Memphis, Liu Mang's blessed land.

Back then, it was here that he shouted a sentence of "why not me", and Liu Mang began to enter the eyes of the fans by taking advantage of the counterattack psychology in the hearts of the fans.

With the mentality of the prince and general Xiangning, Liu Mang counterattacked all the way to the present.

In the last game of the season, the Hawks players had a day of rest at home on April 12, flew half an hour to Memphis on the morning of the 13th, and played the last game of the season on the 14th, taking on the Grizzlies on the road.

After getting out of the airport and taking the bus to downtown, the big hotel in Memphis basically hits the city center, because there aren't many people in the city at all.

More than 150 years ago, a quarter of the population died and half fled because of yellow fever, and it was not until the advent of yellow fever that the population slowly increased.

Therefore, the buildings here have not changed much for fifty or sixty years, and after the end of World War II in the mid-20th century, it still retains the appearance of the 19th century.

Liu Mang looked at the building outside the window, why didn't he notice it before, the buildings here are quite interesting?

When I used to come, I was so relaxed, I came once a year, my rookie season was still busy getting a foothold, and the sophomore team almost fell out of the playoffs.

Just this year, the Hawks' record is second only to the 72-win Bulls, and it is the best to get 70 wins, and if they don't get it, it is still the second-highest regular season record in history, so there is no pressure at all.

Liu Mang looked at the buildings, Stockton introduced these buildings to Liu Mang, 60 percent, 90 percent are European-style buildings, and thought to himself that it is no wonder that Gasol is willing to live so long in Memphis, a "small mountain village" with a population of only 5 or 600,000 people, a GDP of less than 30 billion US dollars in the entire city, and a GDP of less than 280 billion US dollars in the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is the ninth largest city circle in the United States. The largest pillar industry is probably the headquarters of FedEx, the second busiest airport in the world after Hong Kong, and it is full of cargo transit.

In Liu Mang's memory, Gasol is a person who prefers to enjoy life, either to go to the big city, listen to symphonies, watch opera, or live in a familiar environment, Memphis was a former Spanish colony, and after the re-establishment of the city, most of the people who returned here were Hispanic, and Gasol was not used to living here.

And the other cities where Gasol originally stayed, Los Angeles, Chicago, the second and third largest cities in the United States, when they went to the Spurs, they all went to get big contracts for retirement, and the Spurs were extremely rich compared to Memphis.

Liu Mang thinks he is a Sven, and Gasol, a rare Sven in the NBA, of course he wants to be closer and closer, as the leading big brother of the class of 2001...... As a martial arts fan, I feel that the self-proclaimed leader of the leading brother is a bit less harmonious, as the leading boss of the 01st class, and even the leading boss of the new generation of players, he really relies on his strength and honey personality charm to conquer many opponents, and has a good relationship with many young stars.

No, Liu Mang hasn't seen Gasol for a long time, so he came to get close to Gasol.

At this time, Gasol, who Liu Mang was missing, felt so desolate.

Usually in the west, it doesn't matter if he is yelled at by Garnett four times a year, and after Rashid Wallace went to the east, he also became a blind yeller.

The last time the Grizzlies played the Hawks on the road, Gasol was yelled at by Rasheed Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace got angry and roared the most when he saw this so-called most gorgeous power forward of the new generation......

……

Since last season's playoffs were changed from a best-of-5 system to a best-of-seven system in the first round, the playoff schedule this season has changed significantly.

The end of the regular season has been advanced to April 14th, and the playoffs will start on April 17th, and the previous two-day rest playoff schedule every time there is a home-and-away change, and some of them will become 1 day, when the home-and-away alternate home and away games in the first four games of the series, the rest time is two days, and the four games are played, if there is a fifth game, two days of rest between the fourth and fifth games, so that the warring parties who have played two home and away games have two days to adapt to the home-and-away change of training time, But when there is a possible home-and-away change in the sixth and seventh games, all of them will only have one day off.

According to the original playoff format, a series may play for a maximum of 17 days, and if a team really plays seven games to win the championship in each round, it may take two months and eight days, not counting the rest days between the two series.

Before the 90s, the top four teams in the division and the bottom four teams still had a big gap in strength.

But after the NBA income began to rise sharply in the 80s because of the arrival of the Magic Bird era, the team had money, training facilities for players, nutritional supplements, and children's parents were more optimistic about the prospects of their children playing basketball, and more parents let their children take basketball as a future career, all of which promoted the development of the NBA and improved the overall strength of the league.

Of course, for those superstars, in addition to the improvement of scientific and medical technology, the difference in the treatment of stars is not so big, and the improvement of the strength of stars is not as high as imagined.

But for role players, the overall strength of the improvement is very obvious, since the nineties, those because of the NBA income soared, the early 80s began to learn to play basketball children began to enter the NBA, the first batch is O'Neal began the 92 to 95 years of the silver draft era, the overall draft quality is higher than the 80s except for 84 years, a lot higher.

The Nuggets' Black Eight, the Rockets' record-breaking sixth place in the Division to win the championship, and the Knicks' Black Eight to the Finals are all stained with the light of this wave of role players, most of the Nuggets players entered the NBA in the 90s, the Rockets except for Olajuwon and Drexler, Kenny Smith, and the other Cassel, Robert Horry and others are all that group of players, and the Knicks Black Eight except for Ewing, almost all of the others are players who entered the NBA in the mid-90s.

To the golden generation of 96 to 99, it has reached the peak of talent, from 99 to last season, the core of the championship and the team's second millennium are all players of this generation, the huge brother of the second millennium, and the era of the 92 silver draft.

Due to the overall strength of the league, the playoffs have become more exciting, and the difference in the strength of the team has become smaller, but it has also led to the previous unreasonable schedule, and now David Stern is gradually improving.

There are still one last game left in the season, and most teams have played the last game of the season on April 13, and there are only a few games left, and the East and West standings are no longer affected.

On the Eastern side, the playoff standings, the Hawks are 69-12 in first place, the Pacers are 60-22 in second, the Nets are 46-36 in third, the Pistons are 53-29 in fourth, the Hornets are 40-42 in fifth, the Bucks are 38-44 in sixth, the Heat, who have two years of bad experience, have successfully slipped to 37-45 in seventh, and the Knicks, who have not played one game like the Hawks, are in eighth with 36-45, and they don't seem to want to win the last gameAs a team with 36 wins, the Knicks actually announced that they would rest several main players......

At least in this game, the Knicks and the Hawks have a sense of a grade, taking turns to rest all the main forces, how domineering it sounds......

Aside from the expectations of fans and the bad relationship between James Dolan and Price, is there any difference between the Knicks playing the Pacers with 60 wins and the Hawks with a potential 70 wins? It's better to fight the strongest one with the mentality of Black Eight, and it won't be too faceless if you lose.

The playoffs in the West have also been decided, with the Forest at 57-25 in first place in the West.

The Lakers are 55-26, there is still one game not played, but they can only be second, the third Spurs are 53-28, and there is also one game that has not been played, the opponent happens to be the Lakers, as a playoff warm-up game, the Big Four play the defending champions, originally the league thought that the strongest in the West would be the Spurs and Lakers, but I didn't expect that just with a Cassel and Sprewell, Garnett led the team to the first place in the West.

The fourth is the Kings, 52-30, and the fifth is the Mavericks, who are also 52-30, and the two teams are tied 2-2 in the regular season, but the Kings have won more Western teams than the Mavericks, so the Kings are in fourth place, and the Mavericks can only settle for fifth.

The sixth is the Grizzlies, 50-31, there is still one game left to play, the seventh Rocket, is also 50 wins, but 32 losses have been determined, and in the competition with the Grizzlies, Yao Ming has been repeatedly beaten by Gasol, Gasol is a real gram Yao Ming, whether it is a thin version or a strong version, Yao Ming does not have a good way to Gasol, the Rockets were beaten 3-1 by the Grizzlies in the regular season, even if the Grizzlies lose the last game, the Rockets can only be seventh, and they beat the Lakers in the first round.

The Rockets are just one breath away from the most terrible Lakers team in the West, but they are just one breath away, if Yao Ming is beaten by Gasol and has the same record, it can only be seventh, it is better to say that there is still a gap in overall strength, Francis and Mobley, there is always a little bit of difference.

However, getting the first 50 wins since the Rockets of Olajuwon, Barkley, and Drexler is also a huge improvement for the Rockets.

The eighth-ranked Nuggets, 44-28, sit firmly in the eighth, the only team in the West, the top seven can't compete, and the 39-win Trailblazers, who are ninth in the West, have a clear record advantage, and have been sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai.

……

On April 14, the Hawks traveled to the largest and most expensive building in Memphis history, the FedEx Center, home of the Grizzlies, to take on the Grizzlies.

The atmosphere between the two teams is quite harmonious, there is no pressure on the playoff rankings, there is no possibility of a playoff meeting, the core relationship between the two teams is still very good, and even the fans of the Grizzlies are not so hostile to Liu Mang.

Originally, Grizzlies fans were hostile to Liu Mang because Liu Mang and Gasol competed for the best rookie, but this hostility was based on the fact that the two were evenly matched, and now Liu Mang and Gasol are obviously not in the same class, and the comparison object of Grizzlies fans has changed, becoming Parker and Arenas, but they have become friendly to Liu Mang.

The rotten culture has begun to spread in the United States, which mainly inherits British culture and is the most developed country in the world, and fans saw Liu Mang and Gasol chatting happily together, and a magical idea came up - can Gasol hook up Liu Mang to his side? There is nothing in their own team, there is Gasol and a lot of salary space!

Gasol has one year left on his rookie contract, and the Grizzlies can play this year because of Gasol and Mike Miller, Battier's rookie bonuses, and James Posey and Bunch Wells, both of whom are high-quality and cheap contracts, including Bunch Wells, although his personality is a problem, but his strength, the contract of more than 6 million is indeed lower than his performance, and it is easy to trade, plus other expiring contracts, before renewing Mike Miller and renewing Gasol and Battier in advance, The Grizzlies can free up close to 20 million salary space at once, and they can give Liu Mang the largest contract.

As a result, some fans at the scene began to shout "AB-double-group", that is, the AB group, which is the combination name of Liu Mang and Gasol's initials, similar to Kobe Bryant and O'Neal's OK-double-group......

With the person taking the lead, it slowly spread, and the audience collectively began to chant "AB-double-group...... AB-double-group…… AB-double-group……”

Gasol is so embarrassed now, attracting Liu Mang to Memphis? If it weren't for the fact that he was used to the living environment here, he didn't want to stay here, and Rasheed Wallace, who was already hostile to him, was now looking at him with even more vicious eyes, Gasol was embarrassed and desolate in his heart.

Rashid Wallace is jealous! After the away fans started shouting AB-double-group, he also came to Liu Mang's side.

"Paul, it looks like your fans here really want us to form a team, and our style of play seems to be quite compatible, think about it?" Liu Mang teased.

Gasol felt that Rashid Wallace's gaze had changed from vicious to murderous, and immediately said: "I like it here, you know I'm Spanish, and it makes me feel like I'm in Barcelona." ”

Rashid Wallace was pleased with Gasol's statement and softened his gaze, but glared at Gasol anyway before leaving to contact Ratliff for the striker.

Rasheed Wallace and Gasol never thought that Liu Mang would play in Memphis, and Liu Mang is even more unlikely to come here. Unless it's the head that goes into the water of the Mississippi River.

Gasol watched Liu Mang laugh non-stop, and when he saw the back of Rashid Wallace leaving, his heart was desolate and firm! The big soft sister-in-law also has a hard side in her heart, he vows to work hard to improve his strength, and he will take revenge on these people who yelled at him in the future!

……

At this stage, Gasol does encounter real top power forwards very badly, whether it is Garnett or Duncan, or O'Neal Jr., Rasheed Wallace, when encountering these strong defensive power forwards, he plays very average, especially when he encounters two ghosts who love ghosts and roars, Gasol immediately softened.

Rasheed Wallace has kept Gasol at bay from the jump ball, and Rasheed Wallace's defensive mentality is interesting, and he tries to defend every game with the mentality that his own bad stats make his opponent's stats worse......

Rather for broken jade, not for the tile!

Rasheed Wallace is such a man who is forced to be different, he himself is not happy, and he does not let his opponent have a good time!

The Grizzlies are really good this year, both offensive and defensive are doing very well, their old coach Hubby Brown was called when he played eight games last season, accepted the Grizzlies' head coach and general manager position, and then began to drastically change the white chocolate style of play, and then used the previous head coach's Drew Gooden to rob Mike Miller from the Magic, signed James Posey in the summer, and the empty gloves White Wolves got the Trail Blazers' Bunch Wells, plus the original Gasol and Battier, and Strommeier Swift, Lorenzen White, Earl Watson and others, rising strongly.

Although Coach Kruger led the Eagles to the best record since the new century, in terms of best coach, it was the old coach Hubby Brown who became the biggest favorite!

Bringing a team that has been in a bad streak and got the No. 1 pick last season to sixth place in the West, and it's 50 wins, the improvement is comparable to that of the Hawks two years ago.

After Rashid Wallace won the jump ball, Liu Mang faced the increasingly "mediocre" White Chocolate Williams, and saw that White Chocolate began to focus on defense and organizational offense, and even the three-point shooting rate increased to a first-class level of 35 percent, becoming a stable point guard, and at the same time, he sighed in his heart and began to play steadily.

In the previous two games, I tried a lot of play, and removed all the tactics that looked tempting but didn't match the team, and now the Hawks use a game that suits the team and the Grizzlies.

The main thing is to be robust!

On the offensive end, Liu Mang and Rashid Wallace split the ball after blocking and dismantling, the other guys cut into the running position, and Liu Mang and Rahim's single play.

Defensively, it was up to Rasheed Wallace to deal with Gasol, and the others were also one-on-one, allowing Rasheed Wallace to yell at Gasol...... Rasheed Wallace's single defense to limit Gasol is the most important and most difficult part of Mike Woodson's tactical defensive strategy, but the key to making it easier for Rasheed Wallace to defend Gasol is Liu Mang's advice to Rasheed Wallace...... Just yell if it's okay!

This set of tactics is improved from the Timberwolves' style of play......

Restrained Gasol, the steady white chocolate did not have the magic of the past, and with the Eagles playing this game seriously, the Eagles took the lead steadily.

After the first three quarters, the Hawks led by 7 points at 76-69, and the Grizzlies did have good strength, worthy of being a 50-win team, but in the fourth quarter, Liu Mang, who had been playing steadily in the first three quarters with 16 points, 5 boards and 6 assists, suddenly turned on the wave shooting mode in the fourth quarter, and scored 10 points in a row, and the Hawks played a wave of 12-4, and the difference suddenly stretched to 15 points.

Liu Mang's sudden wave of outbursts blinded the Grizzlies, the Grizzlies are now in good shape, and the Hawks have gone through rotational rest and tactical drills, and they are now in the best state! Playoff Mode!

After relying on Liu Mang to score 10 points in a row, the Grizzlies never narrowed the gap to within 10 points.

In the end, relying on this lead, he kept the lead until the end!

Relying on Liu Mang to score 30 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists in the whole game, Rasheed Wallace limited Gasol to only 14 points and 6 assists, and the Hawks defeated the Grizzlies 112-101 away!

With 70 wins and 12 losses, the Hawks became only the second team in NBA history to win 70!

Get 70 wins! The biggest regret is not that we didn't get 72 wins, but that the last game was away...... There is no way to even the league, who knew the Eagles could play to this extent? The players had to go back to the dressing room to celebrate.

Liu Mangz's side, after the game, his head has exploded!

A flurry of system prompts!