Fans cheered for Stevens, while Stevens looked at Tang Tian who had just left the court.

Only he knew that Tang Tian was the real hero behind the scenes.

Tang Tian saw Stevens' expression and smiled and reached out to high-high with him.

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

Both sides on the field have successively entered rotation.

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

When the rotation was fully entered, he replaced Jokic, and then Gadine Widdie, Stephenson, Boyan and Amino.

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

Butler's breakthrough and emergency stop jump shot scored two points for the Mavericks, narrowing the gap to 13 points.

But looking back, Jokic assisted at a high position and assisted Boyang to hit a three-pointer from the outside.

Jennings' breakthrough layup was disturbed by Amino, and he turned around and continued to organize. Dinwiddie's cutting layup made Lee's thug.

What Tang Tian and Stevens discussed before were right.

After Tang Tian increased his ball-holding ratio, Jokic's organizational ability was inevitably weakened in the lineup.

This is a bit wasteful thing.

But he adjusted his rotation time and asked him to lead the bench lineup, and all the wasted ones were made up.

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

In the last attack of the first quarter, the Mavericks defended the rest of the Pelicans. After seeing this, Jokic turned around and walked to the basket.

After shaking Pachulia fainted with continuous footsteps at the basket, he hit the board with a buzzer-beating move and hit the ball steadily.

40 to 20, one section of flowers.

The fans on the scene were extremely excited.

This is the first to fight the eighth!

The last one was just an accident!

The Mavericks are very strong on paper, so they want to be black-eight?

It doesn't exist at all!

By the second quarter, this situation continued.

Jokic beat Pachuria in the first quarter and found that it was easier than expected. He played several consecutively in the second quarter.

Pachuriak had brute force, but had nowhere to attack Jokic.

After playing in this quarter for less than two minutes, the score difference was already 30 points.

Carlisle even called for a pause.

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

Tang Tian even talked and laughed with Davis, and they might not have to play the whole second half.

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

No one knew what was going on, but Jokic was a little excited.

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

Jokic is shy and rarely does this.

The ball just now was played back on the LED screen on the spot. It turned out that it was Pachulia, this guy, wanted to step up again!

Fortunately, Ariza had been punished before, so Jokic avoided it in advance, but it also caused him to lose his center of gravity and fall down.

The referee's penalty had not yet come out, but there was a fierce quarrel on the Mavericks bench there.

It turned out to be Butler and Pachuria.

Nowitzki and Carlisle are trying to control the scene.

It was then that the referee announced the penalty.

Jokic got a technical foul because of pushing people.

Pachuria was sentenced to second-degree malicious expulsion directly.

Obviously, after experiencing the previous incident of Ariza being stepped up, the referees increased their punishment in order to avoid the situation from worsening.

Pachuria was sent off, and the Mavericks' bench quarrel ended.

"Hey, hey, remember what I said?"

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

As early as when Ariza was being cushioned, he said that Tang Tian had hit a lot of punches.

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

Barkley and Smith could only laugh.

O'Neal jumped very much in this section, but they couldn't do it because what O'Neal said was really right.

The conflict caused a brief stop to the game, and both sides returned to the court and their condition declined a little.

The score difference between the two sides has been fluctuating around 25 points. At the end of the half, the Pelicans led the Mavericks with a big score of 71-48.

The difference between 23 points is very big, but there are still some playing.

During the intermission, both players returned to the locker room.

The atmosphere in the Mavericks' locker room was very strange. Butler scolded Pachuria on the spot because Tang Tian scolded him, which made other teammates' attitude towards him very delicately.

But Butler has this kind of personality. He always defends his brothers in person.

"Zhaza did something wrong. Think about it from the perspective of others. I don't want my teammates to encounter that kind of thing, so I hope that it won't happen again. We want to win, but not in this way, but to win openly."

Finally, Nowitzki stood up and said something, which gradually restored the atmosphere to normal.

But it is obvious that there is a gap between the Mavericks and Butler.

When he came back in the second half, Butler took the lead and stole Ariza's fast break and made a layup. He 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 turned around, and the Pelicans' defensive rotation was somewhat unable to keep up with the Mavericks.

The Mavericks played 39-28 in this quarter, narrowing the gap to 14 points.

The difference in scores is still there, but it is much smaller.

Compared to the first game, the Mavericks did better.

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

After angering Pachuria, he showed how to win the ball in the right way with practical actions.

The game in the last quarter was extremely fierce. Whether it was the Pelicans' connection or the main players came back, the score difference between the two sides fluctuated between 10 and 14 points.

However, the Mavericks dug too big a hole in front, and Tang Tian’s continuous score at critical moments prevented them from getting closer to the point difference.

In the end, the Pelicans defeated the Mavericks 123-111 at home, achieving two consecutive playoff wins.

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

The two scored 58 points together, but Harris and Embiid performed just in moderation.

Fighting with the Pelicans is obviously not enough.

On the Pelicans' side, Tang Tian scored the team's highest 32 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, including 13 points in the final quarter.

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

"We need to play harder, and we are not without a chance."

At the post-match press conference, Butler said bluntly in front of the media.

His words were recognized by reporters. In terms of net wins alone, the Mavericks won the second half.
Chapter completed!