Chapter 662: 661. The MVP Controversy

"Ace...Boss, what do you think I'm missing? Can I improve as fast as Ace?" Wade sat on the sidelines, watching his teammates try to narrow the point difference, but there were only two minutes left , still trailing by 12 points, the Heat did not want to tie up with the Eagles. After conceding halfway through the fourth quarter, even if the opponent was slack and they continued to chase points, the Heat did not change to the main force and fight again.

"..." Pat Riley sat behind the Heat's bench and heard Wade's question. Although his personality is to drain all the energy from the players, but people have feelings, and this took a lot of effort. The Jordan who was brought back five centimeters shorter, he still cherishes the talent of this young man.

This year, Wade and Liu Mang fought each other, and they were abused every time. This was the third time.

Since the main players of the Eagles basically didn't play in yesterday's game, even if they only played 70% to 80% of their strength due to the impact of the journey, it's not something the Heat can compete with.

Compared with the strength gap between the teams in the Western Conference playoffs, in the Eastern Conference, the gap between the top four and the fifth to eighth can be described as a gap. The gap is too big. The top three in the Eastern Conference are aiming for 60 wins. , the fifth to eighth are still fighting for a 50% winning rate.

"Dwyane, you are still young..." Pat Riley comforted.

"Ace is younger than me!"

"But he has played two years longer than you. Two years is very important. The first few years are the fastest growth period for players. You have to be patient."

"I know, Ace told me that too..."

"Oh? Is that guy on good terms with you?"

"Well, we are in the same company. Ace takes good care of me, except..." Wade thought of Liu Mang's paranoid character in the game, and couldn't help the muscles on his face trembling, just like a schizophrenic patient , It's normal at ordinary times, but when it comes to competitions, it's an unstoppable posture.

Pat Riley looked at Wade's cheeks, it seemed to be getting bigger again, but... this kid has a good relationship with the No. nice……

...

...

95 to 82, the Eagles who came to Miami again easily defeated the Heat and avoided another losing streak. Liu Mang scored 38 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds in 40 minutes, and once again bullied Wade. Wade only got 11 points and 5 assists, but Wade is also stubborn. Although he almost looks at himself in the mirror, his strong heart is not shaken at all.

With a record of 42 wins and 8 losses, they continue to rank first in the league!

After defeating the Heat, the Eagles' difficult schedule is finally over. There is only one game left in addition to returning to the home court. The first half of the season is coming to an end and the All-Star Weekend is coming!

But this opponent... is a real formidable enemy!

Liu Mang and the Eagles now have a broader vision, not limited to the East, but the entire league, and the top five in the West are all tough opponents.

On February 10th, the Eagles' last opponent before the All-Star Weekend is the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the top five Western Conference teams!

On the morning of the 8th, the Eagles returned to Atlanta and finally had two days of rest.

In the past two days, the Eagles didn't even arrange the team's regular training, and directly let the players rest. Going to the team on the morning of the 9th is also a matter of routine physical therapy.

"Hmm..." Liu Mang stretched himself on the sofa, not wanting to move at all.

Liu Mang wanted to just collapse on the sofa and never get up, he was too exhausted recently!

The Eagles, who played seven games in 10 days, finally finished the most difficult schedule of these two months.

"Huh? Hmm..."

Liu Mang, who was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, felt that someone was sitting next to him, and then stretched out his hands to pinch his shoulders. It felt quite comfortable, although the technique was not professional at all...

"do not move."

Levia's voice reached Liu Mang's ears. Liu Mang was very surprised. Before he heard Levia's voice, he knew it was Levia. Alexia and Dinah were still in school. He didn't expect that Levia would come to give him a massage, and the technique was so many times...

But it felt pretty good, I lay down on the sofa thinking wildly, and slowly fell asleep.

Although there is no problem with his physical fitness, he has averaged 43 minutes per game since he played against the Nets, but his physical problems are not serious. The main reason is that he is mentally exhausted. Regardless of whether his teammates play well or poorly, he must be a pioneer. Rush to the front to withstand.

Now that 50 games have been played, they have a record of 42 wins, which is 5 games higher than the 37-12 Pacers, which ranks second in the league, and the gap has finally widened.

But for the whole Eagles team, they are very tired. From the core to the main players to the substitutes, they have all worked hard. Finally, it is time for the All-Star weekend holiday.

Liu Mang's tense nerves can also be relaxed. A girl massaged him and soon fell asleep...

...

In the afternoon, Liu Mang fell asleep for a long time, looking at the blanket covering his body, he felt quite warm.

I took out my phone and tried to check the time, but there was a series of text messages and missed calls.

After reading the text message, I realized that the list of all-star substitutes has been released at noon today!

Liu Mang felt that the most important text message was from Raheem, with a simple sentence: Our All-Star Weekend is here.

Sure enough, as Liu Mang expected, in addition to the three All-Star starters, the Eagles are bound to have another All-Star player, Rasheed Wallace, Raheem, and Jason Terry. One, otherwise the Eagles have such a good record this year, apart from Liu Mang and Ratliff who are both strong and popular, there is no third strong All-Star player. It's almost the same as being selected as an All-Star in 2019, but Stockton does not have the historical status of Jordan. If the fans don't choose him, his statistics performance is not as good as that of Malone. Malone also failed to be selected as an All-Star. The coaches will not Give Shuang Sha face as you did Jordan.

Most of the other text messages are other All-Star players Liu Mang knows asking if Liu Mang is free. They get together during the All-Star Weekend, such as McGrady, Carter, Yao Ming, Reid and others. Liu Mang made an appointment with his teammates The pretentious time of renting a cruise ship was sent to them. For those who are not so familiar, I will talk back when the time comes.

As for James and Wade who were not selected for the All-Star Game but were selected for the Rookie Game, Liu Mang also gave them the time to pretend.

After spending so much money, how could we not put on a good show.

After answering the text message, Liu Mang turned on the computer and checked the specific list of this year's All-Star Weekend on the Internet.

All the rosters for this year's All-Star Weekend were announced at 12:00 noon today.

For the All-Star Game, the Eastern Conference All-Star starters are Stockton, Liu Mang, Carter, McGrady, Ratliff, and the bench lineup is Raheem, Jermaine O'Neal, Artest, Ben Wallace, Kyle De, Pierce, Reed.

The Western Conference All-Star starters are Francis, Kobe, Garnett, Duncan, Yao Ming, and the bench lineup is O'Neal, Ray Allen, Kenyon Martin, Brad Miller, Nowitzki, Cassel, Perry. Jia.

Liu Wei looked at the lineups of both sides, and the gap is not as big as before. With the growth of O'Neal and Artest in the Eastern forward, the Eastern frontcourt is not so much worse than the Western frontcourt, and the Eastern outside line is obviously superior. , It's a pity that although Iverson is confirmed, otherwise the East's lineup this year is worthy of the West.

After watching the most important All-Star Game, Liu Mang watched another project related to himself-the three-point contest!

The three-point contest of the last All-Star Weekend is finally coming!

There is no doubt that Liu Mang, as the defending champion, wants to participate in the three-point contest. The league is very eager to participate in the slam dunk contest and skill challenge. The league is very disappointed. Many fans call on Liu Mang to participate in all competitions again...

Liu Mang looked at his opponents, and saw his teammates, Kyle Korver participated in the three-point contest!

This kid actually wants to steal the three-pointer from the young master! Liu Mang thinks it's time to practice this guy, but Liu Mang thinks it's quite interesting.

The others are Rashad Lewis, the future billionaire fighter of the Supersonics, Cutino Mobley, the old cat of the Rockets, and Peja Stojakovi, the most critical opponent in this three-point contest. strange!

These four opponents among the five opponents, although Ray Allen didn't bother to blend in because it was a match between Liu Mang and Peja, and did not participate, these four opponents are all three-pointers in the league. Mang felt that they were all very powerful opponents, which made him feel pressured, but when he saw the name of the last opponent - Chauncey Billups...

Thinking that Billups has not yet reached the future, and the three-pointer has greatly improved in the Sanders coaching period, and his career has only been 32% three-pointers. Liu Mang feels that the league chooses Billups to enter the three-pointer. The roster for the competition is to help Jordan save face?

It feels like a battle with Payton in the previous two years...

After reading the ones related to me, I also have to look at the games I want to watch as a fan. Jason Richardson invited him to be a member of the supporting star team. For the competition, we had to wait for the press conference after all the competitions.

In the slam dunk contest, in addition to Jason Richardson who persevered to win the second slam dunk contest championship, there are also Chris Anderson of the Nuggets, Fred Jones of the Pacers, Celtics Ricky Davis.

The slam dunk contest with dim stars, when Liu Mang and Carter announced that they would never participate in the slam dunk contest, and the young players of the new generation were unwilling to be compared with Carter, Liu Mang and others, this year's slam dunk contest participants were too small Now, except for Jason Richardson who is the starter and Ricky Davis who famously said that he chose James to assist him, the other two are at the marginal level of the NBA.

The skill challenge is more interesting than the slam dunk contest. Boykins of the Nuggets, Baron Davis of the Hornets, Marbury of the Knicks, Payton of the Lakers, if Payton is not too old , Boykins is too small to catch the ball with his hands. This lineup will participate in the slam dunk contest, and the attention will be higher than that of those few.

In the rookie challenge, Prince and Boozer of the Eagles were re-selected. It is quite surprising that Barnes was selected for the rookie game.

What Liu Mang regrets is that Korver and Calderon are both late bloomers, and they are not very strong yet.

This year's rookie challenge, Liu Mang thinks it is very interesting, completely evenly matched!

In the first year, James, Bosh, Anthony, Milicic, and Wade were selected together without any suspense. Kaman, Hinrich, Josh Howard and the Heat's undrafted Haslem were nine players. , if their rookie contracts finish and form a team, they will be invincible!

In the second grade, in addition to Boozer, Prince, and Barnes, there are also Yao Ming, Stoudemire, Ginobili, Nene, and Caron Butler. This lineup is also ridiculously strong!

This year's Eastern All-Star head coach is his own team's coach Kruger. The Western All-Star head coach is Timberwolves' Philip Saunders. The two are also the best coaches of the season. With Carlisle of the Pacers and Hubie Brown of the Grizzlies, the four coaches have become the best coaches of the season.

Relatively speaking, Coach Kruger, who has just won the best coach for two years, has the lowest probability. It is easy to win this award for the first time, but it is difficult to win it for the second time.

...

...

"Wow, Rasheed, it's rare to see you so serious." Liu Mang joked, looking at Rasheed Wallace's rarely serious expression in private.

After two days of rest, on January 10, the Eagles ushered in the last game before the All-Star weekend.

The NBA as a whole has entered the atmosphere of the All-Star Weekend, especially after the announcement of the All-Star Weekend roster, fans are discussing who is the All-Star Bead.

The enthusiasm of the fans is all back!

This happens every year. The All-Star Weekend is a huge turning point. Before the All-Star Weekend, all NBA teams have just gone through a long mid-season and are very tired. But by the time of the All-Star Weekend, they have almost recovered. The strong teams started to work hard, and the weak teams rushed to perform poorly. After the All-Star Weekend, it was time to compete for the rankings.

The Eagles and the Timberwolves, as the No. 1 teams in the East and West, are honored to be the teams that compete in the last game of the halfway season. The limelight of the team's game in the finals has been overwhelmed.

Now the Eagles are preparing for the game against the Timberwolves at night, and the atmosphere is tense. It is different from the tension of the previous difficult schedule. During that time, it was mainly a physical problem, and a tense atmosphere was needed to support the team. Now the Eagles are In the real tension of facing the strongest possible opponent, the Timberwolves performed better than the Lakers and Spurs this year, with a record of 36 wins and 14 losses, second only to the Eagles' 42 wins and 8 losses and the Pacers' 39 in the league. 12 wins.

The most nervous on the Hawks side is Rasheed Wallace.

Hearing Liu Mang's words, Rasheed Wallace responded: "Well, that guy is the most difficult power forward in the league, Ace, you have to be careful, he may be our biggest enemy in the finals, and also you worst enemy."

Garnett in the Finals?

Liu Mang felt very confused. The Lakers really had a tough lineup. Bowen of the Spurs was crippled by himself, but he helped the Lakers a lot. Even if Bowen returned from injury after the 8-week injury period, he could It's hard to say to what extent it has recovered. It was already difficult for the Spurs to compete with the Lakers.

As for the Timberwolves... Liu Mang just looks down on them. Although the Timberwolves are very strong this year, strategically, Liu Mang still looks down on them. Anyway, they are unlikely to meet in the finals.

However, Rasheed Wallace said that Liu Mang's greatest enemy, Liu Mang has not paid attention to this aspect of things, but he did not expect that he would become the MVP favorite by himself!

And Liu Mang's competition for MVP is the core figure of the Timberwolves' three-headed monster-Kevin Garnett!

Unknowingly, Liu Mang has occupied the top two of this season's MVP weekly rankings for a long time, fluctuating back and forth between the first and second.

In addition to November, he won the two Eastern Conference Players of the Month in December and January. So far this season, he has won the Best of the Week 4 times.

In the West, Garnett has been ranked in the top two of the MVP rankings since the beginning of the season. 8 times the horror!

The best aspect of the Western Week, after the start of this season, is basically Garnett, Garnett, Garnett... Occasionally inserting Kobe in the middle, and occasionally inserting Duncan, it seems quite discordant.

The main reason is that after Garnett had two decent teammates, he played the feeling of the poor version of the future Big Three of the Green Army, and Garnett not only served as the defensive core like the Big Three of the Green Army, but he was still young on the offensive end. It is the core, with an average of 24 points per game ranking fifth in the league, only lower than Liu Mang's average of 32.3 points per game, McGrady's average of 30.9 points per game, Peja's average of 24.6 points per game, and Kobe's average of 24.2 points per game.

On the defensive end, he played the second-highest defensive efficiency in history besides the 9.1 defensive efficiency created by Ben Wallace last season. Garnett's 8.0 defensive efficiency this season is also the only two in NBA history. A player with a defensive rating below 8 in three seasons.

Liu Mang and Garnett, the two guys who dominated the East and West in the regular season this year, have been regarded as the only candidates for the MVP of the regular season this season!

Garnett's efficiency value so far this season is 29.2, and Liu Mang's is 27.9, ranking first and fourth in the league, separated by Duncan and Tracy McGrady, but the record of the two is not good.

As long as the Eagles and Timberwolves continue to maintain such a record, it is basically certain that the MVP will be produced between the two!

Therefore, this game is not only the last game in the half of the regular season, what fans and the media are most concerned about is that this game is a direct match between the two MVP favorites!

The Eagles and Timberwolves will play against each other twice this year, which may directly affect the final ownership of the MVP!

Although the regular season record of the Eagles is far better than that of the Timberwolves, they are all first in the division, so this has little impact. Although Liu Mang thinks that he may be able to win the scoring champion and must win it, but Garnett's side averaged 24 points per game. Points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists and 1.6 steals and 2.2 blocks! Almighty scores too much!

Liu Mang originally only wanted to compete for the scoring title, but he didn't expect that he would become one of the most popular MVPs without knowing it.

The atmosphere on the Hawks side is tense, after all, it is a game against a possible Finals opponent.

Yesterday, when the Eagles were having physical therapy, the atmosphere was relaxed and happy. The four stars of the team were selected as All-Stars, except for Jason Terry's broken thoughts and Rasheed Wallace's sigh that he was so Shuai why the All-Stars didn't make it, everything else was harmonious, but today, everyone was nervous.

For Liu Mang, he also attaches great importance to this game, and he attaches great importance to it.

Why can't I get the MVP?

Someone has to get the MVP, and it's right around the corner, so why not?

But, how could Liu Mang deal with Garnett by himself!

Liu Mang stared into Rasheed Wallace's eyes, and said solemnly: "I understand, Rasheed, but I am more optimistic about you, you are much better than Garnett! Prevent him!"

Even if these words may make Rasheed Wallace a sheep, it is true that Garnett is too strong this year, playing better than O'Neal, and maybe even better than Duncan.

However, dead friends don't die poor! This "truth" Liu Mang has always kept in mind, everyone is teammates, that is, brothers! For such a difficult matter, of course I need my brother to help me!

"I know, this is my task." Rasheed Wallace nodded heavily seeing Liu Mang trusting him so much.