Winning While Padding Stats

Had these two lost their minds?

Tang Tian had no idea why they were so excited just because he had scored on the opening possession, even if it had been a dunk.

But that inexplicable excitement was quite helpful to the Pelicans. At the very least, their box-outs had been on point.

Griffin brought the ball into the frontcourt and posted up while the Clippers ran an action on the perimeter.

It was a very typical inside-out play.

But the Pelicans' defense was flawless. Just like on the previous possession, the Clippers' perimeter players never got a shooting opportunity.

Seeing that, Griffin could only keep forcing his way in. This time, Jokic's help defense came quickly in the low post.

There was too little room in the paint, and Griffin had no passing angle, so he chose to spin toward the baseline for a hook shot.

But his arms were short, and Jokic got a hand on the ball the moment it left his hand.

The ball's trajectory changed, and it bounced off the right side of the rim.

Aminu had initially wanted to grab the rebound himself, but when he saw Tang Tian getting back on defense, he turned to box out Jordan, while Jokic completely sealed off Griffin.

Tang Tian charged into the paint, reached out, and grabbed a Defensive Rebound.

Tang Tian froze for a moment when he got the board.

This felt strangely familiar!

The Christmas before last and last Christmas, after he had handed out presents, Whiteside and Ariza had collectively transformed into Card Forwards, boxing people out in every possible way to give him rebounds.

And now, history was repeating itself!

He finally understood why Jokic and Aminu had boxed out on the previous possession. They were helping him pad his stats!

He caught