After the Christmas War, the Eagles' record improved to 24-5!

The Hawks tied the Bulls' opening performance of 69 wins in the 96-97 season!

The Hawks' strong start has caused most of the teams in the East to have goals and pursuits to start panicking!

In Miami, at the American Airlines Center, the Heat coaching staff is still working overtime, mainly to see what could be the game of two opponents in the first round of their playoffs.

The Heat have a chance to return to the playoffs this year, and may end up in the bottom half of the playoffs from fifth to eighth, the top four in the East are their imaginary enemies, and the last thing they want to encounter is, of course, the Hawks and Pistons, but in addition to the top four, the other teams in the East have a surprisingly bad record, but there is not much difference in strength, even the Hornets have slipped down and competed with other teams for fifth to eighth after announcing their retirement in Marshburn, and the Heat can only study every opponent.

Especially the head-to-head confrontation between the Hawks and the Pistons, they want to see what way the two strong teams will come up with to target each other, just when they are going to play the Pistons in the next game, they can try to see if they have a chance to win the Pistons in the regular season, as long as they can win one or two times, they still have to play against the Pistons in the playoffs, and the Heat lineup is not bad.

As a result, I really saw the way the Hawks dealt with the Pistons, which was rough and direct, which gave the Heat an idea.

The Hawks completely locked up the Pistons' general offense, Pat Riley is best at defense, and when the time comes, he will still have a chance to enter the second round, and the owner has been dissatisfied with the lottery for many years, and this year Pat Riley is going to make a name for himself in a wave of playoffs, paving the way for the plan that he began to prepare three years ago.

It's just that Pat Riley didn't expect that guy to win three consecutive championships, the contradiction has been suppressed and has not broken out, and the other one actually won the championship, and the best big men in both leagues have won the honor, so that Pat Riley's plan has been postponed year after year.

After watching the game, the Hawks beat the Pistons 105-81, and Pat Riley lamented Larry Brown's outdated style of play, which was about to be eliminated by the times.

"Stan, what do you think of the Eagles?" The oil-headed man asked the big-bellied man next to him who was wearing Armani and making people feel dirty.

"The Hawks should have a little more three-point shooters, and their Kwame Brown and Rasheed Wallace and Sharif Raheem's frontcourt combination rebounds are so good, if they have a bunch of three-pointers, I believe it will be stronger." Stan Van Gundy said enviously, seeing Kwame Brown's body, athleticism, and bounce, the good eyes of this player are his own.

Pat Riley clenched the cup in his hand, eager to crush it.

Do you want to help the Eagles come up with ideas? However, with a group of three-pointers to shoot three-pointers, Pat Riley feels that this disciple still has a little vision, the league has revealed that the NO-handcheck rule will be introduced after the season, his analysis of the future, three-point will definitely become more and more important, and the idea of a four-shot shot is good...... But! That's not what Pat Riley wants to hear! He felt that his disciple was stupid!

"Stan, you have a good idea, do you think the Hawks and the Lakers both made it to the Finals, which team has a better chance of winning? Which team would you prefer to win the championship? Pat Riley continued with guiding questions.

"The Lakers have a better chance of winning, they have two superstars who are a level above the Hawks, and the Hawks only one, but I would have preferred that we win the championship." Stan Van Gundy has given an answer, based on the dominance of the Lakers over the past few years.

"......" is indeed very ambitious, what manager doesn't want a championship, but Pat Riley wants to drop the cup!

At this time, Stan Van Gundy gave another constructive suggestion: "Pat, or we'll mess up another year!" There's a great high school kid in next year's draft, and he's probably even better than that Kwame Brown of the Hawks! If we can make a combination of Dwyane and the new champion, use Eddie and Lamar and Caron as chips and come back with a superstar, our young champion combination is complete! ”

Not to mention, Pat Riley was very tempted to hear this idea, but unfortunately the boss is probably impatient.

In recent years, the rapid rise of the Pistons, Pacers, and especially the Hawks in the East has made Pat Riley feel a lot of pressure.

It's already to the point where you have to stud!

In Pat Riley's view, the Hawks may be the big boss in the East in the future, and people are most optimistic about the Nets at this stage, but Pat Riley feels that the Nets have no hope, and after one failure, they can continue to maintain their momentum, and after two failures, Kidd may still maintain confidence, but the rest of the Nets Pat Riley is not optimistic at all.

The Pacers and the Pistons, the Pacers' Pat Riley can't look down on it, the defense is not as strong as the Pistons, and the offense is not as good as the Hawks, who has begun to have the ability to make a final decision, not up or down, the regular season is okay, and the playoffs are still far away.

Pat Riley hopes that the only teams that can beat the Lakers or Spurs in the West to win the championship after five years are the Pistons and the Hawks, but now it seems that the Hawks have more hope, and the Pistons are scared of the Hawks.

Pat Riley wants the Hawks to finally get rid of the Lakers or the Spurs and win the championship more than anyone else, Duncan will be a free agent this summer, he will enter the player option after the fourth year of his six-year contract, Duncan is unlikely to exercise the player option, he will ask for more money, he is not a person like Nowitzki who does not sign endorsements except for sneakers and German Airlines, he is just sullen, more endorsements than Garnett, if the Spurs are defeated by the Hawks this year, Pat Riley feels that there is a chance to compete for Duncan, The talent on their side is clearly better than Duncan's.

O'Neal is the second choice other than Duncan, using asset trades, and Pat Riley is willing to send any player besides Wade, including Odom, who has him as the next Magic Johnson.

But the crux of both plans is that they have one team that loses in the finals! And the Hawks are the key to this plan, and Pat Riley expects the Eagles to win the championship probably more than the Eagles themselves.

……

After the Christmas game between the Hawks and Pistons, the Celtics and Knicks quickly made a one-to-one deal.

The Celtics sent the team's best interior player, Wen Baker, who has recovered this year and averages 12 points and 6 rebounds per game, to the Knicks in exchange for the Knicks' 2004 lottery protection first-round pick, and ate Howard Ellis and Murch Norris, the two middle-class long-term contracts signed by the Knicks.

It's not just Pat Riley who wants to compete for O'Neal and Duncan, the Celtics side, after seeing the Hawks beat the Pistons and their dominance has improved qualitatively compared to last year, Angie continued his practice of accumulating draft picks.

In addition to the Heat and the Celtics, the 76ers, Hornets, Knicks and other teams are emptying salary space, wanting to get O'Neal or Duncan, and they are all the same as the Celtics, they have to fight!

As for the team that is rotten, it is starting to be completely rotten, and the Magic team simply doesn't care, anyway, it is the first in the league, and it will continue to rot.

As for the Cavaliers...... They also want to join, but they don't think they can attract these two big fish, and it's impossible for them to help James build a winning culture, so they can only be in the embarrassing position of tenth and eleventh in the East.

Originally, for the next summer, the Eastern team was not so crazy, but now it has to be crazy, to put the team with a higher pick to the core of the team to the death, and the team that wants to show its attractiveness is trying to fight for better chips and higher attractiveness.

It's all because of the Eagles!

The dominance shown by the Eagles, as well as the fact that the core players are so young, and there are too many high-quality assets, and there is a good operating basis for salary space, the Hawks will put a lot of pressure on the Eastern team for the next few years, and the management of each team must start fighting in order to keep their jobs!

……

The Eagles, who have been regarded as a source of pressure and future imaginary enemies by Eastern teams, just arrived at five o'clock after the Christmas game, and after the interview, it was just before six or seven o'clock, and they went home to spend Christmas Eve with their families.

In fact, in addition to parties, many festivals in the United States are not spent with friends, most of them are at home.

Liu Mang also returned home early, this was the first Christmas in his new home, and it was still very simple, that is, eating, singing, and watching the Lakers and Nets games......

After the Hawks won the first game of the Christmas game, the Magic and the 76ers came to the Christmas game, and Maddy scored 45 points to lead the Magic team to a difficult victory over the 76ers without Iverson.

Looking at Maddie's performance, the feeling of easily scoring more than 40 points, Liu Mang felt so stressed!

That broken mission, the first step will begin the next time they play against Maddie, that is, at the beginning of next month, the Hawks will play against the Magic again.

The game is not a problem, the Magic team is rotten and raised, and it is only 3-26 so far.

But this puts more pressure on Liu Mang to win the scoring title this season!

Because Maddie doesn't care about anything, anyway, his record is so bad, after being provoked by himself, even if he is not angry, he may find it "interesting", and then score as hell......

Liu Mang felt that he would definitely be treated as a cancer in the future! It's getting more and more iron!

The main thing is that there are more and more shots, of course, it is beneficial to the team Liu Mang only plays like this, practice brings true knowledge, Liu Mang's style of play does make the teamwork more obvious, this is the demand of the team, because this year is different from the future superstar group and the overall strength of role players has been greatly improved.

So although the Eagles have gathered several stars, they still maintain the habit at this stage, Liu Mang joined the Eagles in the first year, the first scorer was Raheem, and the second year became Jason Terry, now Liu Mang and Jason Terry have a starter ball concentration, and a substitute ball concentration, which is very clear, everyone else is also because of the current habits, plus the mainstream idea of the league this year is sacrifice, Liu Mang is so good physical strength can shoot more than 20 or 30 times in a game and still maintain a shooting rate of about 43 to 45 percent, They are also willing to sacrifice.

It's just that Liu Mang is a little sad, that is, when facing most teams, the advantage is too great, often he plays a wave of iron first, and before the opponent's physical fitness begins to decline and he can brush up the hit rate, the opponent falls!

……

……

The morning after the Christmas War, Liu Mang watched the game with Dinah, a little Lori full of youthful vitality, last night, and saw more than one o'clock in the morning, and slept until half past seven this morning.

There is a time difference between the east and the west, the last Christmas battle in the west is over, it is only more than 11 o'clock, it is almost two o'clock in Atlanta, and the two big beauties who want to sleep in beauty sleep go to sleep, Liu Mang was entangled by the little Lori and couldn't sleep, so he could only watch the game between the Lakers and the Nets.

There was not much suspense, 122-87, a crazy big win, just the OK combination, the Nets couldn't bear it, Kidd also met the most uncomfortable point guard Payton, and the Lakers couldn't turn over the Nets by stepping on the ground.

Although he complained that he didn't sleep so late when he was holding the little Lori to watch the game, the main thing was to find a reason to abuse Lori, Liu Mang watched the game very devotedly, and learned how Peyton dealt with Kidd in order to torture Kidd to death.

After getting up, Liu Mang saw that the time was so late, and this morning's morning exercise was temporarily canceled, so he got up first to do stretching activities, simple exercises, and then made breakfast.

There are only two games left in 2003, with the 26th and 27th resting, the 28th at home to welcome the Nuggets led by Tanhuaxiu, and the 31st going to Indianapolis to play the Pacers.

Today the Eagles have a holiday, not Christmas, of course the next day has to make up for it, resume training tomorrow, and play the day after tomorrow.

Liu Mang spread out a few greedy little Lori's favorite egg cakes, and sure enough, it didn't take long for the little Lori to stick her little head in from the door following the taste.

"Wash your hands, brush your teeth, change your clothes, and eat breakfast!" Liu Mang heard the footsteps and said without looking back.

"Roger!" Little Lori didn't sneak in to eat secretly this time, and she learned a lesson, and she was afraid that she would be made oily.

After Liu Mang finished breakfast, it was already half past eight, Liu Mang went back to the room to take a shower and came out, and only he and Dina had breakfast, Levia slept lazily because Dinah had a holiday and didn't have to get up so early, and Alexia slept lazily every day because it was rare to have such a long holiday.

Looking at Dinah, who seemed to be getting more and more unladylike, Liu Mang felt so sad: "Dinah, eat less, aren't you afraid of growing into a big fat man?" ”

Little Lori took a sip of milk and swallowed the contents of her mouth before speaking, and her politeness was still very good, but her eating was getting more and more excessive.

Little Lori wiped her mouth and said, "No, no!" Dinah is growing her body, she has to eat a little more, grow taller, and be taller than her mother and teacher, otherwise she will be too short to stand with her uncle when she grows up! ”

"Okay, okay, you eat, but eat slowly, don't choke, no one will rob you!" Liu Mang replied helplessly.

Dinah was about to reach for an omelet when she saw the clock on the wall, and suddenly thought of something, and ran to turn on the TV.

"What's wrong, what's the show to watch?" Liu Mang asked curiously.

"Uncle, you forgot! Today is the day the All-Star Voting begins! Dinah tuned into the sports channel, and it was exactly nine o'clock when the NBA's official press conference began.

David Stern appeared on television footage announcing the start of voting for the 2003-2004 All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.

Liu Mang then remembered that this year's all-star voting has only started now!

Since there are now more and more channels to vote, and the work of counting votes is becoming more and more onerous, the time for All-Star voting has been shortened from this season, starting on December 26, the day after Christmas, to January 25, for a month.

But this does not mean that the number of votes will be too small, on the contrary, this is a way for the coalition to limit the number of votes, because this year the voting channel has been fully opened on the Internet, and the venue is Los Angeles this time, the number of votes will definitely skyrocket, in order to reduce the pressure on the counting department, the same is not to make the number of votes too exaggerated, so the voting time has been shortened from 45 days to 30 days.

After David Stern announced the start of voting, he began to read the names of the players selected for each team's squad name by name, and David Stern enjoyed the feeling of having everything under control.

Liu Mang listened for a long time before arriving at the Hawks, and a total of eight people from his own team were selected for the voting squad, in addition to him, Raheem, Jason Terry, Rashid Wallace, Ratliff, Stockton, Boozer, Prince Eight people were selected for the squad.

However, Liu Mang knows that only himself and Ratliffe have a chance to be selected as an All-Star starter, and the others are just players who are considered qualified to be All-Stars by the expert media who formulated this list, or who are playing well, or players with old qualifications, or players with future All-Star potential.

As for Little Lori, as a loyal fan of the Hawks, she grew up in Atlanta, and the Hawks are naturally her home team, and it is also the key reason why Liu Mang and their mother and daughter began to get closer, because Liu Mang made a very good start in the first regular season game when he joined the Eagles, helping the Eagles reverse the Rockets, which made the two mothers and daughters very excited, so they invited Liu Mang to dinner, and then the relationship became better and better.

Seeing that Xiao Loli was very excited to say that she has "eight" All-Stars, because the NBA's publicity is to be selected for the squad, and they are all All-Star candidates, Liu Mang became interested, in addition to himself and Ratliff, how many players can be selected for the All-Star Game this year?

But teammates don't care so much about these personal honors now, they are not very popular stars, and it is very satisfying to be selected as an All-Star once or twice, in fact, the All-Star Game is the luxury of most first-class stars and quasi-first-class stars who have not been selected as All-Stars in their careers.

……

The two-day rest day passed quickly, and on December 28, the Hawks hosted a game against the Denver Nuggets.

There are top rookies again, the Hawks are all shocked, Anthony may be the best rookie this season, the Nuggets are firmly in eighth place in the West, leaving behind the Trail Blazers, Warriors, and SuperSonics, with a 17-13 record that is quite eye-catching, and the West and the East are a little similar, that is, the strong team is too strong, and the weak team has a fifty percent win rate.

The main reason is that the Jazz team is a year ahead of schedule, and the Nuggets don't even have an opponent to compete with them for eighth.

Anthony's performance is naturally the best of the Nuggets, and the one who makes people feel that the future superstar is coming is him, averaging 21 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists per game, and he can shoot and shoot and have a low post and mid-range, and he is an offensive kaleidoscope from the beginning.

For the game with the rookie, Liu Mang has always been very attentive, he has always adhered to the heart of caring for these juniors, every time he is very attentive and focused on preparing and the strongest rookie game, every time he is so attentive, he himself feels that he is too great, without considering whether there is a return, selfless comeback, to educate those young people! Liu Mang thinks about it, he feels that he is too great!