In the Pelicans' first 33 games, they faced the Spurs twice, the Mavericks twice, and the Rockets twice. Now, after facing the Warriors, they would immediately face the Cavaliers.
And both the Warriors and Cavaliers games were on the road.
No one would believe that the League, or Xiao Hua, had not done it on purpose.
The schedule had been set by the League in the summer. He had really gone out of his way to make things difficult for the Pelicans.
But that was not necessarily a bad thing for the Pelicans. Once they got the tough opponents out of the way, they could leisurely develop their bench in the games that followed.
The next game was two days away, and the Pelicans returned to New Orleans early the following morning.
According to the coaching staff's arrangements, they would hold regular practices that afternoon and the next morning before flying to Cleveland in the afternoon.
The schedule was tight. Consecutive road games against powerful opponents posed a tremendous physical and mental challenge for the players.
Yet the Pelicans' morale remained sky-high.
This season, many people had focused on the Pelicans' Four-star lineup while overlooking Tang Tian's latest evolution.
Tang Tian's current dominance gave the Pelicans players an unprecedented level of confidence.
As long as Tang Tian was there, no situation or circumstance was a problem.
As long as everyone else performed normally, it would be another winning night for the Pelicans.
Even if their opponent was the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers had struggled somewhat early in the season while building chemistry, but like the Warriors, they had become dominant once they had fully meshed.
They sat atop the Eastern Conference standings and had just put together a Seven-game winning streak, outscoring opponents by more than 20 points per game.
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