"I'm not trying to scare you, but if you keep playing like this, the coaching staff will definitely reduce your playing time. If we keep losing, they might take you out of the starting lineup, or even not play you at all."

Tang Tian knew Whiteside wasn't the brightest, so he was being very direct.

Whiteside stared blankly at Tang Tian, and after he understood what he was saying, he nodded.

The impact of losing the first game of the series on the Pelicans' morale was obvious. In the next day's training session, the players' enthusiasm was noticeably lower than before.

After training, Williams called Tang Tian into his office alone.

"I'm thinking of starting Nikola in the second game. What do you think?"

Williams' words indicated that the coaching staff was already very dissatisfied with Whiteside's performance.

Putting aside the last game, if Whiteside hadn't had so many problems in the first round, the Pelicans would have finished the series long ago.

Tang Tian shook his head.

"Nikola's defense can't support him as a starter right now. We're up against Popovich. He'll target him from the start and put us at a disadvantage."

Tang Tian spoke the truth.

Williams sighed helplessly.

Although he wasn't good at tactics, he understood what Tang Tian was saying, but Whiteside's current state was also hurting the team quite a bit.

Especially in the last game, although the players didn't complain, he, who was good at interpersonal relationships, could still feel the resentment hidden in their hearts and written on their faces.

"The coaching staff can do more psychological work with Hassan. He's still our starting center."

Tang Tian suggested.

Williams didn't say anything, and after a long silence, he didn't express his position, and finally let Tang Tian go back first.

Tang Tian came out of the office. He didn't know what Williams would ultimately choose, but he could foresee that the second game would still be difficult.

Actually, Williams' hesitation was understandable.

The Pelicans painfully lost a good game in the first game. If they lost the second game as well, the score would be 0 to 2.

Since the NBA implemented the best-of-seven system, that situation had occurred 192 times, but the number of successful comebacks was only 14.

If the Pelicans fell into that situation, and their opponent was the Spurs, the chance of a comeback would be very slim.

So Williams' caution was understandable.

On the day of the game, the Pelicans scheduled a shooting practice in the morning.

Before the start of training, Williams and Borrego pulled Whiteside aside to chat.

Judging from the confident look on Whiteside's face after the chat, Williams ultimately adopted Tang Tian's suggestion.

Sure enough, after the training session, Williams first announced that Whiteside would continue to start in the next game.

Whiteside then apologized to his teammates, assuring them that he wouldn't let the situation from the last game happen again.

Tang Tian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this.

Williams was still very capable in interpersonal communication. He didn't know what he said to Whiteside, but it changed the latter's attitude so much.

But this was a very positive sign.

After Whiteside apologized, it could be seen that the expressions on his teammates' faces had improved a lot.

That night, the second game of the series between the Pelicans and the Spurs continued at the New Orleans Arena.

The arena was still packed, and the fans' enthusiasm was even higher than in the first game.

The Pelicans had accumulated a large number of die-hard fans with their performance over the past two seasons. Now that the team was in an unfavorable situation, these fans didn't complain or blame the players, but instead cheered for the team in a more enthusiastic way.

Feeling the heartfelt enthusiasm from the fans, the players' confidence was much higher than before.

During the opening ceremony, Tang Tian came out and did a short breakdance like Walker, igniting the emotions of the entire arena.

Both sides maintained the starting lineups from the first game.

The Spurs' lineup was Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan, and Gasol.

The Pelicans' lineup was Holiday, Tang Tian, Ariza, Davis, and Whiteside.

Whiteside jumped high and won the tip-off for the Pelicans to get the first chance to attack.

Tang Tian opened the game with a pull-up jumper over Green's defense.

Not only that, but in the next possession, he assisted Davis with a dunk under the basket.

After this series of adjustments, the Pelicans' competitive state on the court was no worse than in the first game.

However, the Spurs' state was even better than in the first game. Parker, Gasol, and Leonard took turns scoring, and went back and forth with the Pelicans.

As the regular season record and outside perception suggested, the two teams were evenly matched in strength.

To win, it mostly depended on who did better in the details.

After the first quarter, the score on the court was tied at 25.

In the second quarter, both sides gradually entered rotations.

Jokic continued to maintain a good touch, made another three-pointer, and also sent out two assists.

However, Spurs veteran Ginobili was also in good shape, repeatedly breaking through to score under the basket.

The starting stage was a stalemate, and the bench stage was also evenly divided.

The two sides played for three quarters, and the score was still tied at 73.

If basketball games didn't have to determine a winner, the evenly matched teams might really be able to play to a tie.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, both sides had two starters with three bench players.

Davis and Ariza led the Pelicans, while Leonard and Parker led the Spurs.

At the beginning of the quarter, Jokic received a pass from Davis and hit a long three-pointer from outside the arc, helping the Pelicans take the lead.

His touch had been really good in these two games.

But no one expected that in the next few minutes, the game would be directly dominated by one person.

That person was Spurs veteran Ginobili.

He was in good shape in the first half, scoring 4 points and 3 assists with continuous breakthroughs.

But this quarter was his true explosion.

He first hit a long three-pointer over Gordon, a step away from the three-point line, and then in the next possession, he hit a signature step-back three-pointer.

Not only that, but for the third ball, he faked a shot and shook Gordon away, then broke through to the basket and fought against Jokic to score a 2+1.

Under his leadership, in just four minutes, the Spurs launched a 15-3 offensive wave, instantly widening the point difference to 12 points.

Ginobili contributed 9 points and 2 assists in this wave, meaning that every point the Spurs scored was related to him.

There was a saying circulating among Spurs fans: look to Parker in a favorable situation, look to Duncan in an unfavorable situation, and look to Ginobili in a desperate situation.

This saying was about the strength of the GDP, but if you read it carefully, it was actually praising Ginobili's big heart ability.

Now the game hadn't reached a desperate situation, or even an unfavorable situation, but Ginobili directly changed the game situation with one wave.

Although he was old and completely bald, his scoring explosiveness was still very terrifying.