The Hawks and Nets battled to 89-91, with the Hawks trailing by two points at home.

Both the Nets and the Hawks had a tough game.

The habit of the Nets is to run in the first and fourth quarters, and the second and third quarters rely on the advantage of the first quarter to slowly rely on defensive grinding, of course, this is because the Nets are in the East, and five-eighths of the games in a year are played with Eastern teams, so that there can be many games to play an advantage.

Like today, it won't work, Kidd went down, and he was almost pulled by Liu Mang with a group of substitutes to more than 10 points.

As a last resort, Kidd had no choice but to come back up and continue to direct the team.

This is not over, after regaining the lead, Kidd wanted to slow down the rhythm, but he didn't die, Rahim took advantage of that little lead to rest for a while and then came up to continue to chisel, to play the position, Kidd is not bad to play the position, the key is that his teammates can't!

For example, two or three years later, with the mature Jefferson and Carter, who is still at the peak of the tail, with such teammates, Kidd can play with the Hawks, but now he is abused by Raheem when he falls into the position, and after halftime, Raheem is almost 30 points!

In the second quarter, he was beaten by Liu Mang and continued to run, and in the third quarter, because Raheem's position was too strong, the Nets had to continue running.

In the fourth quarter, there was really no way to run, and the Nets could only start grinding their positions!

With less than two minutes left in the final quarter, the Hawks trailed the Nets by two points, and the Hawks called a timeout.

Raheem is 40+ again today, 43 points and 16 boards, but he is also too tired, almost all of his scores are scored in the first three quarters, and in the fourth quarter, he relied on his rebounding sense that far surpassed the opponent's interior and his strong body and height that could suppress Kidd, grabbing rebounds, and staring at the poor version of Nowitzki Van Horn on the other side most of the time.

The Eagles' leading scorer in the fourth quarter turned into a backcourt double wave that struggled from the outside.

What is a wave?

Liu Mang and Terry interpreted this very well in the fourth quarter, anyway, the shooting rate is not high, and the opponent's landing shooting rate is not high, so let's shoot!

The sound of the wind and rain striking the iron is in the ears.

In the fourth quarter, the two teams began to play iron frenzy, the Hawks outside the two crazy waves, in Barkley's heart of calling Jamai down, Liu Mang was stunned to rely on wave throwing and fouls to increase the score to 19 points, Terry also scored 13 points.

In addition, relying on the three-high lineup of Rahim, Muhammad, and Ratliff, there are more secondary offenses, even if Muhammad and Ratliff score poorly, they also got some points and bit the score in the fourth quarter!

Watching Liu Mang drinking Gatorade cup after cup, Coach Kruger felt distressed for the operation department of his own stadium, he really didn't need money!

Today, Liu Mang is really iron, 6 of 19, 3 of 11 three-pointers, except for the few minutes when Kidd was not there, the rest of the time was iron and iron, but he was stunned to get the second highest score in the game.

That who didn't say, as long as the heart is enough!

"Jason, do you vote next or do I vote?" Although Liu Mang is desperate enough, he is also choking enough, and he pins his hopes on the key killer Terry.

"Come on, those two guys are much taller than me, you can beat Kidd." Terry is really tired, he has to shoot against opponents who are ten centimeters or even more taller than him, and the physical strength consumed to shoot is greater than Liu Mang's beating Kidd! And the most important thing is that he is not like Liu Mang who can cheat and eat physical energy pills, and he shot 17 times today, which is more tiring than the usual 20 shots!

"I'll go up, I'll go on!" Liu Mang really didn't want to let Rahim's hard work to win the game be dashed!

After the timeout, both teams switched to absolute mainstay.

The Eagles Liu Mang, Jason Terry, Raheem, Muhammad and Ratliff are all on.

Except for Liu Mang, the other four, including the physical monster Muhammad, are already at the end of their crossbows.

Similarly, on the Nets' side, including Kidd, Kitels, Van Horne, Martin, and Marcolocchi, the five starters are tired enough.

The Hawks served in the half, Liu Mang advanced to the three-point line, and Kidd did not have the physical strength to delay in the half, so he honestly stayed outside the three-point line and relied on skills to defend.

Liu Mang broke through to the right, Kidd was stunned to stand up first by prejudgment, and followed with small broken steps when Liu Mang pulled back!

At this time, calling teammates to come out to block and dismantle the rebound is not guaranteed, and even Muhammad does not have the strength to rush in from outside the three-point line to grab the rebound.

Liu Mang's heart was sideways, and he made a three-point shot against Kidd's defense!

Kidd pounced in time, and Liu Mang's three-point shot was interfered with!

Kidd turned around and rushed to the basket, he was really worried about his teammates' rebounds, who called him that although he was a point guard, he was actually the team's rebounding king!

With a "bang", Liu Mang's three points were as iron as Kidd expected, and Kidd had already judged the point of the rebound, and rushed over to grab the ball!

However, Rahim, who also has a good sense of smell in rebounding, pounced on his life, relied on the advantage of hand length, grabbed the ball first, and immediately threw it over to Liu Mang!

Kidd secretly screamed badly! Hurriedly rushed towards Liu Mang, and Gittels, who was defending Terry in the bottom corner, also rushed over, but Liu Mang had already jumped out!

"Come in!" The moment Liu Mang jumped up and shot the basketball, he shouted loudly in his heart!

"Ding...... The timing of the shot is perfect, the rhythm of the shot is perfect, and the marksman is triggered! ”

This feeling of throwing it as if you can know the flight path of the ball with your eyes closed, Liu Mang finally showed a smile at the corner of his mouth, this ball will definitely go in!

"Huh"

Liu Mang didn't waste the rebounds that Rahim was already running and desperately grabbed, and the three-point shot of the second offense!

92 to 91, a one-point lead!

Back to defense!

Liu Mang immediately returned to defense, and sure enough, Kittels, the only remaining runner on the Nets' side, rushed over, but was stuck by Liu Mang and had no chance to catch the ball, and he couldn't get rid of Liu Mang by speed, and when there was no Martin to go down at the same time, the Nets' counterattack couldn't be played, Liu Mang was too fast!

"Difficult fellow!" Kidd received the serve and slowly pushed forward, waiting for his teammate to settle down.

It is Terry who defends Kidd, Kidd can be regarded as the easiest point for the Nets to defend, Liu Mang is defending Kittels in front of him, and he has a lot of action, but at this time, the referee will not blow this kind of whistle, it is not the future era of body hair, and more importantly, it seems that Liu Mang was pushed by Kittels.

The only singles point can't be passed! There was Jefferson on the bench, but the coach didn't like to use rookies, and Kidd had to break through on his own!

Terry couldn't stop Kidd, so he could only rush to the basket with Kidd, and Kidd threw a shot in the three-second zone!

Didn't hit!

Ratliff blocked Martin and Marcolocchi with open hands, and Muhammad grabbed the defensive rebound!

Liu Mang pushed in, this time his luck was not so good, and his pull-up jump shot from outside the free throw line was not thrown.

But in retrospect, the Nets also continued to play iron, and the fourth quarter of the game completely became a feast of iron!

There was not much time, the Nets were one point behind, and they could only foul the Hawks who had the ball, and Liu Mang stood on the free throw line and hit two free throws to stretch the difference to 3 points, thus maintaining the advantage.

As the final whistle blew, the Hawks defeated the Nets 96-91 at home and retained the first place in the East!

……

……

The next day, February 9th, the same two teams, but in a different place, became the Army Aviation Arena in Rutherford, a small town in New Jersey.

New Jersey is very rich, although small, but it has the highest population density in the United States, and the commerce is extremely developed, especially the maritime trade, because it is a coastal state, and New Jersey has the seventh highest income of all the states in the United States.

But although the Nets claim to be in New Jersey, they are in an inconspicuous town east of Jersey City, the main city of New Jersey, so they want to return to New York with a single mind, and in New Jersey, a port area that does not need sports and entertainment to stimulate the economy, the Nets do not enjoy the ball market dividend brought by the per capita income of up to 50,000 US dollars in the entire state of New Jersey.

For example, in this contest between the first and second in the East, the attendance rate can reach 90%, although it is one of the best teams in the East, the Nets' home attendance rate is the lowest in the league.

In the last game the Eagles narrowly won at home, the two teams flew to Jersey City at almost the same time that night, and then took a two-hour bus ride to Rutherford Town at noon the next day.

Today's game was not as good as the previous one, and the last game at least had the Nets' counterattack, the Hawks' counterattack in the second quarter, and Raheem's singles.

In this game, both teams had no strength to run, and they really defended with iron and blood from the beginning, unable to shoot on the outside, and chiseled their arms on the inside, and both teams contracted to play a standard Eastern iron and blood game.

The only one with good physical fitness in the main team of the two teams, probably only Liu Mang is left, and the rest of the two teams are tortured enough by the schedule after the start of February, at this time the advantage of the Nets is reflected, although Coach Scott is reluctant to send young players at critical moments, but Jefferson and others play very active in regular time, although Liu Mang has good physical fitness, he also scored a game-high 25 points today, but he can't stand the downturn of the Hawks, and the Nets are really willing to spend money, a bunch of millions of role players, Kidd's salary of only 8 million at this time gives the Nets too much room to operate, and replacing Marbury with Kidd has a special trade exception close to 5 million in addition to having a better playmaker.

The Nets, who returned to their home court, took advantage of their home court and relied on defense to take out the Hawks without much trouble.

It's just that the score is very gratifying, 79-71, Liu Mang was stunned and scored 25 points with 25 shots.

With one win and one loss, the Eagles are quite acceptable.

The Hawks' record has become 34-16, still holding the Nets 35-17.

There are two consecutive home games left before the All-Star weekend, and the Nets are about to go to the West non-stop, and the Hawks are still very hopeful to keep the first place in the East before the All-Star weekend.

……

……

No. 10 and No. 11, after playing six games in nine days, the Hawks got two more days off, but the next No. 12 and No. 13 are about to play back-to-back games against the Suns and Bulls.

On the afternoon of the 10th, the Hawks returned to Atlanta.

The Eagles don't have the heart to play, and they're physically and mentally exhausted!

The Eagles' home arena, Phillips Arena, was supposed to be a quiet room......

"Exactly that...... Slow down, wait...... Death is wide...... Wait a minute...... Oh...... Xi Ba ......"

"Don't move!"

"Can I tap it?"

"No way!"

"Ah, that's right...... No...... Tap ...... Oh...... Crush ......"

"I said Ace, isn't it just a massage? Why are you here in all eight Chinese! Jason Terry, who was applying ice next to him, said with a look of disgust.

"Damn! You'll find out later," Liu Mang looked at Terry, who was still applying ice to the bruises of the previous two days of the game before the massage, "Where did you find this new uncle?" Sincerely, I feel like if I want to have a son, I will definitely have twins! ”

Liu Mang also had bruises and mild sprains, and when he reached the lowest injury level judged by the system, he used an injury medicine to sleep for a night and then dispersed, but he was still called to the stadium for physiotherapy by the team doctor who checked at the end of last night's game.

The advantage of using the medicine for injuries and diseases is that you don't have to be as troublesome as Terry, you have to use ice to treat capillary damage first, and then you have to apply hot compresses to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis.

But the downside is that the whole physiotherapy room, he massages first, and he howls miserably, making a good physiotherapy room sound so indescribable.

Massage is a good thing, not only the body is hot all of a sudden, but also the soles of the feet and a large number of acupuncture points around the body are massaged, and the body is warm and comfortable.

The feeling of pain can also relieve mental exhaustion to a certain extent, especially after the pain of the massage, the whole body is painful and happy.

Playing the Nets may be the most tormented back-to-back for the Hawks.

Playing the Spurs and the Kings are not so tormenting, and losing is also a happy loss, but the strength of the Hawks and the Nets is half a pound or two, and at this time the advantage of the home court plays a great role, especially in the second game, endless physical confrontation, tortured scores, and painful offense.

The two scorching games put a lot of psychological pressure on the Eagles' players.

If you meet in the playoffs, two teams of equal strength, no wonder home field advantage is so important!

"Chicks used to be our team doctor, and I went to your China last year to learn massage, how about it, it's a very authentic technique!" Moron Willy, the second-in-command of the logistics department, joked unscrupulously.

Depend on! Go to my Great Celestial Empire to study? I learned this from Footbath City! The kind that pushes people to death!

But it's really cool to press it.

After a while, Terry's ice pack was finally over, followed by a massage to remove stasis, and then a hot compress.

"Cut, Ace, you're really useless, let me try it, is the massage in your country really so terrifying?" Terry lay on the cot with a big talk.

After a while......

"Ahh......h NONONO…… You're murder...... Yes...... Don't ......"