Williams called a timeout.

Before, Williams' timeouts were always a beat slow, but this time he called it a bit early, one might even say very early.

One wonders if he saw the fans' complaints about him on social media.

After calling the timeout, he turned and called Aminu up.

When the players came down, he took out the tactical board and laid out the plan.

After listening, Tang Tian knew that he was planning to use a small lineup to go head-to-head with the opponent's small lineup.

After Williams finished arranging the tactics, Tang Tian had a small chat with him.

He raised some of his concerns.

Small lineup against small lineup, Tyronn Lue had done it in history, but the effect was not good, and he was ridiculed by fans as a tactical genius.

"We have no better choice, it will work."

Williams was more insistent this time, after all, the Pelicans' small lineup had worked in the past two games.

Since Williams insisted, Tang Tian didn't say anything more.

Truth be told, the Pelicans' small lineup was better than the Cavaliers' small lineup in history because they had Davis, whose defensive ability in the paint was definitely much stronger than Love.

When the timeout returned, the Pelicans replaced Jokic with Aminu.

This substitution caused a commotion at the scene.

This was the first time they had seen a team go head-to-head with the Warriors using a small lineup, the Pelicans' substitution was very inspired.

The others spread out, and Tang Tian dribbled the ball to the basket for a score.

Back on the defensive end, the Pelicans' small lineup kept up with the Warriors' infinite cuts, and Thompson's layup was directly blocked by Davis.

Davis also took down the defensive rebound.

After the timeout, the Pelicans' performance was not bad on both offense and defense.

The camera at the scene gave Williams on the sidelines a close-up.

Williams had a smile on his face.

His choice seemed to be able to turn the tide.

But soon, the weaknesses of the Pelicans' small lineup were exposed.

Their response in the defensive round was not enough, directly giving Thompson a wide-open opportunity, who directly hit a three-pointer.

Small lineups require a lot of tacit understanding on the defensive end, and the Pelicans don't use it much, so they really lack in this aspect.

Moreover, after the pace of the game sped up, the Warriors recovered their offensive state in frequent offensive and defensive transitions, and the Pelicans slowly began to be unable to resist.

In this quarter, the Warriors scored 35 to 22 against the Pelicans, and the point difference was back to 16 points after three quarters.

In the last quarter, the Pelicans frantically chased points under the leadership of Tang Tian, but eventually lost 100 to 110.

The Splash Brothers combined for 13 three-pointers and 50+ points.

Tang Tian once again had an empty cut of 33 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

After the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, the Pelicans were 0 to 2 behind, which was really a direct entry into hell mode.

At the post-match press conference, Draymond Green was also in a great mood. When asked by reporters about his views on the subsequent games, he answered very simply.

"We will sweep them, what we have to do this year is to prove ourselves and let everyone see our strength."

The Warriors' regular season record was explosive, but as a dark horse, they have always been underestimated by the outside world.

Now they are undefeated in the playoffs, and Green's answer is also a way to express morale.

But for Pelicans fans, this kind of talk is simply showing off.

Green really regarded the Pelicans as rookies.

But there is no way, the NBA is all about results, if the Pelicans can't make effective adjustments in the future, a sweep is not impossible.

After all, the Rockets in front of them were not bad in strength, but they were still swept.

Green is the kind of person who wants to show off, but you are angry but can't do anything about it.

Fans were hotly discussing after the game.

"Williams is really a tactical genius, small lineup against small lineup, isn't this courting death!"

"Williams is a good coach, but his coaching ability is really a bit poor, the Pelicans have to consider changing a coach in the summer!"

"It's really difficult for the Pelicans to enter the finals, although I also know that it's difficult for them to play against the Warriors, but I didn't expect it to be this situation!"

"I really want to beat Green, those smug words, the Pelicans lost to the Splash Brothers, not him!"

"But there's no way, I feel that with the Warriors' state, it's really difficult for the Pelicans to win a game!"

…

The next day, Durant, who was recovering from his injury, posted a personal tweet.

"Draymond Green, 'good job gesture'"

Durant has a good relationship with Curry, and coupled with his old grudges with Tang Tian, he naturally supports the Warriors.

Green's show-off words resonated with him.

Once upon a time, the Thunder team in the Four Young Masters period also had such strength.

Also on the same day, the league announced the final ownership of the regular season MVP for the 2014~2015 season.

Curry eventually received 33.44% of the vote, beating Tang Tian (29.69%) and James (16.33%) to successfully be elected MVP.

This is also the first MVP trophy Curry has won in his career.

This series of events has sparked a wave of heated discussions among fans on social media.

"WTF! What the hell! Tang didn't get the MVP?!"

"The Warriors have a better record!"

"Bullshit! The Warriors only won 7 more games than the Pelicans, but Tang Tian's stats completely crushed Curry!"

"That's right, there was data last year, and the record was a little worse, okay, everyone recognized it, this year the record and data are all there, but he's still not the MVP?!"

"It's really unreasonable, didn't someone analyze it before, Tang has a record and data this season, and he's also one of Nike's top players, so he's sure to win the MVP?"

"Man proposes, God disposes, the league obviously wants to support the Warriors more!"

"Now the Pelicans are really screwed, I was originally expecting them to be encouraged by this MVP to win a game later, but now it seems that they will most likely be swept."

"The Warriors have the right time, right place, and right people this season, I feel like they're going to win the championship directly with 16-0."

…

After the first two games, the Pelicans returned to New Orleans.

A 0 to 2 situation is the most difficult situation they have faced since entering the playoffs, and what is more difficult than a large score is that they don't even know how to win.

In addition, Tang Tian's regretful brush with the MVP is an even greater blow to the team's morale.

Being swept, not only the outside world, but even some people in the Pelicans team have this idea in their minds.

Some things, if you can't resist, you can only choose to accept.

Of course, these people do not include Tang Tian.

After returning to New Orleans, Tang Tian continued to study the game footage.

Because Williams used a small lineup against a small lineup in the last game, the external criticism he received was no less than that of Lue in history.

Tang Tian also questioned it, but after playing, he found that the Pelicans' small lineup was really much better than the Cavaliers' small lineup in history.

If the team can use it more next season and build up the tacit understanding on the defensive end, the small lineup can also be a style of play.

But it is also very obvious that it is definitely impossible to beat them by playing a small lineup now.

"Details, details."

As Tang Tian watched, the content he and Jokic had talked about when they were communicating before flashed through his mind unconsciously.

Soon, he thought of a way, perhaps the only way the Pelicans can now play against the Warriors.