Some high schools even have players close to 1.9 meters tall. They all see hope!

…

The finals between the Hawks and Lakers are highly publicized in China, mainly to promote Liu Mang, and the attention in the United States is not low.

Everyone wanted to see the Lakers lose in the Finals. Three consecutive championships established the Lakers at the beginning of the new century, which is estimated to last at least twenty years, but it also made countless fans want to see the Lakers collapse.

.

The Lakers are on a tightrope right now. Either they can win the championship and cross the tightrope and survive the mid-level trap, or they can fall off the tightrope and collapse directly and enter reconstruction.

The Hawks have successively refreshed the records set by the Lakers in the 1999-2000 season. From the number of regular season wins to the historical record of consecutive wins in a single season in the playoffs, the records held by the Lakers have been broken one by one by the Hawks. Now the two teams are about to

The fact that they are going to play each other in the Finals has brought more talk of the Finals than in the past few years, reaching the level since the 1997-1998 season when it was almost certain that Jordan would retire for the second time.

The influence in the entire basketball world is even greater than when Jordan won three consecutive championships!

It's not that Liu Mang's influence is greater than Jordan's or that the Hawks' influence is greater than that of the Bulls, but that the Hawks have the opportunity to defeat a dynasty team, which brings huge influence!

Moreover, compared to the original Pistons in history, the Eagles are obviously more popular. The current impression of the Pistons is still that of the bad boys of the late 1980s. Not many people like it, but the Eagles are different!

When the Lakers also advanced to the Finals, in terms of public opinion, more fans supported the Eagles than those supporting the Lakers.

Just like the Beat-LA roared by the Celtics back then, except for Lakers fans, almost all fans supported the Hawks to kill the Lakers!

In addition, the double-shattering finals showdown, the continuation of the MVP battle between Kobe and Liu Mang, and the title of the strongest lineup in history have all set off this basketball season!

…

…

"Ace, the guys from the Lakers are coming to Atlanta." Stockton came to the lounge and said to Liu Mang.

Today's training has ended, and Liu Mang is reading the newspaper delivered in the afternoon in the lounge.

Mainly the winning odds from bookmakers, and the championship predictions from major websites have already been released.

The Lakers are hated for no reason, because according to the odds of winning the championship given by major media and betting companies, the Lakers have a 75%, or three-quarters chance of winning, while the Eagles have a 75% chance of winning the championship.

There's only a one-quarter, twenty-five percent chance.

The Lakers' winning odds are 1.2 to 1, while the Hawks' odds are 2.4 to 1. Obviously the media is more optimistic about the Lakers.

Liu Mang understands better why fans hate the Lakers so much. They hate the Lakers. Deep down in their hearts, they are optimistic about the Lakers and fear that the Lakers will continue to win the championship.

For Liu Mang, this was an extra motivation.

After hearing Stockton say that the Lakers had arrived in Atlanta, Liu Mang asked: "So early? By the way, John, how do you know? I didn't see it when I was watching the news just now?"

Liu Mang is a little strange. The Lakers just finished beating the Timberwolves yesterday and they are here today. You must know that two years ago, after the Lakers led the Nets 2-0 at home, they played away from home in the third game, and the other teams were in second place.

I went back to familiarize myself with the away game the next day, but the Lakers arrived in New Jersey in the evening the day before the game, and they lived in Jersey City. They went directly to play the away game the next day, which was very arrogant.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Karl called me and asked me to go out for dinner, Ace, are you going?" Stockton shook his phone.

It turns out that this is the case. Liu Mang smiled and said: "I won't go. You and Karl can get together. From now on, we will be our opponents."
To be continued...