Your Defense Is as Soft as a Woman's

Tang Tian turned to look at Stevens, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

The familiar tactics truly gave him the feeling that Popovich's shadow was overlapping with Stevens's.

It saved him quite a bit of effort.

Over the next few minutes, the Rockets completely lost their shooting touch, while the Pelicans built up a lead, forcing D'Antoni to call a timeout.

With the Pelicans' powerful Defensive System in place, it was difficult for the Rockets to get their Defensive Counterattack going, greatly weakening their Moreyball style.

That was also why Stevens could contain the Rockets' offense with nothing more than a 2-1-2 zone defense.

By shutting down your Defensive Counterattack and then choking off your Set offense, Stevens held the upper hand in his battle of wits with D'Antoni.

After the timeout, both sides sent their starters back onto the court.

At that point, the Rockets made a tactical adjustment on the offensive end.

They were still playing Moreyball, but the point of attack shifted from Paul and Harden on the perimeter to Cousins in the paint.

Cousins backed Jokic down with the ball, muscled his way to the basket, then scored on consecutive spinning Bank Shot Scores.

Though he had never made the Playoffs with the Kings, the pre-injury Cousins had unquestionably been one of the league's top three centers, perhaps even the best.

Jokic had completed his muscle gain over the summer, but his ceiling in terms of physicality was still far below Cousins's.

He could not stop him, but on the way back, Jokic displayed his talent on the offensive end, firing a Lightning Pass from outside the three-point line for Davis to catch and drive in for a dunk.

On the next possession, Paul brought the ball upcourt and continued feeding Cousins.