"God, this is the most exciting game of the year!"
Even the usually composed Kenny Smith could not help exclaiming from the commentary booth.
The two teams were going at each other for real on the court. The watchability was incredible!
"Yes, there will be more and more games like this, and the NBA will only get better."
O'Neal sighed from beside him as well.
As the greatest center of the early 2000s, the physicality on the court now gave him that primal urge to watch basketball again, rather than making exaggerated expressions alongside Barkley like before.
Around the ten-minute mark of the first quarter, both teams gradually went into their rotations.
The score was 26-16 then, with the Pelicans holding a 10-point lead.
Both teams had delivered extremely high-quality offense and defense, but under intense physicality, the Warriors' Offensive Efficiency was noticeably lower.
That was only natural. The Splash Brothers and the Warriors themselves were products of the small-ball era.
With the referee's whistle changing and the physicality increasing, the game relied more heavily on stars' individual offensive prowess, and the Warriors were slightly inferior in that regard.
And once the tide receded, Tang Tian's personal scoring ability was fully revealed.
Even under intense double-team defense, he had scored 12 points in the quarter, a Game High.
The Warriors had fallen behind by 10 points before the quarter was even over, putting them in a very unfavorable position.
The only good news was that Durant had also scored 8 points in the quarter. He had not shrunk back as he had in the Olympics; instead, he had put the team on his shoulders.
The game entered the rotation phase, with both teams using eight-man rotations.
For the Pelicans, Holiday and Davis remained on the court, while Brogdon, Bojan, and