From today on is the king

Chapter 651. Chapter 650. A Familiar Style of Play (Ask for a Monthly Pass!)

Stockton is Stockton. He used technology and experience to help the Eagles maintain the score tightly when they had no physical advantage at all. At the 5th minute of the second quarter, the Rockets finally tied the score. The two teams tied at 42, and the Eagles called a timeout.

Although Stockton had a few minutes of rest during the intermission, he obviously couldn't hold on for 10 consecutive minutes.

Liu Mang reappeared, bringing Jason Terry and Prince, Muhammad and Kwame Brown on the field.

The Rockets replaced Francis, Mobley, Jim Jackson, Maurice Taylor, and Cato.

Mobley is back, Maurice Taylor is back, but Yao Ming is still resting, and Van Gundy Jr. is becoming more and more cautious in using Yao Ming. He wants to rely on the outside line that he played well in the first half of the second quarter to continue for a while and help Yao Ming retain a little more energy.

For this point, the Eagles have also thought about it, so they haven't implemented the defensive method discussed by Liu Mang and Mike Woodson for the time being, but play normally.

Back from the timeout, the Eagles have the ball.

Liu Mang advances to the frontcourt. Francis may not be so careful in defending others, but he is very active in defending Liu Mang every time.

It’s just that, the more active Francis is, the easier it is for Liu Mang to pass him. Francis relies on his physical fitness to rely on oppression to steal, but Francis’ defensive awareness is really poor. Regardless of his height, he may have better physical fitness than Kobe and McGrady, but his defensive awareness is terribly poor. Pressing is hard.

As soon as Liu Mang was beyond the three-point line, Francis pressed up. Liu Mang followed the movement of Francis pressing up and pulled the ball to the left, and Francis rushed to the right. Liu Mang easily left Francis behind with a change of direction, and Francis flew directly to the right.

Liu Mang became more and more experienced in beating Francis.

After passing Francis, Liu Mang entered the three-point line and went straight to the basket. Kwame Brown and Muhammad stuck their defenders on both sides of the three-second zone. Liu Mang entered the basket in the middle and easily dunked and scored two points.

Francis' defense is positive, but the effect is really touching. He was passed in one step, and the Rockets were too late to even assist in the defense, and were firmly stuck by the expected Eagles inside.

Offensive and defensive transition, the Rockets attack.

Francis felt that he was going to be blown away by Liu Mang again. That feeling was very powerless. Now Liu Mang was no longer relying on tricks to fight him like in his rookie season. Since last season, Liu Mang didn't make much use of him. This year, Liu Mang's strength has obviously surpassed him.

This sense of powerlessness drives Francis crazy. Although his style of play has been criticized and his defense is surprisingly poor for his physical fitness, his fighting spirit and competitiveness have always been praised by people.

If you can't beat it, you need hard steel!
Moreover, Francis has a physical advantage over most of them except Baron Davis and other very few point guards. He is going to use his body hard!

The Eagles did not send Ratliff or Rasheed Wallace. Francis is confident that even if Liu Mang lets him go two meters, he can go in and stir up the inside.

However, after Francis advanced to the frontcourt, he found that Liu Mang was waiting for him on the three-point line!There is no humiliating defense that retreats to the free throw line!

Francis was a little puzzled, but more ecstatic!

Finally a chance to physically bully this bastard!
Francis immediately sped up and rolled towards the right side of Liu Mang's body. Liu Mang did not dodge, nor did he choose to retreat and defend. Instead, he took a step to the front of Francis' breakthrough and lowered his center of gravity to wait for the impact!
At this moment, Francis' facial expression turned ferocious, and he slammed into Liu Mang with all his strength. Liu Mang moved from behind.
Francis slammed into Liu Mang's body fiercely, and then...

Francis seemed to have bumped into a tumbler, Liu Mang's foot was only retreating a little bit due to the force of the impact, Francis himself was staggered by the force rebounded by the force he hit, and Francis himself was knocked back!
Liu Mang had quick eyesight and quick hands. When Francis panicked and failed to control the ball, he bullied himself and stabbed the ball, then immediately threw himself to control the ball and counterattacked directly!
Francis was shocked and angry!
He was about to explode, and immediately chased after Liu Mang, the speed of the two was about the same.

After reaching the frontcourt, Liu Mang entered the free throw line and took off in one step. He switched the ball from his right hand to his left hand in the air, avoided the hand of Francis who was chasing after him, and dunked the ball into the basket with his left hand!
After landing on the ground, Liu Mang patted his chest muscles, and said to Francis with a sincere expression: "You are quite strong, I hurt a little from the impact, but it's not enough, try harder next time."

After speaking, Liu Mang turned around and returned to defense.

Francis looked at Liu Mang's back to defend, and wondered if he was dreaming?And it's still a nightmare!

If it was the end of the last season and it was the first time the two had played against each other until now, Francis would have accepted it if he was held back when he forcibly crushed Liu Mang with his strength. But just over a month ago, on December 12, the two had fought against each other. At that time, Liu Mang could only retreat to defend and rely on the inside to defend him, but after more than 10 days, Liu Mang was able to hold him hard!
Francis is a little confused!
He didn't believe what happened. After Jim Jackson ran back and sent the ball to Francis, Francis advanced to continue singles against Liu Mang.

However, Hayes was already well-known as a pick-and-roll defense expert who can handle Howard and Bynum internally and switch defenders externally. Liu Mang relied on the strength of the lower plate obtained by Hayes' star card, as well as his own better mobility. Single defense trapped Francis at the three-point line!

Seeing Liu Mang's contemptuous eyes and guarding himself with a smile, Francis was furious!

Squeezing Liu Mang, Francis insisted on breaking into the inside line, but under Liu Mang's defense, Francis' strength did not have the obvious advantage as before. Standing and confronting, Liu Mang's strength was as high as 91. At the center level, even many jumping centers were not as strong as Liu Mang. Liu Mang also had 84 in mobile confrontation strength.

Francis was forced to break into the inside lane from the bottom line, and came to the right edge of the three-second zone. At this time, Kwame Brown blocked him and covered Francis' passing space with Liu Mang.

But when Francis squeezed Liu Mang to get stronger, he couldn't squeeze!On the contrary, when Liu Mang got to the basket, the hot pot feast was triggered, and he accurately predicted the movement of Francis picking up the ball, and cut the ball with one palm!
Another steal!

This is not over yet. When the Rockets attacked in the next round, Francis still lost his basic judgment and continued to forcefully attack Liu Mang with the ball for two consecutive rounds. Counting the first interception, Francis was intercepted by Liu Mang three times in a row!

The Eagles lineup can run as much as they can. After Liu Mang's second steal, Jason Terry and Prince immediately went down, using Jason Terry's ability to attract the defense, Liu Mang passed to Prince who ran to the right at a 45-degree angle, and Prince caught the ball and made a three-pointer.

After the third steal, the Rockets retreated and became alert, and returned to the defense immediately, but the five Eagles pressed up and beat the Rockets. Liu Mang made a false fax shot and made a mid-range shot from the top arc chasing to the free throw line.

In just 59 seconds, the Eagles played a wave of 7-0, hitting the Rockets to a timeout!
Just one minute later, there was still a second to go, and he was beaten 1-7. Little Van Gundy was angry and sprayed at Francis. It was not time for Yao Ming to play. Little Van Gundy tried his best to let Yao Ming play more in the first and last quarters. He played three to four minutes at the end of the second quarter and three to four minutes at the beginning of the third quarter, so that Yao Ming had enough physical strength to play the fourth quarter. This is a trick learned from the Lakers using Shaq. Almost, a team with a weak inside defense can play 0 minutes, and a team with a strong inside defense can only maintain its physical fitness for about 4 minutes.

Van Gundy Jr. resisted the idea of ​​replacing Yao Ming now, angrily reprimanded Francis for occupying the ball, and asked Francis to share the ball with Mobley, Morris Taylor and others to play more united.

Van Gundy Jr. made the arrangements based on their playing style in the first half of the second quarter when they had an advantage. The Rockets' three outside lines all had ball-handling attacks. The offensive effect was very good in the first half of the second quarter. This time, Morris Taylor was replaced. He is a point guard, how could he be intercepted so easily, all because Francis was too careless and played too alone in these few rounds.

And Francis could only nod with a dull expression. He still couldn't believe what happened just now, but the facts were in front of him, he couldn't even attack Liu Mang!
In this 1 minute, Francis felt the oppression of that bastard in Los Angeles from Liu Mang, the feeling that the offense and defense would kill him!

Francis didn't have any objection to Little Van Gundy's arrangement, he... was scared!

Both teams did not make any substitutions and continued with the lineup just now.

However, after returning from the timeout, even though Francis began to share the ball, the Rockets' offense still couldn't open.

Liu Mang locked Francis to death, mainly because Francis did not expect such a situation at all. When Francis did not expect Liu Mang to be able to hold his strength, he was intercepted three times by Liu Mang, which made Francis lose his accurate judgment and was beaten. In the next confrontation with Liu Mang, he completely ignored the fact that he still had skills.

And on Mobley's side, meeting Prince...

Mobley is very good, very good, very good quasi-first-class star, breakthrough, three-pointers, stop-up shots and pull-up shots are all good, but facing Prince, except for strong three-pointers and pull-up jumpers, he has nothing to do.

As for Maurice Taylor, when he met Mohamed and Kwame Brown defending the basket, he pulled out to shoot and was marked by Mohammed. He tried to hit the basket and was shot by Kwame Brown.

Jim Jackson...you have to blame Pat Riley. He is now a shooting-type offensive rebounder. In addition to fixed-point shooting and support, the offensive end also hits the rebound. When he enters the inside and meets Kwame Brown and Mohammed, he has no chance at all. Jim Jackson can only shoot under the interference of Jason Terry, and the efficiency is not high.

When the Rockets called a timeout, they didn't call it. The only difference was that the people who made the strong shots changed from Francis to Mobley and Jim Jackson, and they were able to shoot.

Counting that wave of 7-0, starting from the 5th minute of the second quarter, the Eagles played for three and a half minutes and hit a 16-6 scoring shock wave. That is to say, Jim Jackson and Mobley felt good today, and each made a three-pointer.

Van Gundy Jr. called timeout again.

The Rockets with Yao Ming and the Rockets without Yao Ming are completely two teams, less than the gap between a team with 30 wins and a strong team in the Western Conference playoffs!

The Rockets scored 48 points with three and a half minutes left. It can be said that they performed very well on the offensive end, but the Eagles scored a full 58 points!
Seeing that it was time for Yao Ming to play, Van Gundy quickly replaced the starting lineup, trying to recover the score during the intermission.

The Eagles also started to make substitutions. Coach Kruger seemed to be a little desperate for this substitution. However, the first half of the first quarter and the last time they played against the Rockets proved that when Yao Ming was physically fit, the conventional defense couldn’t defend him at all.

Unless the Eagles have the super defensive giant Mutombo in the late 90s and a top blue-collar power forward, they have a chance to defend against the combination of Yao Ming and Morris Taylor.

Therefore, Coach Kruger can only try the unreliable defense developed by Liu Mang and Mike Woodson. He can't just watch Yao Ming come back to eat away the point difference!It is certain that Yao Ming will start to attack the basket now when he comes back, so he must double-team, and he can't just watch Yao Ming forcefully attack, then the Rockets' offense will be revived again.

On Liu Mang's side, he also went up with the mentality of giving it a try. Anyway, he opened up 10 points just now, so he can give it a try, but let's talk if he can't.

Liu Mang now understands why some people will say that Yao Ming's inside teammates are bad. If Yao Ming is on the court, his inside teammates will look very good, because Yao Ming takes away the defense, and his inside teammates look good. But without Yao Ming, his inside teammates look as hot as chickens.

Mike Woodson called a few players who were going to play with Liu Mang to draw tactics together. Liu Mang walked on the court and twisted his back to prepare for the next big thing!
……

The two teams began to rotate, and the Rockets replaced the full starting lineup, trying to chase points before the end of the second quarter.

Yao Ming is ready to kill the Quartet inside!
Although Ratliff or Kwame Brown is good for single defense, there is only one player. If Rasheed Wallace is not there, Yao Ming is very confident. Just him!And he's also ready for when Muhammad or Boozer flanks Ratliff, anyway, it's just now!
However, Yao Ming saw that the Hawks sent Liu Mang, Jason Terry, Prince, Raheem, and Ratliff.

This is a bit incomprehensible. Yao Ming knows that Raheem defends well and can defend against power forwards. It is also difficult to defend against Maurice Taylor!Moreover, Yao Ming is confident that even if Raheem and Ratliff attack him together, he can go straight in for a hard dunk. When he was playing against the Pistons before, Ben Wallace and Bosh could not stop him.

Yao Ming had only one idea, that the Eagles probably wanted to speed up their counterattacks. He was confident that as long as he played a little more stable offensively, he would be able to stop the Eagles' cavalry tactics and prevent them from rebounding and counterattacking!
The timeout ends and the Rockets have the ball.

Francis advanced to the frontcourt and saw Liu Mang retreating to the free throw line to defend, so he stopped fighting. He wanted to finish the game quickly and go home to find out what happened!

Yao Ming relied on his powerful lower body strength to block Ratliff under the basket. Although Ratliff was also strong in lower body strength, this time, he felt like he had met O'Neal. Although he didn't have O'Neal's violent explosive power, Yao Ming was very stable!Use static force to firmly block the position.

Francis lobs the ball to Yao Ming.

Although Yao Ming has an advantage in strength, it's not that big. It's okay when he's stuck, but now he needs to fight with his life!
Just as Yao Ming received the ball, he suddenly saw Liu Mang shrunk directly to the basket!
That position is not the kind of position where the outside line double-teams the inside line, but the position where two inside lines double-team!
Yao Ming obviously felt that as long as he knocked Ratliff away and turned around, Liu Mang would pounce on him and form a pincer attack, and it would be a pinch attack on the ball!

If it's two inside defenses, as long as it's not a combination like Rasheed Wallace and Ratliff, Yao Ming doesn't care that much, just go ahead, but Liu Mang is so short, it's too easy to cut the ball off!

Seeing that Liu Mang retreated to that position, Francis immediately cut from the middle to the inside. Yao Ming immediately sent the ball to Francis.
But as soon as Francis entered the free throw line, he saw Raheem block in front of him. Just as Yao Ming just passed the ball, Raheem blocked him. At the same time, Ratliff began to circle around Yao Ming. Yao Ming was on the right edge of the three-second zone.

Francis immediately distributed the ball to Morris Taylor on the left, expecting his teammates to knock Liu Mang over and directly dunk!

Morris Taylor received the ball a little outside the left side of the three-second zone. Seeing Liu Mang behind him, he felt that he finally had another chance to play coquettishly like he did in the first half of the first quarter!
It may take a little bit of work to beat Raheem, but to beat the little guy who is only 1.9 meters tall, Maurice Taylor relied on Liu Mang to slap the ball to the ground and squeeze it hard.

When Morris Taylor squeezed up, he was already fantasizing about how to dunk the dunk, but when he exerted his strength on Liu Mang, he found that Liu Mang was nailed to the floor, unable to squeeze at all!
Morris Taylor squeezed again in disbelief, but he still couldn't squeeze!
As a power forward, Maurice Taylor has a strength of 83. Even if he has a weight advantage, he can only compete with Raheem at most, but Liu Mang's current lower body strength is at the level of a real center with strong lower body strength. Morris Taylor is firmly blocked!

Maurice Taylor couldn't move, was surprised, and chose to turn around and cut in. He wanted to rely on his weight and height to deal with Liu Mang, but he couldn't move, so he turned around and pressed his weight to suppress the head office!

Maurice Taylor turned from the baseline and wanted to attack the basket directly for a layup. Don't expect domineering, just play honestly.

Just when Morris Taylor turned around and wanted to squeeze Liu Mang away, Liu Mang also judged that he would not be able to handle the opponent's beating like this, but his disadvantage of short height and light weight could also become an advantage!Seeing Morris Taylor turning around and pressing on him, Liu Mang took a step back and took a chair to defend himself!
Morris Taylor didn't expect this at all. It was too late to take back his pressing force and the upper body that had already moved, and he lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground!

Ball out of bounds, Eagles baseline!

Everyone at the scene was stunned. Liu Mang defended Morris-Taylor, an opponent with a height difference of 13 cm and a weight difference of 15 kg, who actually defended one-on-one in the low post!
Rao is that the Eagles players have blind confidence in Liu Mang. When Mike Woodson set up this defense, they all felt that it was too unreliable. They just trusted Liu Mang and thought that Liu Mang must have some tricks, so they executed it with all their strength, but they didn’t expect Liu Mang to defend like that, and then he really defended Morris Taylor.
At least the Eagles had some tactical arrangements and were mentally prepared. The Rockets were going crazy, especially Francis. He didn't expect that he couldn't beat Liu Mang, and Morris Taylor couldn't beat it either!
The big fat man on TNT who was broadcasting the game was also terrified. Why did he feel that this scene was so familiar?

But this guy, that size, is simply not the type that can do such a defense!

Taking advantage of the dead ball, coach Kruger followed the plan, and when he could replace Boozer on the offensive end, he would replace Boozer and replace Boozer.

Originally, if there was Rasheed Wallace, there would be no such trouble, but now there is no such trouble.

The Eagles attacked, and Liu Mang went to serve and passed the ball to Jason Terry.

Jason Terry advanced with the ball, and Liu Mang ran to the front court. He didn't ask for the ball for singles or to open up space. Instead, he ran inside and asked for the ball in the low post on the right!
Boozer took a step inside the 45-degree three-point line on the right and pulled Yao Ming out. Raheem went to the left corner to open up space, Prince went to the right bottom corner to open up space, and Jason Terry lobbed the ball to Liu Mang, who had Francis stuck in the three-second zone.

Liu Mang has low-post ability, which Xiaolu had mastered last season. When he played the Nets this year, he even used it as a regular offensive method. The Rockets were not particularly surprised.

And Francis has excellent physical fitness. He has played against Kobe many times. Compared with outside defense, Francis has done a better job in low post defense. The Rockets players are quite relieved that Francis needs to defend Liu Mang's low post alone.

however……

After receiving the ball, Liu Mang observed the position of himself and the basket, stabilized for two seconds, waited for his teammates to completely open the space, slapped the ball, and hit Francis directly with his ass, then turned left and swung the ball with his right hand to the basket.
Everyone at the scene was dumbfounded. When did Francis become so good?The offensive and defensive ends were blasted to pieces!
The most surprising thing is that Liu Mang's style of play seems familiar!

　There is another chapter, maybe three or four o'clock, friends, let's get up tomorrow morning and read it!too late
　　
　
(End of this chapter)