Although the process is not quite the same, the result is the same.

Liu Mang adopted Kidd's original way of dealing with Billups in the Eastern Finals, stimulated Billups to fight to the death with himself, and used his stronger scoring ability and the opponent's bad habit of prodigal shooting to try to kill Billups in one-on-one, Billups collapsed, and this year's Pistons system almost collapsed.

But I didn't expect that the beginning of the game was due to an accident of whether the foul was valid, which made Billups's mentality explode early.

Billups was under pressure to play the Eagles, but he didn't write it on his face.

The pressure before the game, in the face of Liu Mang's difficult to win the past, at the beginning of the game, he thought he had made a foul and was not blown by the referee because the star whistle did not blow...... All the reasons are combined, and Biloops collapsed earlier than Liu Mang imagined!

Originally, Billups had just become the core this year, and for the first time, he was inexperienced.

In the minds of most teams, the Hawks, who reached the Eastern Conference finals last season, are no different from the Nets, at least that's what Billups thinks, so there is a lot of pressure in the first place.

Then he was ignited by Liu Mang's sentence "The weak are not qualified for free throws", and the explosion of mentality is a reasonable thing.

Kidd was originally like a monster in the Eastern Conference finals, averaging 24 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists per game, but he also shot Billups only 27 percent from the field.

Liu Mang didn't have as exaggerated defensive dominance and rebounding as Kidd, Billups still shot 33 percent from the field, and scored at least five points in each quarter and scored 23 points and four assists in just 25 minutes and six fouls.

But Billups' 6-of-18 shooting, along with a rare four turnovers and six fouls, left the Pistons collapsing on both ends of the floor.

The main thing is rebounding!

That's the key, and even though Ben Wallace had 7 points and 20 rebounds in this game, the Pistons only had 33 rebounds as a team, while the Hawks had 49 rebounds!

Before the Pistons formed the double Wallace combination, despite having the rebounding king, they were still bullied in rebounding, and they were at the bottom of the league, and when they met the Hawks' frontcourt trio, the rebounds were snatched up again.

Liu Mang suppressed Billups, ensured the rebounding ball inside, and when Jason Terry came up to catch the ball and threw it, Liu Mang mainly passed the ball, and the Hawks began to pull the difference apart.

In the end, the Hawks didn't have much effort, and won 91-77 away from the Pistons, easily winning the first playoff game, and the game fell into collapse from the beginning, and the whole game was pressed by the Hawks.

Liu Mang made 16 free throws, 13 of which were sent by Kidd, and he made 14 of 16 free throws in the game, scoring 25 points on 8 shots! That is to say, basically Liu Mang's scores were all scored when Billups was on the court, in addition to 10 assists! Liu Mang got 25 points, 10 assists and 2 rebounds.

When Billups was replaced for a foul, Liu Mang chose to hold the ball in his hands and break through the ball when he faced Chaggy Atkins, who couldn't defend himself at all.

also beat Billups, who was the core for the first time, and the sensation caused by Liu Mang was more influential than the original Kidd's abuse of Billups even more!

The main reason is that Kidd doesn't seem to have much ornamentation regardless of offense or defense, defense relies on prediction, small action, few fouls, and not much offensive ball-holding, the main means of scoring is to go around the block and dismantle the shot, and I can't see what he did to the opponent in the game, but the opponent is a continuous iron.

And Liu Mang looks even more sassy! There are all kinds of weird ideas on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the key is to be very ornamental! Really sassy! The fouls are all different and make all kinds of Jamaican screams, and there is a commotion in the ecstasy.

The most important thing is to shoot 5 of 8 and 1 of 2 three-pointers, and rely on free throws to score 25 points!

During the regular season, some people said that Billups's indecency in making fouls was not lost to Liu Mang, and in the playoffs, people knew who the king of fouls was!

……

……

After the game, Liu Mang's feat of scoring 25 points on 8 shots sparked a heated discussion, if it weren't for the Lakers' home upset later, the Timberwolves slaughtered the Lakers 119-91 to steal the home court advantage of the series, and attracted all the attention, Liu Mang estimated that it would cause a lot of war of words.

Liu Mang decisively chose to keep a low profile for the time being after playing the first game with the Pistons, and said in an interview that he was lucky today, Billups just had a lot of balls that he didn't throw, the team rebounded well, and didn't give the opponent a second chance to attack, and his own second offense was more, etc., attributing the credit to the team and taking the initiative to downplay the impact of this game.

The time is not yet ripe for pretending, Liu Mang chooses to be a low-key person......

After the Hawks and Timberwolves both scored and beat the team with the better record to gain home-court advantage, all the opening games of the first round of the playoffs were played.

With the exception of the Timberwolves, who were seen as a big upset, the other series started off much as expected.

The Lakers' road to winning the championship is overshadowed, although the vast majority of fans still think that the Lakers can still beat the Timberwolves, but they are not so optimistic about the Lakers' road to the championship.

At the beginning of the playoffs, the Lakers, who were only ranked fifth in the West, were placed in the first place in the probability of winning the championship, out of respect for the defending champions.

……

After the first game, the Hawks thought that the Pistons fans would be furious after losing the game, and do something out of the ordinary, such as in the eighties, they lost to the Bulls, they blocked the door of the parking lot, the police came and didn't leave, and they dragged the Bulls players for an hour or two. But the Pistons fans dragged on until close to the early hours of the morning to let the Bulls players leave, and sometimes when they won, they have to run to block it, and anyway, they will block the visiting team if they have nothing to do.

The Pistons were hated back then, not only the bad boy army, but their fans were also like bandits, and some teams were like this, in addition to winning by strength, there were many off-court factors.

But this time the Pistons fans were surprisingly calm.

The main thing is to lose temperlessly!

Although the Pistons still have some old fans who had no lower limit, but this is the 21st century, and the fans have long been updated, although they still have the iron and blood of Steel City, but they are far from the kind of nonsense they had back then, and this is the second year that they have been beaten by the Hawks at home, and they have no temper.

Originally, before the start of the first game, Pistons fans still had confidence, looking forward to the team withstanding the pressure and beating the Hawks at home, in order to increase the morale of the team, the Pistons fans were enthusiastic and energetic before the game.

But at the beginning of the game, the Pistons were abused by the Hawks, Billups was mad at Liu Mang, Billups was beaten, and the Pistons could only return to last year's offensive style of play organized by Atkins and Clifford Robinson, this kind of play The Hawks saw last year, it was not good at all, the regular season was okay, and it was really iron in the playoffs to make Pistons fans despair.

The Pistons fans who used to support the team with great enthusiasm are now gone with the temper to add trouble to the Hawks' sidelines.

However, after the Eagles returned to the hotel, they continued to be grounded, and the players were still forced to travel back and forth between the hotel and the training hall on the next day of rest.

Although after the first game, Pistons fans seemed to have died down and had no desire to fight the Hawks off the court, but the Hawks did not dare to be careless.

……

……

The playoffs didn't stop with the Hawks' eighth-place ragged first-place and three-time defending champion Lakers abused by the Timberwolves by 28 points.

On the third game day of the playoffs, the Spurs and Rockets ushered in the second game of the meeting.

Spurs vs. Rockets still need to watch? With Duncan here, and it's the home of the Spurs, how could there be an accident? Waking up is another big win...... The accident really happened!

Francis and the old cat Mobley both went berserk, Francis scored 35 points, the old cat Mobley scored 29 points, and the two combined for 64 points, blowing up the little sports car and the still tender boxer!

Although Duncan still scored 27 points and 15 rebounds, but relying on James Posey, the Rockets' strongest defensive giant, caused Stephen Jackson to foul at critical moments, and the Rockets narrowly defeated the Spurs 96-95 away and tied the score at 1-1.

During the post-game interview between the Rockets and the Spurs, Duncan was expressionless as if nothing had happened, and Popovich praised the Rockets to death, especially praising Yao Ming, which probably means that Yao Ming is the key to the Rockets' victory, but rookie Yao Ming met Duncan in the playoffs, except for getting 3 blocks in both games, it was okay, and the two games added up to 15 points, and this game was only 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks, and Duncan was blown up to the ground......

The Pacers then hosted the Bucks and struggled to defend a home court 99-95.

There were only three games on the second game day, and in the final game, the Mavericks experienced another defensive battle, and finally relied on home-court advantage to win another hard-fought 93-89 victory over the Trail Blazers.

If it weren't for Nash's 28 points on 10-of-10 shooting from the field and eight assists on just one turnover, the Mavericks' home-court advantage would have been accounted for.

……

Soon it was April 24th, and the Hawks' second game day arrived, with five games today, and the Hawks once again took on the Pistons at 8 p.m. at Auburn Hills Palace.

Losing Game 1, the Pistons didn't believe they could beat the Hawks on their own, their confidence was gone, and they weren't the iron-blooded team under Larry Brown in the future.

Clifford Robinson hasn't left the Pistons yet, and the future Rasheed Wallace has a similar performance on the defensive end, Rasheed Wallace scores on the offensive end and rebounds on the defensive end is a little better, Rasheed Wallace has about 14+8 or 15+7 performances, but Clifford Robinson has an average of about 4 assists per game.

Billups, Hamilton and Ben Wallace's playmaking, scoring, and defensive core are all in place, and although Prince is missing, the Pistons' iron-blooded skeleton is almost the same.

But there is a skeleton, but there is no iron-blooded soul brought by Larry Brown!

was swept in the second round last year, and was taken down in the first game this year, and the Pistons were at a loss in the second game, fighting or fighting, refusing to give up, but they had no confidence at all, and they didn't know how to win at all, because there was no way!

After Billups came, Coach Carlisle couldn't control the team anymore, and the players didn't believe that their defense could beat the Hawks, and they didn't even have that spirit and confidence in their strongest ability, and the result was obvious, the Pistons collapsed after holding out half the game this time.

16+5+7, Liu Mang still performed well in this game, Billups continued to be defended, scored 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting, and continued to pay the tuition fee for the first time as the core, but the "teacher" who paid changed from Kidd to Liu Mang.

Combined with Raheem's 40 rebounds with Muhammad, Ratliff and Boozer, the four had three more rebounds than the Pistons as a team, and Ben Wallace continued to have 17 rebounds, but he couldn't compete with so many rebounders from the Hawks.

96-79, the Hawks easily won two consecutive victories away!

As the saying goes, the one who gets the rebound wins the world, and the Hawks relied on their dominance in rebounding to win two in a row without home-court advantage in the first two games of the series, 2-0, and lead the Pistons by a large score as eighth in the East.

The Nets, 76ers, and Hornets were so disappointed in the Pistons when they saw that the Pistons couldn't even struggle!

Not only the players of the three teams, but also the complaints about the Pistons on the Internet are endless.

A fan with an IP in New Jersey posted on the official NBA forum and complained: "It's a little trouble for the Hawks!" Anyway, you're the first in the East! Why is it so useless! ”

"The landlord is right! It's the first in the east, how can it be so badly abused by the eighth. "The IP on the second floor is from North Carolina, and although the Hornets moved out of Charlotte, the fans here are still paying attention to the Hornets.

"The Pistons' first place is too watery, and it's all because the Hawks are in eighth place, and the Nets and Pacers let it go." The 3rd floor IP is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence was declared.

“……”

“……”

……

Fans of the three teams huddled together to complain about the Pistons.

After the Pistons fell behind 0-2, the Pistons fans didn't dare to speak on the Internet, the news was all one-sided in favor of the Hawks, all the news was unfavorable to the Pistons, and the steel workers had no face to post at all, so they could only dive silently.

However, seeing the fans of the three teams who sneered, there were finally Pistons fans who couldn't help it.

"We've done our best, our players have worked hard, why don't you try it in the next round?" On the 128th floor, a message finally came out from an IP from Detroit.

Grief and anger are mixed with helplessness, and this sentence shows the mood of Pistons fans.

Seeing this reply, the fans of the three teams didn't know what to answer.

And then......

Someone Aite is a Pistons fan, and it's an IP from Los Angeles.

"Come on, pistons! We've got your back! ”

Someone took the lead, and the style of the post changed abruptly.

"Piston refueling ......"

"Support Piston ......"

"Take out the Eagles ......"

“……”

……

On April 25, after playing two away games, the Eagles took a big nap after Game 2 and flew back to Atlanta at 11:30 p.m.

Two wins in a row on the road, don't be too happy with the Eagles players!

The perfect start to the playoffs allowed the Hawks' originally tense mentality to finally relax.

At this time, something happened that baffled the Eagles.

Since the Hawks finished the game yesterday at half past ten, it was close to a little back to the hotel, and most people slept until more than nine o'clock this morning, got up and packed up their things and rushed to the airport to take a chartered flight back to Atlanta, and there was no time to watch the news and pay attention to the Internet.

After returning to Atlanta, the Hawks players saw an inexplicable piece of news.

Basketball fans across the United States have a common slogan - "Pistons come on".

Of course, most people are ridiculing that in this era when the Internet is becoming more and more popular, the United States, the country with the most developed network, took the lead in the social change of Internet to guide public opinion, which was initiated by a fan in Los Angeles at first, and then countless people began to follow suit, and finally the Internet became popular in the United States, and it also extended to physical media!

Liu Mang saw that this slogan was actually on the headlines of the newspapers, and even the Atlanta Times followed the news headlines of the Pistons cheering up, and he didn't worry much about the Pistons team because of the "support of fans across the country......

……

The "support" of the fans, instead of making the Pistons feel that there is anything good, has become even less confident, and everyone has begun to sympathize with them.

On April 27, after a two-day break, the Eagles hosted the third game of the series.

Billups lost his starting position in this game, he played too badly in the first two games, and was put on the bench by Coach Carlisle, but he didn't play much off the bench, playing 11 shots in 18 minutes, scoring 7 points on 3-of-11 shooting, and the Pistons returned to last season's style of play in the starting stage, still losing to the Hawks.

103-92, the Hawks won three cities in a row, leading 3-0!

The three eaglets combined for 70 points, Liu Mang scored 22 points and 8 assists, Jason Terry came off the bench to score 31 points and 5 assists, and Raheem scored 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists, leading the team to a big victory!

Back at home, the Hawks' scoring finally broke 100, and after the Pistons Billups and Ben Wallace came on the court separately, the control of the court was not so strong, the tempo was not so slow, and the Pistons played better offensively, but the Hawks benefited more from it, played better on the offensive end, and easily won the third game.

The Pistons players are now in a collective state of mind and desperate.

There has never been an example of a 0-3 comeback, and the next is the home court of the Hawks, and the Pistons players have no hope at all, and even seem to see themselves hanging on the same list of shame as the SuperSonics and the Knicks......

……

……

After the game, before the press conference, Coach Krueger was looking at the team's post-win interview draft, and a reporter who discussed with the team what questions to ask after the win was asked, which is the legendary "To".

"Mike, Hornets and 76ers, who do you think will be our opponent in the next round?" Coach Krueger asked.

"It's hard to say, they have a similar record in the regular season, they all hold their home courts, and I think they have a chance to hit a tie-break." Mike Woodson was conservative and uttered a most sound guess.

Who says Americans are all straight? Mike Woodson is also worried that he is more optimistic about the 76ers who have a former MVP to advance, but if he says that he is optimistic about the 76ers to advance, and then Coach Kruger chooses to trust his judgment and start preparing for the 76ers, and finally the Hornets advance, then he has to carry the pot of wasting time.

Coach Kruger didn't pay much attention to this, he just asked.

"It's not good to advance too early, the opponent in the next round doesn't know who it is, and it's not easy to prepare." Coach Kruger couldn't help but pretend to be forced when there were no outsiders.

After taking a 3-0 lead, the Eagles felt that it was a matter of time before they advanced, and they were indeed thinking about who the opponent would be in the next round, but they would definitely not say it clearly, even for their own players, Coach Kruger did not show too much joy, but asked his players not to get carried away, not to make trouble for themselves, and to eliminate the opponent early to prepare for the next round of games.

Although it is very troublesome to secretly pretend to say that he does not know who the next opponent is, if he can sweep the opponent, who wants to fight to tie seven? Ending the series with an earlier game is an advantage for any team.

Just when Coach Kruger couldn't help but pretend to be forced in private, there was a knock on the door.

"Please come in." Coach Krueger retracted the smug look he had on his face when he was writing with Mike Woodson.

The door was pushed open and it was Moron Wiley, the team's current vice president in charge of logistics.

Seeing Moron Willy hurriedly walk in, Coach Kruger felt a sigh in his heart, and a bad premonition came.

Coach Kruger suppressed the inexplicable uneasiness in his heart and asked, "What's the matter, Moron?" In such a hurry? ”

Moron Willy said with a strange expression: "Lang, Ace went to be interviewed in advance!" ”

"What's wrong with Ace? Clash with reporters or fight with Pistons players? Coach Kruger asked anxiously, and the uneasiness in his heart deepened.

Moron Wiley noticed that Coach Kruger seemed to have misunderstood, and quickly explained: "No, no, no, it's not that serious, there are no fights and no conflicts, and it's not a big deal......"

Not a big deal? Coach Krueger wondered what Moron Willy's expression just now meant by Xiang's appearance.

Sensing his gaffe, Coach Kruger calmed down and asked, "What the hell is going on?" ”

"It's not a big deal, Ace said in an interview just now that he was already thinking about the opponent in the second round, and asked the media to tell the 76ers and Hornets to play faster, he wants to play the second round early, don't let him wait too long......"

In fact...... Liu Mang didn't deliberately go to the interview in advance, but he was anxious and wanted to achieve the trigger conditions of the task as soon as possible, so he waited outside the interview hall of the Phillips Arena, and happened to be seen by the reporter who came out after interviewing the Pistons and reported the first wave of interview scripts to the agency or TV station, so he accepted the interview in advance.

Coach Kruger looked at the ceiling speechlessly, pretending to be struck by lightning! I just secretly pretended to be a force, and that kid actually went directly to the media to pretend to be forced, is this retribution?

Can't you easily sweep each other! You have to irritate each other!