Chapter 779 Pachulia Was Expelled

The fans were cheering for Stevens, and Stevens looked at Tang Tian who had just left the field.

Only he knew that Tang Tiancai was the real man behind the scenes.

Seeing Stevens' expression, Tang Tian smiled and reached out to give him a high-five.

His expression was natural, he didn't care about this.

Both sides on the court entered rotations one after another.

For the Pelicans, Stevens replaced Jokic with McGee in advance at 7 minutes.

When he fully entered the rotation, he replaced Jokic on the court, and added Dinwiddie, Stephenson, Bojan and Aminu.

The Mavericks are led by Butler, plus Jennings, Devin Harris, David Lee and Pachulia.

Butler's breakthrough jumper scored two points for the Mavericks, narrowing the point difference to 13 points.

But looking back, Jokic provided support from the high post and assisted Bojan to hit a three-pointer from the outside.

Jennings's breakthrough layup was interfered by Aminu. Looking back, Jokic continued to organize, and Dinwiddie's cut-in layup blocked Lee's thug.

What Tang Tian and Stevens discussed before is correct.

After Tang Tian increased the proportion of holding the ball, Jokic's organizational ability was inevitably weakened in the starting lineup.

This is a somewhat wasteful thing.

But adjusting his rotation time and letting him lead the bench made up for all the wastage.

During this period, the Pelicans' substitutes played like a fish in water.

On the last possession of the first quarter, the Mavericks guarded the rest of the Pelicans. After seeing this, Jokic turned around and walked to the basket.

After the continuous shaking of steps under the basket stunned Pachulia, the buzzer-beating shot made a steady hit.

40 to 20, one flower.

The fans at the scene were extremely emotional.

This is No. 1 versus No. 8!

The last one was just an accident!

The Mavericks are very strong on paper, do they want to win?

It doesn't exist!

In the second quarter, this continued.

Jokic hit Pachulia in the first quarter and found out that it was easier than expected. In the second quarter, he hit several consecutive shots and scored.

Pachulia has all the brute strength, but has nowhere to start in front of Jokic.

Less than two minutes into this quarter, the score difference was already 30 points.

Carlisle didn't even call a timeout.

Not to mention Carlisle, even Stevens did not expect such a scene.

Tang Tian was even talking and laughing with Davis. They might not have to play the entire second half.

But at this moment, Jokic fell down while attacking, then got up and got entangled with Pachulia.

No one knew what happened, but Jokic was a little emotional.

The game entered a technical timeout, and Tang Tian and Davis stepped forward to communicate with Jokic.

Jokic has a shy personality and is rarely like this.

The goal just now was replayed on the large LED screen at the scene. It turned out that Pachulia wanted to step in again!

Fortunately, Ariza had been punished before, and Jokic took precautions to avoid it in advance, but this also caused him to lose his center of gravity and fall.

Before the referee's decision came out, there was a fierce argument on the Mavericks bench.

It turned out to be Butler and Pachulia.

Nowitzki and Carlisle are trying to control the situation.

It was at this time that the referee announced the penalty.

Jokic received a technical foul for pushing someone.

Pachulia was directly ejected from the game after being convicted of second-degree malicious intent.

Obviously, after experiencing the previous incident of Ariza being kicked off, the referees increased the punishment in order to avoid the situation worsening.

Pachulia was ejected, and the brawl on the Mavericks bench ended.

"Hey, hey, remember what I said?"

O'Neal once again laughed triumphantly in front of Barkley and Smith.

As early as when Ariza was kicked off, he said that Tang Tian punched too many.

Now the referee's penalty proves that what he said is right.

Barkley and Smith could only laugh.

O'Neal was very jumpy in this section, but they couldn't help it, because everything O'Neal said was really right.

The conflict caused a brief pause in the game. When both sides returned to the court, their condition dropped somewhat.

The point difference between the two sides has been fluctuating around 25 points. At halftime, the Pelicans led the Mavericks by a score of 71 to 48.

23 points is a big difference, but there is still room to fight.

At halftime, players from both teams returned to the locker room.

The atmosphere in the Mavericks locker room was very strange. Butler scolded Pachulia on the spot because of Tang Tian, ​​which made other teammates have a very subtle attitude towards him.

But that's Butler's character. He always defends his brothers face to face.

"What Zaza did was wrong. Think about it from another person's perspective. I don't want that to happen to my teammates, so I hope it won't happen again. We want to win, but not in this way, but in an honest way." .”

In the end, Nowitzki stood up and said something, and the atmosphere gradually returned to normal.

But it can be clearly felt that there is already a gap between the Mavericks players and Butler.

Back in the second half, Butler took the lead, stealing Ariza's fast break layup, and then assisted Nowitzki to hit a three-pointer from the outside.

Led by Butler and Nowitzki, the Mavericks launched a crazy counterattack in the second half.

In the first quarter, the Pelicans' defensive value exceeded the Mavericks' offensive value, and that critical point was not broken.

But in this quarter, the situation was reversed. The Pelicans' defensive rotation was somewhat unable to keep up with the Mavericks.

The Mavericks outscored 39-28 in this quarter, narrowing the point difference to 14 points.

The point difference is still there, but it is much smaller.

Compared with the first game, the Mavericks did better.

The leader was Butler, who scored 15 points, 3 assists and 3 steals in this quarter.

After angrily reprimanding Pachulia, he used practical actions to show how to win the game in the right way.

The last quarter of the game was extremely fierce. Whether it was the Pelicans' transition period or after the main force returned, the score difference between the two sides fluctuated between 10 and 14 points.

However, the hole dug in front of the Mavericks was too big, and Tang Tian's continuous scoring at critical moments prevented them from getting closer to the point difference.

In the end, the Pelicans defeated the Mavericks 123-111 at home and won two consecutive playoff games.

Butler scored a game-high 35 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Nowitzki also scored 23 points.

The two scored 58 points together, but Harris and Embiid performed generally.

Playing against the Pelicans, this is obviously not enough.

For the Pelicans, Tang Tian scored a team-high 32 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, including 13 points in the final quarter.

Davis had 17 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks. Jokic had a triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. This was also the first triple-double in his career in the playoffs.

"We need to play harder, it's not like we don't have a chance."

At the post-game press conference, Butler spoke bluntly in front of the media.

His words were recognized by reporters. In terms of point differential alone, the Mavericks won the second half.

Although being behind 0-2 makes them very passive, if they can continue to perform like that, they have a chance to fight back from home.