Chapter 377

Back for the second half, the atmosphere among the fans at the scene remained high.

Even though the score was tied, the Thunder, playing at home, clearly had a great chance of winning.

As long as they continued this stalemate, they could beat the Pelicans and once again become the focus of the league!

The Pelicans attacked first in the second half.

Tang Tian and Davis ran a pick-and-roll. After the screen, Tang Tian drove to the basket, and amidst the double-team, he passed the ball back to Davis.

Davis, facing Durant's help defense, faked a shot and then took a mid-range jumper.

"Swish!"

The basketball went cleanly through the net. Davis's first shot was a steady hit.

Back on defense, the Pelicans maintained their intensity, and the Thunder still didn't have many good opportunities.

Westbrook's strong drive to the basket and layup failed.

The Pelicans launched a fast break, and Holiday, receiving a pass from Tang Tian, leaned against Westbrook and made a flying layup.

The Thunder had started the game with a 4-0 run against the Pelicans, but the Pelicans responded with a 4-0 run of their own!

Stevens nodded in satisfaction on the sideline.

Just as he thought, the Pelicans' poor performance in the first half was largely due to the players' relaxed mentality.

It was difficult to adjust during the game in the first half, but they were back to normal after the halftime break.

The Pelicans had an average net win of 16.5 points in their past five-game winning streak; that kind of form couldn't just disappear.

The Thunder's offense still didn't have good opportunities, and the ball ended up in Durant's hands.

Just like in the first half, they were going to rely on the superstar's individual ability to solve the problem.

But at that moment, a chorus of jeers erupted from the crowd.

Because the person guarding Durant wasn't Ariza, but Tang Tian!

They hadn't noticed it in the previous possession, but now they realized that the Pelicans had adjusted their defense in the second half, actually assigning Tang Tian to guard Durant!

Ever since Tang Tian arrived at the Pelicans and became the team's core, the Pelicans had generally avoided having Tang Tian guard the opponent's superstars.

After all, a person's stamina is limited, and the Pelicans needed Tang Tian's offense more than his defense, which was related to the team's tactical positioning.

But now, Stevens was showing his extraordinary coaching ability by having Tang Tian guard Durant!

How many years had it been since they last saw this scene? It had to be traced back to two years ago, when Tang Tian was still on the Spurs and playing against the Thunder in the playoffs.

Durant also became very excited seeing Tang Tian guarding him.

Although he had missed a season due to injury, he hadn't stopped training, and his offensive consistency was much higher than it had been two years ago.

But Tang Tian's defense had declined significantly in the past two years.

With one rising and the other falling, the Pelicans' defensive adjustment was practically giving him an opportunity.

After signaling his teammates to spread out, he directly chose to post up Tang Tian.

He would definitely seize this opportunity!

Backing down, turning left and right, shoulder feints, turnaround jumper.

His movements were smooth and fluid. His increasingly skillful actions were also a major weapon this season.

But just as he was about to shoot, he felt a darkness in front of his eyes.

Tang Tian had actually used a face-guarding defense, directly blocking his shooting vision.

"Clang!"

His first isolation against Tang Tian wasn't successful.

Jokic secured the defensive rebound.

The Pelicans launched a fast break, but this time Roberson defended Holiday's floater.

The Thunder attacked again on the other end, and Durant directly backed down against Tang Tian and called for the ball.

He had been careless on the previous play. Tang Tian's defense had regressed less than he had anticipated.

Having already failed once in isolation, he had to seize this opportunity.

Westbrook passed the ball inside, and Durant turned around after receiving it.

This time he chose to face up and attack.

Dribbling back and forth with crossover steps, he suddenly pulled up for a contested jump shot.

This was a relatively simple offensive method, but with his long arms and his current shooting consistency, it was also the offensive method he was most confident in.

"Slap!"

But just as he was about to release the ball, he felt a lightness in his hand.

Tang Tian made a swift move and swatted the ball away!

After stealing the ball, Tang Tian directly threw it to Holiday, who made a flying fast-break layup for another 2 points!

The Pelicans had gone on a 6-0 run against the Thunder in the second half!

Durant was a little dazed, looking down at his hand, seemingly unable to believe that his shot had just been stolen.

This instantly brought back a lot of unpleasant memories.

Being run ragged, getting steals, getting blocked, being defended to a shooting percentage of less than forty percent...

Those things from a long, long time ago appeared in his mind as if they had happened just yesterday!

Damn it, Tang Tian, hasn't this guy's defense regressed at all in the past two years?!

The answer was "yes."

His next offensive possession was defended again. It wasn't until his fourth shot that he finally scored his first basket of the second half, confirming this point.

The defensive player who had given him the most headache back in his Spurs days was now standing right in front of him.

Everything felt like a repeat of yesterday.

In this quarter, Durant's performance was completely stifled by Tang Tian's defense, going from 1 for 4 to 2 for 7 to 2 for 11.

Kobe was starting his retirement season, and Durant was inheriting Kobe's Mamba mentality, giving his own basket a barrage of ice and fire.

With Durant playing confused, the Thunder's scoring in this quarter was also dismal. They scored only 12 points in the quarter, while the Pelicans scored 28 points thanks to other players.

By the end of this quarter, they were already trailing by 16 points.

In a game between strong teams, such a situation was fatal enough.

In the fourth quarter, both teams' starters were resting on the bench.

Bojan came on and immediately hit a three-pointer, directly extending the lead to 19 points.

There was a stir on the sideline.

At this pace, it was a foregone conclusion that the Thunder would lose the game.

But at the critical moment, the Thunder's interior substitute, Kanter, stepped up.

He continuously attacked McGee inside, scoring repeatedly. Even when Stevens substituted Biyombo in, he continued to score inside.

In terms of offensive ability alone, Kanter was definitely a starter, even an All-Star-level player.

And the Pelicans' offense during this stretch wasn't good either. Back and forth, after more than three minutes, the Thunder had a 10-1 run, closing the gap to just 9 points.

Stevens called a timeout. After the timeout, he substituted Tang Tian back into the game early.

Seeing this, the Thunder's new head coach, Donovan, also substituted Roberson back into the game.

Tang Tian's task in the third quarter was defense, but Stevens' substitution now was clearly for him to attack.

Under Williams, Tang Tian was an invincible spear, but Stevens wanted to turn Tang Tian into a glaive capable of both offense and defense.

Tang Tian also understood what Stevens wanted. When he got the ball on the offensive end, he saw that Roberson was guarding him one-on-one and assumed a triple threat stance.

He had already acquired the triple threat ability during the offseason, but he hadn't used it much in previous games because they had been winning by a large margin.

Including the first half of this game, the Thunder's frequent double-teams had made him use his fadeaway more often.

Now that he had a one-on-one opportunity, he could try out his new ability.