The Eagles are 25-5, a staggering 83 percent win rate, which translates into a final record, which is 68 wins! Although it's just a conversion, it's already terrifyingly strong.

The Pacers are second in the league, 23-8, and the winning rate is over seventy, and after all the teams in the league have played more than 30 games, except for the Hawks, the only team with a winning rate of more than seventy percent, because there are too many strong teams this year, there are four championship teams in the east and west, and the records of the weak teams are very miserable at the beginning of the season.

At this time, only the Hawks and Pacers still maintained a shooting rate of more than 70%.

But even so, there are still not many people who are optimistic about the Pacers, first of all, last year's third in the East, was easily killed by Payton, and then this year's Hawks have been so strong that they exploded, after the Hawks killed the Spurs, people suddenly found that the Hawks are playing real this time! It really became a strong contender for the Eastern Conference championship, and then easily took out the Pistons, and continued to maintain a crushing suppression of the Pistons, in the eyes of people, the only opponent in the East who can be the opponent of the Hawks, and the only obstacle for the Hawks that has hindered them for two years, is the Nets.

It's not just the media who thinks so, but most of the Eagles players think so too, otherwise they wouldn't have run out the afternoon before the game.

If you really want to talk about it, including Raheem and Rashid Wallace, they don't regard the Pacers as opponents because of how strong they are, but they feel that they have a problem of face, and they have to do a good job, only Liu Mang regards the Pacers as opponents.

The main reason is that the Pacers lineup is really strong, and it is more suitable for Coach Carlisle's offensive and defensive style of play, and after the original 2-2 draw with the Pistons team with five tigers, they were taken away by the Pistons who won two games in a row, and once they had the ability to compete with the Pistons gathered by the five tigers, but Coach Carlisle was too young to be Larry Brown's opponent.

At this time, Coach Carlisle was a loser, a loser worse than the original, he was originally a rookie who won the best coach in the rookie season, but the best coach was robbed by Coach Kruger, that is, Larry Bird's insight, otherwise Coach Carlisle is regarded as a coach, it is estimated that after the Pacers and Pistons' Auburn Hills battle, Coach Carlisle entered the playoffs with five starters, three half-season bans, and a full-season ban lineup, which made people see his strength and was seen by Cuban to reach the pinnacle of his life.

It's not that the Hawks don't pay attention to this game, they just pay attention to it, and there is still a difference between it and having to win like playing the Spurs and the Nets.

The Hawks, on the side, came with the mentality of coming to win, while the Pacers came with the idea of playing with their lives to save their dignity to hold the home court!

At the beginning of the game, after O'Neal Jr. won the jump ball from Rashid Wallace's head, the Pacers beat the Hawks with a cold beating, Artest fiercely held the ball and hit the inside, and Raheem couldn't bear it after losing weight!

Artest's weight of 113 kilograms, the most excessive thing is that he can still be as flexible as a guard when his tonnage has increased by nearly 20 pounds or about 9 kilograms compared with last season, in addition to a career-high average of 19 points per game, 5 rebounds are routine operations, and there are actually 3.9 assists!

Artest opened like a bulldozer, squeezing Raheem and rushing to the basket to cause a foul on Ratliff!

Although the free throws were so iron at the beginning, he hit both free throws when he came up, but then Rahim wanted to play a single to save face, and was made a mistake by Artest's tough confrontation!

Artest fished directly from the bottom to the top, snatched the ball from Rahim's hand, and then held the ball to counterattack quickly to face Liu Mang, who was the first to chase under the basket, squeezed Liu Mang away from the spot, jumped on the spot, and smashed the ball into the basket with one hand.

Liu Mang was frightened, how does Artest feel like the Knights 1.0 version of James?

It's exactly the same way to play!

Pressing defense, steals and counterattacks, the same free throw pit daddy, the same can't be blocked!

Indeed, Artest's ability evaluation to 90 this year surprised Liu Mang, Artest is higher than O'Neal's peak 89 ability evaluation, and when the offense is only 83, the defensive evaluation is as high as 97! Higher than Kobe Bryant and Kidd 95's defensive ratings.

But Liu Mang didn't expect Rahim to be abused at the beginning!

Relying on Artest's morale at the beginning of the game, the Pacers played a wave of 14-6 at the beginning of the game, Artest started too fiercely and played extremely hard, and the Hawks were forced to call a timeout at the five-minute mark.

It's not because of the score, but Ratliff, who didn't expect the other party to come at him at the beginning, made two fouls in the opening game!

The Hawks, for their part, were forced to replace Ratliff early with Kwame Brown.

After the timeout, the Eagles played a little better, and the Eagles offense was a lot better.

But after Artest's repeated "humiliation", Rahim began to fight with Artest with all his might, and the two played each other with each other at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

Raheem was very badly defended by Artest at first, mainly because he didn't expect Artest to be so fierce! It's a qualitative difference from last season!

Last season's Artest was still the best defensive second team, but this year, Raheem clearly feels that Artest's defense is even more fierce than last year's Garnett!

Artest doesn't talk much, but it's hard to beep.

Raheem's fighting spirit is also completely burning, Raheem with a 92 ability evaluation, and Artest with a 90 ability evaluation, these two may be the two strongest in the real small forward in the league now, and the two are fighting!

The Pacers' side did not stop Artest from competing with Rahim, and the Hawks' side, of course, could not lose Raheem's face, and Raheem rarely became the main attacker once.

The strength of the two is indeed about the same, Raheem has a greater advantage on the offensive end, but Rahim is the kind of player who can have a top level of 90 in offense or a top level of 90 in defense, and Artest, on the other hand, is a quasi-first-class level player who maintains more than 80 in offense and is a player at the level of the best defensive player in defense, Raheem's ability evaluation is higher than Artest, mainly because of his rebounding!

And to put it mildly, Artest's one-on-one is really a bit incomprehensible, it feels like James who has a little bit of a bad but a big improvement in defense, he protects the ball well, he just needs to roll it in, and he can turn the world upside down when he enters the basket.

The most important thing is that Artest's organizational skills are stronger than Rahim's!

After Raheem and Artest competed, the situation on the Hawks' side, which had stabilized a little, was once again suppressed by the Pacers!

After the first quarter, Artest angrily slashed 14 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, and the peak Artest is more than a step stronger than last season's strength! Totally a giant-level player!

Raheem's side, although he also scored 15 points and scored higher than Artest, but he had 3 turnovers in a single quarter, and the strategy of the Pacers was obvious, after Raheem was angered by Artest, as long as Rahim asked for the ball, Liu Mang gave the ball to Rahim, and the rest of the Pacers cut off Raheem's connection with the rest of the Hawks, so that Rahim had a perfect one-on-one opportunity.

On the other hand, when the Pacers attacked, David Wesley, Reggie Miller, and O'Neal Jr. all opened up space from the middle and long distances, and Jeff Foster under the basket was not only handsome, but also tall, and standing on the edge of the three-second zone was also a threat.

At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks trailed the Pacers by 10 points, 23-33!

Completely led by the nose by the walkers!

Liu Mang found that the situation was wrong, he looked at the Pacers bench and saw the wicked smile of Jim Carrey, who still had hair, obviously, all this is a routine!

Moreover, the Pacers put too much trust in Artest's defense and asked him to come and fight Raheem.

Liu Mang wanted to talk to Coach Kruger and wanted to remind Rahim, but Liu Mang was just about to talk to Coach Kruger, and Coach Kruger waved his hand, obviously, Coach Kruger also knew this.

But Coach Kruger did not have a size, but set up tactics specifically for Rahim.

Liu Mang was stunned for a moment, and when he saw Rahim's unhappy expression, he was obviously ready to continue to confront Artest, and suddenly Liu Mang understood......

The face of the star!

Liu Mang has always been, even this season, he has been recognized as the strongest player of the Hawks in the league, but whether it is on or off the court, he calls Rahim the boss of the team, and he is convinced, Rahim sacrifices himself for the team to be a defensive pioneer, which makes Liu Mang do it now, he may not be willing.

Therefore, Rahim's face must be maintained!

Now the Hawks are not so fully prepared for the Pacers, after all, they flew to Indianapolis to play the Pacers the next day after playing eight consecutive home games, and they played the Nets back-to-back, focusing on the Nets, and the game against the Pacers was tricked by the opponent.

This is also one of the reasons why some teams lose inexplicably in the regular season, sometimes it seems that there is a team that obviously has a strength advantage, and there are no major problems with the feeling and condition, but it just loses badly.

The regular season is much more unpredictable than the playoffs because it's too long and there are too many opponents to target, so there are a lot of upsets in the regular season.

What's more, the Pacers are already strong, and Coach Carlisle probably has hated the Hawks to the bone, robbing him of the best coach, sweeping him for two consecutive years and causing him to lose such a good lineup as the Pistons, thanks to the big bird's insight, otherwise he didn't know where to cry, this time he seized the opportunity to give the Hawks a wave of ruthlessness!

Liu Mang understands Coach Kruger's idea of maintaining Rahim's face, which is also a very key thing for the team, and at this time you can't go and say to Rahim, you have been tricked by the other party, and you are also a top small forward who has been famous for many years, and you can't lose face.

However, although he can't lose face, Liu Mang still wants to win!

Let Rahim go and Artest just split the win, it doesn't mean that this game will be ruined!

Raheem wasn't too bad, he also scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the first quarter, but there were too many passing errors and too many balls that didn't have a chance to pass in the final moments.

The main thing is that the opening tactics were not laid out for Rahim, so Rahim looked like he was being suppressed by Artest.

Liu Mang saw that the tactics arranged by Coach Kruger were too conventional, probably putting his own mid-distance and low-post tactics on Rahim, so that Rahim had a chance to play singles, Liu Mang felt that this was a bit insufficient!

Liu Mang thought about it, there is!

Liu Mang leaned in and looked at Coach Kruger blankly.

Coach Kruger saw Liu Mang's eyes, and clenched the pen and tactical board in his hand, what is this guy going to do!

Liu Mang didn't directly grab the tactical board, but said to Rahim: "Sharif, we support you and beat that round-headed guy down!" ”

Raheem heard Liu Mang's support, not to mention how comfortable he was, and he was also worried that Liu Mang would be unhappy, because Liu Mang didn't score three three-pointers in the first quarter, and he didn't touch the ball much at other times.

"But ......," Liu Mang dragged out his last note.

Rahim was delighted and asked suspiciously, "But what?" ”

"But Sharif, you're so stupid! Don't ...... your strengths," Liu Mang said, taking the tactical board from Coach Kruger......