From today on is the king

Chapter 489. 487. The start of consecutive away games

In the 2002-2003 season, the Hawks and Rockets played against each other for the second time and the last time this season.

The game between the Eagles and the Rockets is naturally the most concerned thing for Chinese fans. The league has taken great pains to put the game between the Eagles and the Rockets on the first game day after the All-Star Weekend to consolidate China's ratings after the All-Star Weekend.

This is the first time Liu Mang came to the Toyota Center in Houston after Yao Ming joined the NBA. Not to mention, because of Yao Ming's arrival, the deserted Toyota Center finally became a little more lively, mainly because there were many fans with Chinese faces.

Before the game, Liu Mang and Yao Ming once again accepted an exclusive interview with the imperial court.

This year's All-Star Weekend, although Liu Mang also had All-Star Weekend interviews, but the entire team was not interviewed and publicized domestically like last year. This year's All-Star Weekend was praised by Yao Ming and the Rockets.

There are no too nutritious topics, very routine pre-match interviews, saying goodbye to domestic fans in their old age, wishing a happy Lantern Festival and other things.

Soon, the pre-match interviews were over, the pre-match activities were also over, and the Eagles' away game against the Rockets began immediately.

The big screen above the court showed the records of the two teams. The Eagles were 25 wins and 23 losses, and the Rockets were 28 wins and 22 losses. In terms of record, the Rockets have a clear advantage. They played two more games than the Eagles and lost one less game.

However, such a record comparison shows that the Rockets have a guilty conscience and already need to use the record to boost their self-confidence.

There is no way, the Eagles have played a record of 20 wins and 5 losses in the past two months, which is simply brutal.

The Eagles continued to send out the starting lineup of Jason Terry, Prince, Raheem, Muhammad and Ratliff today.

The Rockets sent Francis, Mobley, James Posey, Eddie Griffin, Yao Ming.

Liu Mang continued to enjoy the feeling of being a substitute, watching Jason Terry go to fight Francis again.

This time Jason Terry has enough fighting spirit to go against Francis. There is no other reason. This year's All-Star Weekend, Francis was selected for the All-Star Weekend, but Jason Terry was not. This gave Francis the fullest motivation.

The Rockets are now under a lot of pressure. They rank eighth in the West with a small advantage, followed by the Suns with a record of 27 wins and 24 losses. This puts a lot of pressure on the Rockets players, and they dare not lose in any game.

The same is true for the Eagles, 25 wins and 23 losses, and they dare not lose more than one game.

After a lapse of a week, the regular season restarted, and the Eagles players were very excited, so the opening action before the game took a long time.

Mainly the home court of the Rockets. Even if there are some Chinese fans, the scene is a bit lively, but the opponent is the Eagles. The most popular player among Chinese players is the Eagles.

With the referee urging the whistle, the two teams started to come to the field.

The referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air. Yao Ming relied on his height to win the jump ball, and the Rockets took the lead in attacking.

Both teams have made sufficient preparations for this game, because the preparation time is long enough. From the end of the last game before the All-Star Weekend, the Eagles' coaching staff has been preparing for the next six consecutive away games. In the first game of the six consecutive away games, in order to make a good start, the opponent of the Rockets is naturally the opponent that the Eagles will focus on for research.

Similarly, the Rockets also want to make a good start after the All-Star Weekend, so they will focus on how to play the game against the Eagles.

The Rockets made the first attack, and Francis decisively broke through the inside to cause damage. This is the key to victory studied by the Rockets coaching staff.

However, Mike Woodson, the assistant coach of the Eagles, showed the precise judgment of a championship-level defensive assistant. He had already told Ratliff and Muhammad to pay attention.

The Rockets' first move failed.

After playing for a few rounds, the Rockets came up with a second trick, using Yao Ming to hold Ratliff high!

Then, Ratliff used practical actions to teach Yao Ming to be a man. The thin Yao Ming was squeezed to death by Ratliff, and the strong physical confrontation taught Yao Ming how to fight inside.

Both of the two taken-for-granted advantageous styles of play failed to achieve anything.

On the Eagles side, the offensive end is not as fancy as the Rockets, it is Rahim who is born!Jason Terry's wave shot is that simple and rude.

They already have a strength advantage and don’t need to do so many new tricks or new ideas on the offensive end. The offensive routine of a strong team with the championship as its goal is actually very simple. It’s enough to keep their effective scoring methods, mainly to defend against opponents.

The Eagles started the game probably because they hadn’t played for a long time, and their outside shooting was a bit tough, but they still played a very high-quality game. On the defensive end, the Eagles used some of the offensive routines that the Rockets coaching staff had been thinking about, and were shredded by the Eagles relying on hard power. After the first quarter, the Eagles led 20 to 14.

In order to let the starters who are not in good offensive form play a little longer, Liu Mang was not replaced until the second quarter.

After Liu Mang came up, it happened that Francis and James Posey had been replaced for a few minutes to rest. These two were probably the Rockets' best outside defense. Both of them were absent. After Liu Mang came on the field, he led Jason Terry, Barnes, Boozer, and Muhammad against the Rockets' second team. By the halfway point of the second quarter, the Hawks had already led by 35 points 20-15.

The key is not the 35 points the Hawks scored, but the Rockets played a quarter and a half and only scored 20 points.

In fact, most of the reasons are due to Liu Mang.

Why did coach Tomjanovich suddenly come up with some special tactics?Mainly because coach Tomjanovich's favorite Kings just lost this year, why did the Kings lose?It is because their coach Adelman and Peja quarreled. Why did Peja and Adelman quarrel?Adelman was in a bad mood because he lost the coaching All-Star game and was ravaged by a joke. Peja felt that he was the strongest player of the Kings, but he had no status in the team. As a result, on the All-Star stage, he had no status at all.

And why Adelman was ravaged during the All-Star Weekend, and why did Peja feel that he has no status?
It's all because of the magical tactics of the Eastern Army's last attack, that is, because of Liu Mang.

Therefore, the Rockets only scored 20 points in one and a half quarters, all due to Liu Mang.

Coach Tomjanovich found out that doing special things is useless!It's better to play hard and play those fancy things, but lose what you are good at.

After returning from the official timeout in the second quarter, the Rockets played a wave of good offense, but the Eagles relied on the first quarter and a half to find their feeling, and their state has improved. Although the Rockets found their feeling, they are still not the Eagles' opponent.

Did not give the Rockets too many opportunities, the Rockets themselves wasted the opportunity for the Eagles to feel bad at the start.That was their only chance of the game, and a miss is a miss.

Liu Mang has been excited for the past few days. All the tasks of the All-Star Weekend have been completed, so he is very excited recently.

第二节上场后就在得分和传球间来回切换模式，单节拿到11分4助攻，带领老鹰队打出29比20的比分，半场打完老鹰队49比34领先16分进入下半场。

After the start of the second half, Liu Mang completely devoted himself to shooting. He scored 18 points in a single quarter, and the Eagles got better and better. After three quarters, the Hawks opened up a 22-77 57-point lead by 20 points.

The Rockets are actually not that bad, the main reason is that they are not good at flamboyant operations, but they insisted on a wave of operations at the beginning, which is good, and they played themselves off.

最终，在刘莽拿到29分5助攻，拉希姆17分22老板，贾森-特里14分4板7助攻的完美发挥下，老鹰队109比95轻取火箭队拿到全明星周末后的连续客场的开门红。

As a domestic player, Liu Mang proved his ability as a world-class point guard in this domestic match broadcast live on Imperial TV, giving domestic fans endless hope.

After playing the Rockets, the Eagles left Houston that night and came to Los Angeles to rest for a day. They will soon usher in a cruel five-day four-game match. The opponent in the first game is the Lakers!
(End of this chapter)