The cheers and whistles from the crowd had exploded.
77-59.
Tang Tian scored four straight points in that stretch, helping the Pelicans widen the gap back to 18 points!
And unlike the previous 18-point lead, Tang Tian had immediately posterized his opponent after Nurkic's flagrant foul.
That kind of momentum was more powerful than scoring a ton of points—or even throwing down in a fight!
In basketball, getting posterized was humiliating, especially for a big center getting dunked on by a guard.
Nurkic looked annoyed, but he was not as thick-skinned as Green. After getting posterized, he silently took the ball to inbound from the baseline.
Birds of a feather flock together. Playing on the same team as Lillard, his competitive spirit could not possibly be low.
At the frontcourt, Nurkic continued operating from the free-throw line.
But before Lillard and the others could run free, he turned and charged straight at the basket.
He was clearly holding back his frustration and trying to prove himself.
Smack!
But Butler saw through his intention. He swooped in from the weak side and stripped the ball directly from his hands.
The Pelicans launched a defensive counterattack. Walker caught the ball, raced downcourt, and finished the layup.
The gap returned to 20+ points.
Several calls from the referees had briefly affected the game, but after Tang Tian went on a personal isolation run, the gap was stretched open again.
And after that stretch, the Pelicans had found a way to deal with that kind of refereeing: give Tang Tian the ball in isolation.
Over the next period and a half, the referees made several more attention-grabbing calls, but they could no longer achieve the same effect as before.
The gap between the two teams kept growing, and by the end of the third