Time passed quickly, Liu Mang and his teammates trained together for a few days, and soon it was May 31, the last four days of preparation for the finals.

At 9:33 p.m. yesterday, the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Timberwolves came to an end at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Lakers, who returned to their home court in Game 6, did not give the Timberwolves another chance, and the Timberwolves failed to create a miracle.

Unlike the previous game, this game Kobe Bryant was staring at Szczebiak from the beginning, and did not give Szczebiak a chance to run out of the open position, Payton finally played the task that the Lakers brought him in this game, and the defensive end played at the level of last season, preventing Sprewell from shooting 4 of 17 and only getting 14 points and 4 assists, and for the first time in six games in the series, the Mad did not score more than 20.

Even the madman was prevented, Szzambiak was bitten to death when he met Kobe, Garnett desperately got 22 points and 17 rebounds in this game, but because the madman was prevented from dying, Garnett was forced to increase his ball holding, and was prevented by the Lakers from making 11 mistakes, Wang Zhizhi, who looked stupid and had a chubby face, swooped and swooped Garnett 3 times, Malone made Garnett have 5 turnovers, Garnett once again left a strong mark on the Timberwolves' team history record, an embarrassing alternative triple-double, Plus the highest single-game turnover record in team history.

The Lakers defeated the Timberwolves 87-75 to advance to the Finals 4-2.

The start time of the Finals between the Hawks and Lakers has also been confirmed to start on June 4.

In recent days, the team's training is over, and Prince will pull Liu Mang to fight Liu Mang alone.

Liu Mang singled Prince, and the success rate was greatly improved compared to before!

Although it was a little difficult for the first time, the more skilled he became, the change of hands in the air, the change of footsteps, became more and more proficient, Liu Mang was desperate at first to be entangled by a guy who had a fascination and paranoia in single defense, but after feeling his progress, Liu Mang also enjoyed it.

Prince tried to defend Liu Mang with various methods, but the more ways he thought of it, the more proficient Liu Mang became at the use of his left hand in the breakthrough, and the ten-ball duel was even better than Liu Mang's own practice for two or three hours.

Liu Mang was right, when he was in front of a real defensive warrior to polish his offense, it was much better than practicing alone.

In the past, when he defended Ginobili and Reed, there was always some discomfort when he defended Ginobili and Reed, and now he has gradually adapted to the feeling of playing against left-handed players, although the two feelings give Prince different defensive pressure, but it is always good to be able to adapt, and I also have a better understanding of the playing style of some players who are obviously right-handed but have a good left-hand single.

The Eagles' preparation for the finals is progressing steadily, Liu Mang's singles skills are honing, Prince's single defense continues to strengthen, and the team's offensive and defensive tactics are also steadily preparing for the next finals.

……

……

The Hawks and Lakers will meet in the finals, and the influence is huge, if you include the basketball circles all over the world, it even exceeds the extent of the finals of Jordan and Shuangsha for two consecutive years!

The attention contributed by Chinese basketball fans is naturally the lion's share, and Chinese players have already turned the world up in China by leading the team to the finals as the core.

The domestic hardware strength is rising year by year, and since the 90s has been rapidly improving, the total economic volume continues to break through, especially the economic growth rate, after the Asian economic crisis in the mid-to-late 90s, it has exceeded 10% again, from the country's point of view, it is indeed very gratifying.

However, in terms of software strength, it seems to have regressed, entertainment and culture have been invaded by other countries, and the atmosphere of admiring foreign countries has reached its peak.

Of course, in such an atmosphere, there will definitely be many people who are disgusted with this atmosphere of admiring foreign flattery, and there must be more people who are disgusted with admiring foreign and flattering people and want to correct it than those who worship foreign flattery.

However, I am disgusted and want to correct it, but I can't correct it, because the domestic software strength has experienced a serious regression in the lost ten years, and even the sports that people have high hopes for are not as good as year by year.

Small ball sports such as table tennis and badminton and fringe sports such as diving are powerful, but their influence is too low; Football is expected to be high, but the greater the hope, the deeper the despair; High-end tennis, golf, etc., 890% of the cities in China do not even have a venue, and ordinary people can't reach it; Basketball has always been good, but basketball is a sport dominated by the Americans, and the gap between the first and second is almost a chasm, and the Chinese team is at most a dozen or so, which is not bad, but it is difficult to become a glory to the point where it can be publicized to the outside world.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible to correct this atmosphere of admiring foreigners in China, and there is no argument that can be used to correct it.

Therefore, when Liu Mang gained a firm foothold in the NBA, the highest temple of world basketball, especially after winning the MVP this year and leading the team to the finals, the finals were hyped by the official media in China...... Then there is Battle and Wang Zhizhi as pioneers, Liu Mang and Yao Ming have entered the NBA and have a pivotal position, and finally Liu Mang is about to touch the pinnacle honor of the NBA.

Liu Mang's rogue value has been rising in the past few days, even faster than his MVP and 70 regular season wins, as the system predicts, this season is the year he has established his status in the NBA and the domestic sports world.

Liu Mang also pays attention to domestic news from time to time, but there is one thing that surprises him, that is, the finals matchup between him and Wang Zhizhi did not have much media hype about the Chinese derby, and even the topic of him and Kobe, the Hawks and the Lakers Big Four was used for hype in China.

From this point of view, Liu Mang felt a kind of self-confidence in the domestic basketball world!

The less confident you are, the more you will use some small things that are not at all important in the eyes of others to paralyze yourself.

For example, in the future, he forcibly tied up Jeremy Lin, and promoted Zhou Qi, who had no dominance in the development alliance, as a superstar embryo, etc., etc., which was almost impossible at Yao Ming's peak.

But now, Chinese players have Liu Mang in the east and Yao Ming in the west, both of which are top players in their respective positions, giving domestic basketball fans a strong sense of confidence, and similarly, driving many children to want to play basketball.

If it's just the original Yao Ming, although there are many people in China who fall in love with the NBA and fall in love with basketball, Yao Ming's sense of distance to ordinary people is too great, there is only one Yao Ming in China, in addition to Yao Ming in world basketball, he has a strong strength in height, and Sabonis, although the big Z is tall, but the gap with these two is not ordinarily big.

There is only one Yao Ming, almost impossible to replicate, although the fans fell in love with basketball, they did not have the urge to devote themselves to sports, and they did not have the urge to become a dream.

But Liu Mang is different, although 1.93 meters is also very tall, but it is not out of reach, in 1999, the average height of adult men in China reached 1.67 meters, that is to say, every time there is a Guo Jingming, there must be at least one Guo Allen.

The proportion of adult men with a height of more than 1.83 meters has exceeded 10 percent, the proportion of adult men over 1.91 meters is close to 3 percent, and the proportion of people over 2 meters has also reached about 5 per 1,000.

Although the proportion is a bit far from the height of 12% of people in the United States who are more than 1.91 meters, the domestic population is large, the base is large, and the height is not less than that of the United States, and it can be seen from the national college basketball league and volleyball games that the height is more demanding and the average height is higher than that of college athletes in the United States, and the average height of the CBA is also higher than that of the NBA.

In the past, most of the successful basketball players in China were insiders, such as Coach Zhang, Battle, Wang Zhizhi, and Yao Ming, who could have a little influence in the world, almost all of them were insiders, and the outside lines were at most in Asia, and they were not overwhelming.

And now after Liu Mang appeared, everything is different, and the children in China are more enthusiastic about basketball!

Because compared to Yao Ming, Liu Mang's height is not out of reach, there is no shortage of players of this height in universities, and even some high schools have players close to 1.9 meters, and they all see hope!

……

The domestic hype about the finals of the Hawks and Lakers is mainly to promote Liu Mang, and the attention of the United States is not low.

Everyone wanted to see the Lakers lose in the Finals, and the three consecutive championships allowed the Lakers to establish a position at least two decades at the beginning of the new century, but also made countless fans want to see the Lakers collapse.

Now the Lakers are on the tightrope, either they win the championship and cross the tightrope and survive the middle-class trap, or they fall off the tightrope and collapse directly and enter the rebuild.

The Hawks have successively set new records set by the Lakers in the 1999-2000 season, from the number of regular season wins to the playoffs single-season winning streak, the Lakers have broken the records one by one by the Hawks, and now the two teams are about to meet in the Finals, bringing the topic of the Finals, far more than in the past few years, to the extent that since the 1997-1998 season, it has almost been determined that Jordan will retire for the second time.

The influence in the entire basketball world is even greater than when Jordan won three consecutive championships!

It's not that Liu Mang's influence is greater than Jordan's or the Hawks' influence is greater than the Bulls', but that the Hawks have a chance to defeat a dynastic team, and the influence is huge!

Moreover, compared to the original historical Pistons, the Hawks are obviously more popular, and the impression of the Pistons at this stage is still the impression of a bad boy in the late eighties, not many people like it, but the Hawks are different!

When the Lakers also advanced to the Finals, in terms of public opinion, there were many more fans who supported the Hawks than those who supported the Lakers.

Just like the Beat-LA that the Celtics roared out back then, except for Lakers fans, almost all fans supported the Hawks to take out the Lakers!

In addition, the double-spair finals, the continuation of the MVP battle between Kobe Bryant and Liu Mang, and the title of the strongest team in history have all detonated this basketball season!

……

……

"Ace, the Lakers' guys are coming to Atlanta." Stockton came to the lounge and said to Liu Mang.

Today's training has ended, and Liu Mang is reading the newspaper delivered in the afternoon in the lounge.

The main thing is that the odds of the bookmaker to win the championship and the overall championship predictions of the major websites have come out.

It is not for nothing that the Lakers are hated, because in the odds of winning the championship given by major media and bookmakers, the Lakers have a 75 percent, that is, a three-quarters chance of winning the championship, while the Hawks only have a one-in-four, 25 percent chance.

The Lakers' odds to win the championship are 1.2 to 1, while the Hawks are 2.4 to 1, and obviously the media is more optimistic about the Lakers.

Liu Mang understands why fans hate the Lakers so much, hate the Lakers, and from the bottom of his heart, he is optimistic about the Lakers and afraid that the Lakers will continue to win the championship.

This is an additional motivation for Liu Mang.

Hearing Stockton say that the Lakers had arrived in Atlanta, Liu Mang asked, "So early?" By the way, John, how do you know, I just watched the news and didn't see it? ”

Liu Mang is a little strange, the Lakers only finished playing the Timberwolves yesterday, and they are here today, you must know that two years ago, after the Lakers led the Nets 2-0 at home, the third game went to the away game, and the other teams went back the next day to familiarize themselves with the away game, and the Lakers only arrived in New Jersey in the evening of the day before the game, and lived in Jersey City, and went directly to play away the next day, so proud that it was not good.

"Carl called me and asked me out for dinner, Ace, are you going?" Stockton shook his phone.

It turned out that this was the case, Liu Mang smiled and said: "I won't go, you and Carl will get together, and then we will be opponents with him." ”

“OK。” Stockton didn't force it, sometimes a man's friendship, it's not good to have a third person there, even if it's a little apprentice.

After Stockton left, the last teammate who remained in the arena also left, and the whole arena fell silent.

In this quiet environment, Liu Mang can finally be alone for a while.

He didn't leave after the afternoon training, mainly because he wanted to be alone.

The stadium, which was originally the most noisy, is actually the quietest place, and it is also very wonderful.

Liu Mang closed his eyes and emptied his head for a while, and after feeling that the whole person was quiet, he opened the system panel and looked at the changes in a task after the Lakers advanced to the finals last night.

"In the face of the strongest team in NBA history, the host has officially opened the road to becoming a superstar in the NBA era, and in this season when the heroes are rising together and old-school basketball is at its peak, the mission is triggered: King's Landing."

In the past, this task was just put there, and there was no other specific mission content, but after the Lakers advanced to the Finals last night, the mission content finally came.

"King's Landing Phase 1: Defeat the Los Angeles Lakers, the best team in the new century, to win the championship. Reward: Premium Endurance Fruit. Defeat Punishment: OK Combo Relationship Repaired, Shaq O'Neal Relationship Repaired, Shaq O'Neal Relationship Repaired, Shaq O'Neal Recognized Kobe Bryant Early, Kobe Bryant Began to Recognize Shaq O'Neal's Lazy Behavior in the Regular Season. ”

Endurance Fruit ...... Liu Mang has been longing for a long time, but he has tried to spend millions of hooligans on blind pumping, except for such and such strange survival skills, what kind of cognitive tree to extract liquid from trees, repair water pipes, repair ceilings, and even repair computers, bicycles, and other strange skills in the United States that are still profitable in the industry and some strange wilderness survival skills, but did not draw anything useful.

Liu Mang has been storing it for a long time and is still level 0, and he can't forcibly activate a special skill: God Speed level 0, that is, the skill he got from Hamilton back then, and he still can't use it.

Because no matter how hard Liu Mang tries, the room for improvement in physical fitness is basically gone.

The endurance of 90 has been reached last season, and it has exceeded the original endurance ceiling, the original system gave Liu Mang the upper limit of endurance is 85, but with the increase of the upper limit of strength and the upper limit of his own speed of 94, the upper limit of endurance has also been improved, reaching 90, which is considered a top physical fitness.

But compared to Hamilton and Kobe's epic physical fitness, it is too far behind.

The skill of God Speed, the minimum activation requirement, is 95 stamina.

And endurance is an inconspicuous thing, if you give a player with average ability, such as an ordinary starter between 70-80, it is useless, even if he has the physical strength to play the whole game, even if he fights hard and rarely gets injured, the coach will not give him a chance.

But when it comes to the strength of a quasi-first-class star or the strength of a first-class star, it's different, like Hamilton.

If you reach the strength of a top-notch, or even a superstar, such as Kobe, endurance is a combination of physical strength and injury resistance, Hamilton is the kind of physical strength that is first-class in terms of injury resistance, and Kobe Bryant is the kind of person who is super physical and has super injury resistance.

Kobe's biggest feature is that he can survive, first survive Jordan to retirement, then survive the peak of Carter and Iverson, then survive the peak of Maddy, and later, even survive Wade's peak, commonly known as "NBA Carina Lau" in the market...... These people, the overall career is far inferior to Kobe, but the year or two of their peak are no worse than the year or two of Kobe's peak, and there are even more shining places.

However, Kobe Bryant is like Carina Lau who survived Lin Qingxia, Maggie Cheung, Wang Zuxian, and Zhong Chuhong...... Kobe Bryant also made these people old, and was selected for a while in 2013, and at that time, even Wade couldn't make the second team.

For superstars, endurance is one of the most important aspects of physical fitness, Liu Mang himself does not have much talent in this regard, and like ordinary domestic basketball players, physical energy loss is rapid under high-intensity confrontation, so physical fitness potions and fast shooting masters are extremely important to him.

And that skill that Liu Mang has coveted for a long time, if it is normal, he will not be able to use it in his life.

But now the task is here, the high-grade endurance fruit!

"Advanced Endurance Fruit: Increases stamina by 3 to 7."

There is a gap from 8 to 15 points compared to the ultimate fruit, but if it can be increased by 5 points, it will be enough for Liu Mang, he only needs to meet the requirements of only use, as for the consumption of physical energy, it is not a problem for him.

And the early repair of the relationship between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant is bound to be a huge obstacle for Liu Mang to dominate the NBA in his future career! Even if O'Neal's peak can only be maintained until 06, there are still two years to be the league's No. 1 center, and the most important thing is that O'Neal, who plays with Kobe, plays much easier than when he was in the Heat, and Pat Riley of the Heat team uses O'Neal as Ewing and squeezes it to death, while the Lakers have always raised O'Neal and gave O'Neal the best chance to rest, so that O'Neal can play well in the playoffs.

For example, in the Western part of the Lakers' playoffs this year, O'Neal's performance was not very good throughout the whole process, but his deterrent power was there, playing the Rockets to get rid of Yao Ming, playing the Spurs to get Duncan and Nestrovic out, and playing the Timberwolves to attract Garnett and Olowo Candi's defense, which laid the foundation for Kobe Bryant's performance as the king of the Western Finals.

Liu Mang can believe that if O'Neal continues to play with Kobe, it is estimated that he can extend his excellent performance by two to three years, and O'Neal is indeed an All-Star in the 08-09 season with an average of 17.8 points + 8.4 boards per game, and this is O'Neal, who was almost abolished by Pat Riley.

Therefore, this gave Liu Mang the pressure and motivation to win the championship!

Liu Mang himself can't even count how much expectation and pressure he is carrying and the motivation brought by these expectations and pressures, and at the same time, there are endurance fruits in front of him!

Moreover, even if you put aside all these expectations and pressures, and put aside the rewards of the system, the fact that you have the opportunity to win the championship alone has already made Liu Mang full of motivation.

The closer you get to the championship, the deeper that desire becomes!

And......

Liu Mang took out his mobile phone and flipped to the text message sent by a certain guy who pretended to be unable to slap his face a few days ago, who had lost the game at night.

Play the finals with this guy and the finals with the OK combination!

For this alone, Liu Mang's motivation to beat the Lakers is already gushing out of his heart!