Chapter 1 A Heated Start

After a short warm-up, the opening ceremony quickly began.

The Rockets' starting lineup was the first to be introduced.

Paul, Harden, and Cousins, the Big Three, were all in the starting lineup, with P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute rounding it out.

At the beginning of the season, the Rockets had Capela and Cousins playing as twin towers, but the effect wasn't good.

Especially since D'Antoni was a coach who advocated for offense, the slow pace was unbearable for him.

After playing only a couple of games, he put Capela on the bench and started experimenting with different lineups.

Brewer + David West, Brewer + Tucker, Tucker + West, Brewer + Mbah a Moute…

After various experiments, he finally got the lineup he wanted.

Tucker was already a capable 3-and-D player (three-point shooting and defense) during his time with the Suns, but his exposure increased after joining the Rockets, and his strengths were further amplified.

Although he was short, his physicality was outstanding, especially in the small-ball era, where average power forwards couldn't hold him down in the low post.

And his corner three-pointer was seriously underestimated; he could create enough offensive space in the paint for Cousins.

Mbah a Moute was purely a defensive player before coming to the Rockets. When he was on the court, it was basically a four-on-five situation for his team.

The Rockets initially used him that way, but D'Antoni, experimenting with lineups, encouraged three-point shots from the wings like crazy.

And in that process, Mbah a Moute showed a stability in his outside shooting that was completely different from his previous career.

Everyone, including himself, realized that he could score.

In the end, he successfully squeezed out Brewer and entered the starting lineup, and he and Tucker supported most of the Rockets' defensive system.

After the players were introduced, head coach D'Antoni was introduced next.

When his name was called, the audience booed.

D'Antoni had reached a preliminary agreement with the Pelicans, but ultimately chose the Rockets instead.

The contract offered by the Rockets was higher than the Pelicans, and it was understandable that people would die for wealth and birds for food.

But this practice of suddenly leaving after reaching an agreement still made Pelicans fans unhappy. Although they wouldn't go to social media to attack him, the boos at the home stadium were unavoidable.

The Pelicans had their regular lineup, and when Stevens was introduced, the arena erupted in deafening cheers.

The contrast between the two coaches was intentional on the part of the fans to embarrass D'Antoni.

Sure enough, D'Antoni's face was not pretty. He was considered a famous coach, and being suppressed by a young coach like Stevens was definitely frustrating for him.

After the warm-up, the starting players of both teams took the court one after another.

Davis won the tip-off against Cousins, officially kicking off the Christmas game.

Jokic held the ball to orchestrate the offense in the frontcourt. Tang Tian cut in and ran back but was double-teamed, passing the ball to Ariza at the corner.

The pass was timely, but the Rockets' help defense was quick. Ariza faked out Tucker and broke through to the inside, but his layup was interfered with by Cousins and missed.

Cousins turned around and grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Rockets launched a counterattack, with Paul making a long pass to Harden in the backcourt.

But the Pelicans retreated quickly, and Harden's layup was blocked by Tang Tian.

The Pelicans advanced to the frontcourt, where Tang Tian used triple threat against Mbah a Moute, and hit a step-back jumper after the breakthrough.

Back on the other end, Harden made a step-back three-pointer after running a play in the set offense.

These first few possessions were a microcosm of the two teams' first quarter.

The Pelicans' current offensive ability had been honed to about 70-80% of what Stevens wanted, and they could play relatively freely against ordinary teams.

But this Rockets team, because of the presence of Bzdelik, was different from the Knicks and Lakers teams that D'Antoni had coached in the past few seasons.

They had a defense, and after the lineup was honed, it was a top-notch defense.

Conversely, the same was true. After the Rockets' Big Three were honed, their offensive strength greatly increased.

But facing the Pelicans, whose defense had been basically honed, they also didn't play as smoothly.

At the end of the first quarter, the two teams were tied at 27.

Such a situation put a lot of pressure on both teams, but the home fans were very excited.

This evenly matched, high-level game, like the previous Pelicans-Warriors game, was addictive.

At the start of the second quarter, Harden led the Rockets on the court.

The Rockets traded for Paul this season, but D'Antoni had even bigger ambitions, and he also tried to have Harden play point guard.

This was very consistent with his personal characteristics. He was good at training point guards, and now that he had two super-giant guards, he couldn't wait to turn them all into point guards.

And it did work, so he could use Paul and Harden separately.

After Harden came on, he first made a quick pass to West for a layup, and then he scored a signature step-back 2+1, leading the team on a 5-0 run.

The Rockets' bench was very poor last season, but now letting Harden play this bench rotation greatly increased their bench strength while leveling up Harden.

Stevens called a timeout at this time.

Coming back from the timeout, Bojan hit a key catch-and-shoot three-pointer through a tactical play, igniting the New Orleans Arena.

The Pelicans sent away their sixth man, Gordon, this summer, which drew reluctance and questions from fans.

But with Bojan's outstanding performance on the Pelicans, they had begun to forget about Gordon.

This three-pointer helped the Pelicans narrow the gap to 2 points, and when they returned to the defensive end, the Pelicans made a tactical adjustment.

Stevens had previously studied the Rockets' Moreyball theory and already had a set of countermeasures in mind.

However, because this was the first time the two sides had played this season, he needed more on-the-spot observation to decide whether to use countermeasures.

After this much time in this quarter, he already had a good idea.

The Rockets had taken 20 shots so far, with 14 shots from the three-point line and 6 shots from the paint, with no mid-range shots.

This included both set offense and fast breaks, and shots from the mid-range area had been completely abandoned by them.

The Pelicans set up a 2-1-2 zone defense.

This was a defensive formation that was rarely used in zone defenses, because it basically meant leaving the mid-range open.

Popovich had set up this zone defense when the Spurs played the Pelicans last season, but Tang Tian had shot so well that he didn't dare to use it again.

Now Stevens saw the weakness of Moreyball and used the same method.

Harden was closely guarded on the three-point line, and West was also closely guarded under the basket, restricting the Rockets' offense.

But as he expected, they didn't take a shot in the open mid-range area!

Terry's final catch-and-shoot three-pointer was interfered with and missed the rim!

McGee's defensive positioning had improved a lot, and he boxed out Capela to grab the defensive rebound.

The Pelicans took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack, and Dinwiddie shook off old Terry on the fast break and confidently soared to score.

The Pelicans tied the score!