From today on is the king

Chapter 630 629. Coach Carlisle's Revenge
The Eagles have 25 wins and 5 losses, an astonishing 80.00% three-time winning percentage, converted into the final record, that is 68 wins!Although it is only a conversion, it is already terrifyingly strong.

The Pacers are second in the league, with 23 wins and 8 losses, and a winning percentage of over 30%. After all the teams in the league have played more than [-] games, except for the Eagles, they are the only team with a winning percentage of over [-]%. Because there are too many strong teams this year, there are four championship teams in the east and west. At the beginning of the season, the records of the weak teams were crushed.

At this time, only the Eagles and Pacers still maintain a winning percentage of more than [-]%.

But even so, not many people are optimistic about the Pacers. First, they were third in the Eastern Conference last year and were easily killed by Payton. Then this year, the Eagles have exploded.It really became a strong contender for the Eastern Conference championship, and then easily killed the Pistons, and continued to maintain a crushing suppression of the Pistons. In people's eyes, the only opponent in the Eastern Conference that can become the Eagles, and the only obstacle that has hindered them for two years is the Nets.

Not only the media think so, but most of the Eagles players think so too, otherwise they wouldn't have gone out to make waves the afternoon before the game.

To be honest, including Raheem and Rasheed Wallace, they do not regard the Pacers as their opponents because of their strength, but because of their own face. They have to do a good job. Only Liu Mang regards the Pacers as an opponent.

The main reason is that the Pacers lineup is really strong, and it is more suitable for Coach Carlisle's offensive and defensive style of play. After the original 2-2 tie with the Pistons with the Five Tigers, they were taken away by the Pistons.

At this time, Coach Carlisle was a loser, a loser worse than before. At least he was the rookie king who won the best coach in the rookie coaching season, but the best coach was robbed by Coach Kruger, that is, Larry Bird. Cuban looks to be at the pinnacle of his life.

It's not that the Eagles don't pay attention to this game, they just pay attention to it. It's different from playing hard like the Spurs and Nets and must win.

The Eagles came here with the mentality of winning, while the Pacers came here with the idea of ​​saving their dignity with their lives and wanting to defend the home court!

At the beginning of the game, after Jermaine O'Neal won the jump ball from Rasheed Wallace, the Pacers beat the Eagles unexpectedly. Artest fiercely held the ball and hit the inside. Raheem, who lost weight, could not hold it!

Artest weighs 113 kilograms. The most excessive thing is that he is as flexible as a guard when his tonnage has increased by nearly 20 pounds compared with last season, which is about 9 kilograms. In addition to his career-high average of 19 points and 5 rebounds per game, he also has 3.9 assists!
Artest opened the game like a bulldozer, pushing Raheem to the basket and causing Ratliff to foul!

Although the free throws at the beginning were so strong, he made two full free throws, but when Raheem wanted to save face in a single, Artest showed his power again. Raheem was made a mistake by Artest's tough confrontation!
Artest fished directly from the bottom up, snatched the ball from Raheem, and then counterattacked with the ball to meet Liu Mang who was the first to catch up to the basket.

Liu Mang was frightened. How did Artest feel like the Cavaliers version 1.0 of James?

It's exactly the same style of play!

Oppressive defense, steals and counterattacks, the same free throws are cheating, and the same can't be blocked!

It is true that Liu Mang was surprised by Artest's ability rating raised to 90 this year. Artest is higher than O'Neal's peak ability rating of 89. When the offense is only 83, the defense rating is as high as 97!Higher than Kobe and Kidd's 95 defensive ratings.

But Liu Mang didn't expect that Raheem would be abused at the beginning!
Relying on Artest's morale of attacking and defending at the beginning, the Pacers played a 14-6 start at the beginning of the game. Artest started too fiercely and played extremely hard, forcing the Eagles to call a timeout at 5 minutes.

It wasn't because of the score, but Ratliff, who didn't expect the opponent to come at him at the beginning, made two fouls in the opening game!

The Eagles were forced to replace Ratliff early and replaced him with Kwame Brown.

After the timeout, the Eagles played a little bit better, and the speed was raised to play, and the Eagles' offense improved a lot.

However, after Artest's repeated "humiliation", Raheem began to compete with Artest with all his might, and the two fought each other desperately on both ends of the offense and defense.

Raheem was defended badly by Artest at the beginning, mainly because he didn't expect Artest to be so fierce!There is a qualitative difference from last season!
Last season, Artest was still the best defensive second team, but this year, Raheem obviously felt that Artest's defense was even stronger than Garnett's last year!
Artest didn't talk much, but he beeped hard.

Raheem's fighting spirit is also completely burning, Raheem with a 92 ability rating, and Artest with a 90 ability rating, these two may be the two strongest real small forwards in the league now, and they are fighting!
The Pacers did not stop Artest from competing with Raheem, and the Eagles certainly couldn't lose face to Raheem, who seldom wanted to be the main attacker.

The strengths of the two are indeed similar. Raheem has a relatively large offensive advantage, but Raheem is the kind of player who can have a top level of 90 in offense or a top level of 90 in defense, while Artest is a player who maintains a quasi-first-class level of more than 80 in offense and directly at the best defensive player level in defense. Raheem's ability evaluation is higher than Artest's, mainly because of his rebounding!
And speaking of it, Artest's one-on-one is really a bit incomprehensible. It feels like James, who has a little poor handwork but has greatly improved his defense. He protects the ball well.

The most important thing is that Artest's organizational skills are better than Raheem's!

After the rivalry between Raheem and Artest, the situation that the Eagles had stabilized was once again suppressed by the Pacers!
After the first quarter, Artest scored 14 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. At his peak, Artest was much stronger than last season!A player at the giant level!

Although Raheem scored 15 points and scored more points than Artest, he had 3 turnovers in a single quarter, and the Pacers' strategy was obvious. After Raheem was irritated by Artest, as long as Raheem asked for the ball, Liu Mang gave the ball to Raheem.

Conversely, when the Pacers were attacking, Jamal Tinsley, Reggie Miller, and Jermaine O'Neal all opened up space in the middle and long distances. Jeff Foster at the basket was not only handsome, but also tall. Standing on the edge of the three-second zone was also a threat.

After the first quarter, the Eagles trailed the Pacers by 23 points 33 to 10!
Completely led by the nose by the Pacers!

Liu Mang realized that something was wrong. He looked towards the Pacers' bench and saw Jim Carrey's wicked smile with hair. Obviously, all of this was a routine!
Moreover, the Pacers trusted Artest's defense too much and let him face Raheem.

Liu Mang wanted to talk to Coach Kruger, and wanted to remind Raheem, but just as Liu Mang wanted to talk to Coach Kruger, Coach Kruger waved his hand. Obviously, Coach Kruger also knew this.

But coach Kruger didn't remind him, but specially arranged tactics for Raheem.

Liu Mang was taken aback for a moment, seeing Rahim's unhappy expression, obviously ready to confront Artest, suddenly Liu Mang understood...

The face of the star!
Liu Mang has always been recognized by the league as the strongest player of the Eagles, even this season, but both on and off the field, he always calls Raheem the team leader, and he is the kind who is convinced. Raheem sacrifices himself for the team to be a defensive forward. Liu Mang is not necessarily willing to do this now.

Therefore, Rahim's face must be maintained!

Now the Eagles are not so well prepared for the Pacers. After all, they flew to Indianapolis to play the Pacers the next day after eight consecutive home games.

This is also one of the reasons why some teams lose inexplicably in the regular season. Sometimes it seems that a team has an obvious advantage in strength, and there are no major problems in terms of feel and state, but it just loses miserably.

The regular season is much more difficult to predict than the playoffs, because it is too long and there are too many opponents to target, so there are many upsets in the regular season.

What's more, the Pacers are already strong. Coach Carlisle probably hated the Eagles to the bone. He robbed him of the best coach and swept him for two consecutive years, causing him to lose such a good lineup as the Pistons.
Liu Mang understands that Coach Kruger wants to protect Raheem's face. This is also a very important thing for the team. At this time, you can't tell Raheem that you have been tricked by the opponent. After all, you are a top small forward who has been famous for many years.

However, although he cannot lose face, Liu Mang still wants to win!

Letting Raheem go to the match with Artest just to decide the outcome does not mean that the game will be ruined!

Raheem is not too bad, he also scored 11 points in 6 of 15 in the first quarter, but there were too many passing mistakes, and there were too many balls that had no chance to pass at the last moment.

The most important thing is that the opening tactics were not arranged for Raheem, so Raheem seemed to be suppressed by Artest on the scene.

Liu Mang saw that Coach Kruger's tactics were too routine, and he probably put his mid-range and low-post tactics on Raheem to give Raheem a chance to play singles. Liu Mang felt that this was not enough!

Liu Mang thought about it, and there it is!

Liu Mang leaned forward and looked at Coach Kruger eagerly.

Coach Kruger saw Liu Mang's eyes and clenched the pen and tactical board in his hands. What is this guy going to do!
Liu Mang didn't directly grab the tactical board first, but said to Rahim: "Sharif, we support you, beat that round-headed guy to the ground!"

Hearing Liu Mang's support, Rahim felt very comfortable, not to mention how comfortable he was. He was also worried that Liu Mang would be unhappy, because Liu Mang made 4 shots in the first quarter, failed to make three three-pointers in one layup, and only made one three-pointer. He didn't touch the ball much at other times.

"But..." Liu Mang dragged the end of his voice.

While Rahim was happy, he asked doubtfully, "But what?"

"But Sharif, you are so stupid! Don't use your strengths..." Liu Mang said, and took the tactical board away from Coach Kruger...

(End of this chapter)