The cheers at the scene were deafening, and the air was filled with excitement.

D'Antoni had a serious expression on the sidelines.

The Rockets' defense had been successful tonight, but Tang Tian was being unreasonable, and his continuous scoring left the Rockets with no fight in them.

If the Rockets had a Tang…

As soon as he thought of this, D'Antoni immediately shook his head and even wanted to slap himself.

He originally had such an opportunity three years ago, but he gave it up himself.

Thinking about it now was like slapping himself in the face!

"James, do what you're supposed to do!"

He shouted at Harden, who was retreating to the backcourt.

Harden was also a superstar, but he hadn't scored yet.

Harden felt a little embarrassed being yelled at by D'Antoni in public.

But seeing D'Antoni's serious expression, he knew that his coach must be very annoyed right now.

Moreover, as the team's core, his 0-for-3 performance after the opening was indeed a bit dismal.

But the problem was, Tang Tian was guarding him!

This was the most headache-inducing problem; his second brother had just been taken care of in the first round.

But since D'Antoni had yelled at him, he could only bite the bullet.

When he got to the frontcourt, Harden reached out to Paul for the ball and then signaled Cousins to come up for a high pick-and-roll.

Cousins was not as tall as the Thunder's Adams, but he was bigger, and this time he really blocked Tang Tian.

Harden saw the opportunity, broke through after the screen, and quickly drove inside.

Ariza on the weak side came over to help defend, and Harden shot after a direct confrontation.

Although he was a shooting guard, he was heavy, and this time he didn't suffer from the contact.

"Bang!"

But just as the ball left his hand, a large hand came from behind him and swatted the ball out of bounds.

He turned back in surprise.

Tang Tian!

It was Tang Tian again!

Cousins had blocked him a little earlier, but not completely, and Tang Tian had chased after Harden in one step.

The fans in the arena went crazy; Tang Tian was omnipotent on both ends of the court tonight!

He was really too excited!

The Rockets inbounded the ball from the sideline, and Harden continued to break through, but this time he learned his lesson, passing the ball back to Cousins after the breakthrough.

Cousins suppressed Jokic in motion and finally put the ball into the basket.

The Rockets' second field goal.

4 to 9, the Rockets were playing pretty well in this stretch.

"Come on! Pelicans!"

The home DJ also felt that the Rockets were gaining momentum, leading the fans at the scene to cheer for the home team.

Tang Tian was double-teamed as soon as he got the ball, and he passed the ball to Jokic.

Jokic orchestrated the offense from the high post.

Increasing the ball possession rate didn't mean holding the ball all the time; the Pelicans didn't abandon all the tactics they practiced in the first round.

Jokic held the ball with his back to Cousins, watching in all directions.

Ariza and Tang Tian made cuts on both wings.

Jokic passed the ball to Tang Tian, and in the next second, the Rockets pounced on Tang Tian like a swarm of bees.

Tang had gravity!

But in the crowd, Tang Tian made a precise through-pass, the ball directly passing through heavy defense into Davis' hands at the baseline.

Davis caught the ball, took a step, and scored with a powerful two-handed dunk.

The cheers at the scene rose again.

The Pelicans played this possession smoothly.

Moreover, Tang Tian could still pass the ball out under this level of double-teaming!

If the playoffs were compared to war, Tang Tian in the first round was just hiding behind the army, occasionally going out to chop a few people, but in this round, he was directly putting on his armor from the beginning!

9 points and 1 assist.

All 11 of the Pelicans' opening points were related to him!

He was wearing battle robes, and holding a *fangtian ji* (halberd)!

And the Rockets on the opposite side just happened to have the Three Heroes!

Big Brother Liu Paul, Second Brother Guan Harden, Third Brother Zhang Cousins!

In the past there was An Lü Bu, and now there was Tang Fengxian!

This first clash of the second season of the Pelicans and Rockets, New Orleans had become Hulao Pass!

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 23 to 12, with the Pelicans leading by 11 points.

Tang Tian played the entire first quarter, scoring 14 points and 3 assists, more than the entire Rockets team combined.

And the three giants on the opposite side had only scored 10 points combined.

The Three Heroes battled Lü Bu in front of Hulao Pass.

But the difference was that the Three Heroes were clearly no match this time!

At the beginning of the second quarter, both sides' starters were resting on the bench.

In this high-intensity game, both teams used a nine- or even ten-man rotation.

Last season, the Rockets' main players could compete with the Rockets, but they lost because of the bench. This year, they had strengthened their bench.

And this really worked.

Gordon felt hot against his old team, scoring continuously with three-pointers and breakthroughs.

Williams and Bojan on the Pelicans' side both had average games.

After more than five minutes of bench play, the Rockets successfully narrowed the score difference to 20 to 27.

This stretch of play also inspired the Rockets' main players.

In the second half of the second quarter, both sides' starters returned, and the Rockets frequently attacked the Pelicans' inside line, and the two sides fought evenly.

At the end of the first half, 34 to 41, the score difference was still 7 points.

The two teams still had a chance to fight.

During the halftime break, the players from both sides returned to the locker room one after another.

"Give the ball to Tang Tian, everyone else do a good job on defense, Louis, Bojan, you must step up during the bench play."

The two sides were evenly matched in the first half, and Stevens also spoke seriously in the locker room.

In this kind of matchup, the first game would be very important. The side that won the first game would have absolute initiative in terms of morale and tactics.

Williams and Bojan both nodded seriously. If they hadn't played poorly in the first half, the Pelicans wouldn't have been in this situation.

The halftime break ended quickly, and the players returned to the court one after another.

Before leaving the locker room, Stevens pulled Tang Tian aside.

"If Louis and Bojan still can't find their form, you have to be prepared to play more in the second half."

The implication of this sentence was that you should be prepared for me to use you fully in the second half.

Tang Tian nodded. Although the intensity of the competition tonight was higher than any previous game, he had a legend on him, and it wouldn't be a problem to support it.

The Rockets attacked first in the second half.

They continued their play from the first half, continuing to attack the Pelicans' inside line.

However, Stevens had a targeted defense in the first half. Paul's layup was defended, and Cousins' second attack was also interfered with.

Davis finally secured the defensive rebound.

The Pelicans advanced to the frontcourt, and Holiday continued to give the ball to Tang Tian.

Tang Tian was quite decisive this time, accelerating directly towards the inside after receiving the ball, not giving the Rockets a chance to double-team.

However, when he broke through to the free throw line, the Rockets' double-team still came up.

Three-man siege.

In addition to Cousins guarding the basket and Morris sticking to Davis, the other three Rockets players all came up.

Tang Tian used a fake pass to the outside to deceive Harden, and then turned around to the other side and leaned back.

Paul and Tucker both pounced out desperately, and Paul even had a small movement in the air, but they were both too short!

Tang Tian's signature leaning-back jumper against the defense.

The ball passed over Tucker and Paul's heads, under the gaze of a group of Rockets players.

"Swish!"

A clean shot!

Entering an uninhabited land from the midst of an army!

Tang Fengxian!

ps: It's the middle of the month, and today is also Father's Day. I wish all commanders a happy Father's Day! Please support with monthly tickets, mwah!