Chapter 2 Opening Stage

In the opening phase of the second quarter, both sides had their main players leading the substitutes.

For the Pelicans, Walker and Davis led the team, along with Brogdon, Siakam, and Harrell.

For the Mavericks, Holiday and Jokic led the team, along with Barea, Dwight Powell, and Nowitzki.

As soon as the second quarter started, Walker faced Nowitzki and scored with a turnaround fadeaway jumper.

He really put Parker's skills to good use.

But in the next possession, Nowitzki received a pass from Barea after a drive and scored with a catch-and-shoot jumper from mid-range.

Davis posted up Nowitzki in the low post and was double-teamed by Powell. He quickly passed the ball out to Siakam, who slammed it home with a one-handed dunk, boosting the team's morale.

But in the next possession, Holiday received a pass from Jokic and scored a 2+1 on Brogdon.

The situation on the court was tense, very tense.

The Mavericks were really underestimated.

Previously, Morey had said in the media that the Rockets had found the most suitable lineup for them this season.

But now it seems that the Mavericks are the team that best fits that description.

The changes that Holiday and Jokic brought to both ends of the court were really visible to the naked eye.

Moreover, having experienced consecutive championships, their mental fortitude was even stronger than in the same period in history.

This win-win trade really brought the Pelicans a good opponent.

The fans in the arena were very excited, and Adam Silver was also delighted.

For the past month or so, he had felt like a drowning man.

Under the continuous pressure from the team owners, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

Now, the Mavericks' performance was like a life-saving straw, finally allowing him to grab it and come up for air.

Stevens paced on the sideline.

Although he had prepared himself mentally, the Mavericks were still stronger than he had expected.

After the score remained deadlocked for a while, he got up and called Tang Tian and Butler over.

Brogdon, Tang Tian, Butler, Siakam, Davis.

This was a lineup he had used against the Rockets, especially with s+ level defense.

After Carlisle saw this, he also made substitutions, bringing Conley, Harris, and Embiid onto the court.

Conley, Holiday, Powell, Harris, Embiid.

This was a head-to-head confrontation!

Embiid's strong inside attack was double-teamed, giving Harris an opportunity, but Tang Tian's help defense interfered and forced a miss.

Davis secured the defensive rebound, and Brogdon pushed the ball to the frontcourt.

Tang Tian's drive was double-teamed, giving Butler an opportunity, but Powell's help defense came quickly.

Butler passed the ball back to Davis, whose shot under the basket was interfered with by Embiid and also missed!

The two teams had previously staged an offensive battle, but this segment had switched to a defensive battle by mutual consent!

Although the methods were different, the results were the same.

Just like Barkley analyzed, they were evenly matched!

Before the two teams switched to this lineup, the score on the court was 41 to 38.

After playing for more than three minutes, the score on the court was still 41 to 38!

Carlisle was not afraid of Stevens in terms of tactics or strategy!

Stevens hesitated on the sideline for a while, then turned and called Walker over, and then made a number 1 gesture to Tang Tian.

This was the first time since the season started that he was going to use his ultimate move.

No matter how the game went from here on out, the Mavericks could be considered successful for pushing the Pelicans to this point.

The so-called 1 was referring to the number 1 tactic, which had been commonly used by the Pelicans in the past few years.

In other words, it was the Tang Tian isolation play.

Because the Pelicans had a strong lineup this season, most of the time Walker and Davis were running pick-and-rolls.

Tang Tian only needed to take over when the team couldn't score, or to step up at critical moments.

This was also why his highest score this season hadn't even broken 40 points.

Because it simply wasn't necessary.

But now the Mavericks had pushed the Pelicans to this point.

If they continued to be deadlocked like this, it definitely wouldn't be a good thing for the Pelicans.

Tang Tian understood.

In fact, he had wanted to play like this for a long time.

He had been adapting to the new training for the past three days, and it was time to put it into practice.

Speaking of which, he wasn't very tall before he transmigrated, only a little over 1.7 meters, which was a standard short guard according to basketball standards.

When he played, he basically played as a guard, dribbling, controlling the ball, shooting, and so on.

That's why he became a basketball godfather in his previous life.

Now he had transmigrated and become a player, but he couldn't stop the heart of a guard.

Before, because his skill levels weren't high, he rarely showed off his breakthroughs, basically just accelerating past his opponents and then choosing an offensive method.

Even when he broke through to the inside, it was after strong physical contact.

But now that he had the chuanhua hudie bu (threading butterfly steps) in hand, it was like having a few hundred yuan in his pocket, his confidence and energy were different.

Walker dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and passed it to Tang Tian, then signaled for everyone to spread out and give Tang Tian an isolation.

Holiday, a former teammate and the Pelicans' strongest defender, was guarding Tang Tian.

Tang Tian glanced at Holiday.

Sorry, Jrue.

A change of direction to the right, followed by a large pull-back to the left.

The biggest difference compared to dribbling low before was that Tang Tian didn't have to deliberately lower his center of gravity anymore.

Because he could feel that even if he stood upright, he could still control the ball steadily in his hands.

Holiday's center of gravity was noticeably shifted.

This was the change.

Tall players who can dribble are very popular in the NBA, such as Webber and McGrady in the past, and Griffin and Durant are the most representative active players.

Their isolation plays are very difficult to defend, because in addition to their own offensive threat, they are tall and have a very large change of direction when breaking through.

Ordinary people don't dare to take action easily. If they do, they lose their defensive position and can only be passed.

But if they don't take action, they can easily lose their defensive position, because if the opponent changes direction drastically, it's only a matter of time before they break through.

So Holiday could only adjust his body's center of gravity to follow Tang Tian's rhythm.

It was also at this time that Tang Tian made a collecting motion with the ball.

Holiday rushed out after seeing this. As Tang Tian's former teammate, he knew how accurate Tang Tian's pull-up jumper was.

But just as he pounced, Tang Tian suddenly made a quick low cross-over step followed by a breakthrough to the right, completely passing him!

The crowd was in an uproar.

The rhythm and control of the ball were simply amazing.

Even though they knew Tang Tian was strong, it was incredible to see a 2.03-meter-tall guy make this move.

After Tang Tian passed Holiday, he went straight to the basket, and Embiid came out to help defend.

The two met half a step away.

But just at this moment, Tang Tian suddenly decelerated and then accelerated again, a close-range crossover directly passing Embiid!

This time, even the players on and off the court on both sides were stunned.

This is...fake, right!

"Bang!"

With a muffled sound, Tang Tian passed Holiday and Embiid in succession, and slammed the ball into the basket with one hand.

It couldn't be more real.

The arena was in an uproar, and the Pelicans' bench was in a frenzy.

Stevens was beaming with joy.

He didn't know how Tang Tian had such strong ball-handling skills.

The only explanation was that after being targeted by the Warriors and Cavaliers last season, he worked hard to improve this skill during the offseason.

In fact, Tang Tian had indeed been doing this, and there had been similar news reports during the offseason.

Because the Pelicans had never really wanted Tang Tian to play isolation before, it was only now that it came out, which was also a reasonable thing.

But for him and the Pelicans, and even the Pelicans fans, it was really too surprising!