The Pelicans' final timeout was a short, 20-second timeout.
There was no way to draw up much of a play in a 20-second timeout. They couldn't even cook up a decent pep talk.
The coach could only do his best to emphasize a few things to the players.
"Stay steady. Don't panic!"
"They want to see us panic. We can't let them get their way. Don't panic. Stay calm. We're still up by nine. We went more than seven minutes without scoring, but we can't possibly go an entire quarter without a single point."
"So as long as we stay steady and draw fouls to get to the free-throw line, we still have a very good chance of winning!"
The 20-second timeout ended before long, and the players returned to the court.
This time, Wang Yi took Tures and Mouth Brother out.
Mouth Brother had already met his 18-point target.
Then Wang Yi sent Bond and Towns onto the court, going straight to a twin-tower lineup.
Of course, this lineup left people baffled again.
The twin towers had a huge advantage in rebounding and protecting the rim, but they were far too slow on the court.
They dragged down the pace of the offense.
At a time like this, when they needed to make up points, they needed to get in multiple possessions.
Putting both big men on the court was practically suicide.
Why did the Warriors always use the Death Lineup when they were trying to come back?
That alone showed how much a twin-tower lineup could hurt a team during a comeback.
And yet Wang Yi had put both big men in. People really couldn't make sense of it.
Every coach and every fan who knew even a little about basketball could see that Wang Yi's decision to