On April 18, Liu Mang and his teammates continued their discussion after two simple tactical training sessions. This time they discussed some ranking matters while waiting for the opening game of the playoffs this season between the Cavaliers and Wizards.

team game.

There are four games today, four-group series between the Cavaliers and Wizards, Raptors and Magic, Lakers and Rockets, and Spurs and Suns.

Liu Mang and his teammates wanted to watch the Lakers game even more. The Cavaliers knew they were going to beat the Wizards without even watching.

But the Eagles coaching staff told them to start watching from the first game.

The playoffs are here, and many lists were released yesterday, the 17th and 18th.

The least controversial thing is Sports Illustrated's ranking.

In the playoff star list, Liu Mang is ranked first, Duncan is ranked second, Kobe is ranked third, James is fourth, McGrady is fifth, Nowitzki is sixth, Nash is sixth, and Garnett is seventh.

Yao Ming is eighth, O'Neal is ninth, and Raheem is tenth.

In the team strength rankings, the defending champion Eagles are ranked first as usual, but they are tied for first place with the Mavericks.

The Lakers are second, the Cavaliers are third, the Spurs are fourth, the Bulls are fifth, the Suns are sixth, the Jazz are seventh, the Nuggets are eighth, and the Rockets are ninth.

In the top ten, except for the Hawks, Cavaliers, and Bulls, the other seven are all Western Conference teams...

In fact, this list is already very controversial. The ranking of stars is very strange, but the rankings of ESPN and T.N.T are even stranger.

ESPN ranked James second after Liu Mang, T.N.T ranked James ninth, and Kobe ranked first...

ESPN just wants to praise James, and T.N.T seems to be trying to make O'Neal unhappy. Kobe is number one, and O'Neal is not in the top ten.

At this stage, there are still many people who are superstitious about O'Neal's dominance and feel that things will be different in the playoffs. Except for T.N.T's list, O'Neal is still in the top ten in all major lists, and of course he is at the bottom of the top ten.

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However, Liu Mang thinks that not being in the top ten is not a big deal. Ginobili has not been in the top ten. Iverson, Carter, Anthony, Milicic, Bosh, Josh Howard, Chandler and others

None of them made the cut, but in Liu Mang's opinion, these guys will perform well in the playoffs.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the opening game between the Cavaliers and Wizards, broadcast live on ABC TV across the United States, began.

Starting at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Eastern Conference Cavaliers and Wizards will play first, then at 5:30, the Raptors and Magic, the Spurs and Suns will start at the same time, and finally at 8 o'clock, the Lakers and Rockets series will start.

Opening match.

Late, for Atlanta in the East, and Los Angeles on the West Coast, it was actually not particularly late for them to finish the game.

In the playoffs, the opening game of each round will definitely be broadcast live. As a professional athlete, it is part of the job to watch videos or analyze opponents during the game.

From three o'clock in the afternoon to eleven o'clock in the evening, Liu Mang was watching the game with his teammates in the arena, analyzing and researching while watching. Liu Mang and the coaching staff had one more thing to do, which was to analyze the depth of the Lakers, Spurs, and Cavaliers.

Analyze it, and see if there is anything else the Lakers can analyze, and create their own programs for the Spurs and Cavaliers...

Of course, this is also the Eagles' playoff preparations.

But watching games is always fun and not boring at all.

The Cavaliers and Wizards did not go as expected. Arenas was not beaten by James. Arenas himself performed very well. He scored 31 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists on 10 of 25 shots. He was at his peak.

In addition to being afraid of Liu Mang, Arenas performed well against many teams. Facing the defensive turns of Larry Hughes, Snow, and James, Arenas also performed well.

It's just that the Wizards only scored 69 points...

Arenas scored nearly half of the team's points alone.

It's just the opposite for the Cavaliers. James scored 15 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists. He didn't score much, but he connected the whole team. Breakthrough points and assists surged. The Cavaliers scored 95 points!

95 to 69, the Cavaliers slaughtered the Wizards to get a good start in the playoffs.

The Cavaliers showed their strength, the outside defensive combination of Snow and James, the high-quality defense of Larry Hughes and Newbell after coming off the bench, Peja and Marshall, Damon Jones' three-pointer,

The strong defense of Chandler, Gooden, and Varejao in the paint caused the Wizards to only score 69 points.

The series between the Raptors and the Magic, and the Spurs and the Suns started together. The Eagles coaching staff chose to watch the series between the Spurs and the Suns. The series between the Raptors and the Magic, which is fourth and fifth in the Eastern Conference, was recorded and then the players were asked to go back if they were interested.

Look, it doesn't matter if you can't see them. Basically, there is no chance of fighting them.

And it just so happens that the opening game between the Lakers and Rockets is also broadcast live on ABC TV station, while the Magic and Raptors are on another TV station. What a hassle.

If the result of the series between the Cavaliers and the Wizards was expected, then the game between the Spurs and the Suns was completely unexpected!

In the first game, the Suns defeated the Spurs in the away game 111-106!

This can be said to be a big upset!

In the past few years, the Suns had met the Spurs twice in the playoffs, and the Suns were beaten each time.

But this time, the Suns took away the home court advantage in the first game!

Although Duncan scored 33 points and 16 rebounds, Artest scored 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals, and Parker also scored 15 points and 11 assists, but for the Suns, Nash scored 35 points and 15 assists, and Josh Smith scored 35 points and 15 assists.

At 7 points and 15 rebounds, O'Neal scored 29 points and 6 rebounds, and Raja Bell also scored 15 points!

Among them, Nash and Laga Bell made 10 three-pointers together. Both of them made 5 of 6 three-pointers. Six of the three-pointers were made in the final quarter. Laga Bell made four three-pointers in the final quarter.

points, when the Spurs were contracting to defend O'Neal and Josh Smith, the two outsiders blew up the Spurs!

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Suns reversed the Spurs in the last quarter, which even scared Liu Mang.

If you want to talk about where the Spurs lost... it was on Ginobili. Laga Bell defended Ginobili and only scored 8 points on 2 of 14 shots. He locked up Ginobili throughout the game.

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Artest made Josh Smith 1-for-10. Josh Smith could only score 7 points by relying on free throws. But a more key scorer on the Spurs team was locked up. Artest

Te grabbed 5 offensive rebounds and 6 points were obtained in the second attack, but Ginobili couldn't make a shot and it was a waste...

Laga Bell's four three-pointers in the last quarter and locking down Ginobili are indispensable!

The series between the Raptors and Magic that was going on at the same time was another one-off game.

The Magic defeated the Raptors on the road 89-81.

Liu Mang did not watch this game. He only used the computer to read the game report and got a rough idea of ​​the game situation.

In the confrontation between Milicic and Howard, Howard was like meeting Olajuwon's David Robinson. Howard's statistics were okay, with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, but his shooting rate was extremely poor, only 40%...

Milicic scored 16 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 blocks, and defended Howard very much.

Milicic's rebounding is not top-notch, but his ability to block opponents' rebounds is excellent.

But other positions...the Raptors didn't get the advantage.

Rahim's inside attack scored 40 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, scoring his first 40 points in the playoffs this season. Turkoglu scored 9 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists, turning the offense into a big one.

It was organized in a very orderly manner and fully utilized Rahim's absolute advantage that the opponent could not guard against.

Joe Johnson scored 25 points, which was good, and Richard Jefferson also had 19 points, but with Turkoglu's excellent organization, the Magic took full advantage of their inside impact.

Milicic stopped Howard and there was Raheem!

After looking at this data, Liu Mang feels that Grant Hill has indeed dragged down the Magic. There is no need to doubt this, it is indeed the case.

If Grant Hill leaves early and Turkoglu gets his position earlier, the inside combination of Raheem and Howard can perform better.

This is not Grant Hill’s fault, everything is fate.

However... after the three games, Liu Mang couldn't help but said: "The differences between the games in the Eastern and Western regions are so big! Why do I think the Western games are better?"

"Yes, the Spurs scored 106 points, and we in the Eastern Conference have not had two games with over 100 points each," Jason Terry complained.

"The East looks at defense, and the West looks at offense. Of course, offense is easier to attract fans. Many fans don't understand the charm of defense." Mike Woodson said with some dissatisfaction in his tone.

Liu Mang heard dissatisfaction and...contempt from Mike Woodson's tone?

Maybe Mike Woodson looks down on fans who only like offense, Liu Mang thinks so.

Some people feel that they like relatively niche things and have a sense of superiority.

This is not a bad thing, but a normal human psychology. Liu Mang has read a lot of psychology books in recent years, and has no special views on Mike Woodson's psychology.

But at this time Coach Kruger interjected: "Fans prefer to watch the score. This is a sport where the team that scores more points wins. We also prefer to watch beautiful games, but what can we rely on to win?

You don’t have to play according to your own preferences as far as the direction of the main attack is concerned. The league is speeding up the pace to encourage offense, and we must be prepared early."

In comparison, Liu Mang felt completely different when he heard Coach Kruger's words.

If in the past few years, even when he won the first championship, Liu Mang's feeling towards Coach Kruger was that of a coach with "tactical arsenal" and "strict discipline requirements", then a few years later,

Liu Mang now feels that Coach Kruger is completely different from what he was back then.

First-class on-the-spot command ability, super-top tactical learning and ability to integrate into the team, and good ability to judge future NBA trends, he is already a truly famous coach!

After chatting for a while about offense and defense, at eight o'clock, the opening game of the series between the Lakers and Rockets, broadcast live on American cable TV, came.

As Liu Mang and Jason Terry complained, the difference between the Eastern and Western competitions is really huge.

The Lakers and Rockets directly launched a confrontation.

The most interesting thing is of course Bynum's desire to challenge Yao Ming.

It's a pity... If it was the regular season, and Yao Ming had the Lakers' usual "aristocratic disease" mentality, it would be possible for Bynum to score 20 points, but Yao Ming was very serious in the playoffs, and Bynum would not challenge Yao Ming.

, who only turned 19 years old in November last year, there is now a clear gap between him and the four major centers of the new generation. When Yao Ming was on the court, Bynum only made 1 of 7...

Got blocked by Yao Ming 4 times!
To be continued...