Evans and Davis quickly switched defense; their defense was excellent.
Zeng Xingyang faced Davis and had no chance to attack the rim, so he quickly passed the ball to Jokic in the center.
Jokic pretended to go for a floater mid-motion, but instead passed to Grant, who was cutting along the baseline.
Ryan Anderson was careless while defending the ball-less Grant, allowing Grant to easily break free.
Receiving the pass from Jokic, Grant took off on the spot, grasping the basketball with both hands for a powerful dunk.
"Great pass," Grant shouted excitedly.
When he was with the 76ers, it was difficult to receive such smooth passes. Often, his teammates tossed difficult passes or dumped the ball on him, unlike now, where the ball followed his movement seamlessly.
Jokic nodded; such passes were second nature to him.
Wang Meng shouted, "What a great play, Xingyang drew over the defense, Jokic made a quick pass to his teammate, this coordination is very comfortable."
The Pelicans’ offense.
Evans was getting impatient. After Holiday dribbled over, he asked for the ball again.
But Holiday hesitated and didn’t pass it to him.
Take on Zeng Xingyang?
Holiday passed the ball to Davis at the high post on the right side of the free-throw line.
Jokic’s defensive positioning remained clever; he didn’t pressure Davis, but raised his hands and stepped back.
Davis made a probing step; seeing Jokic not advancing, he hesitated a bit and passed the ball to Ryan Anderson in the corner. Grant maintained his position, and after Anderson dribbled twice, he passed the ball back to Davis.
Davis then continued to attack Jokic with the ball, Jokic raised his hands to interfere with Davis.
The two engaged in continuous physical confrontation, Davis failed to push through and his unbalanced layup missed.
The rebound was grabbed by Jokic.
Davis appealed for a foul to the referee, but was ignored.
Jokic dribbled past half-court and then passed to Zeng Xingyang.
Evans continued to come over to defend, hoping to quickly redeem himself.
But Zeng Xingyang played calmly, unlike Evans’ aggressive style; he passed the ball to Jokic inside.
Jokic, located at the low post, backed Davis up.
The absolute weight advantage allowed Jokic to easily crush down to the rim, Davis really couldn’t stop Jokic.
Jokic used his left hand to block and protect the ball, and easily laid it up with his right hand.
Davis tried hard to block the shot, but Jokic quickly grabbed the second rebound and calmly laid it up after a pivot.
The Nuggets successfully overtook the lead.
Pelicans fans were quite dumbfounded.
Why does Davis seem restrained by that heavyweight opponent over there?
That heavyweight seems to be just the 41st pick, but his performance is incredible.
Jokic moved step by step like a penguin, dragging his heavy body back on defense.
Then came the Pelicans’ offense.
Evans had another opportunity.
Holiday and Davis did a pick-and-roll, and afterward, Jokic didn’t switch, Holiday got slightly free from Nelson, and Pope came for help defense.
Holiday quickly passed the ball to the inner cutting Evans.
Evans stepped up and soared to lay the ball.
But, a black shadow swiftly dashed out.
Zeng Xingyang completed another block on Evans.
This block wasn’t as explosive as the previous one, but still made Evans very embarrassed.
This time, however, the blocked ball was caught by Davis, who scored inside on a second chance.
As long as Davis doesn’t go head-to-head with Jokic, scoring isn’t much of an issue.
The Nuggets resumed their offense.
Nelson dribbled to the front court, passing to Zeng Xingyang.
Zeng Xingyang continued to initiate the pick-and-roll with Jokic.
Now, the Pelicans’ defensive focus was mostly on their pick-and-roll.
Zeng Xingyang broke through on the right side and passed to Pope outside the three-point line.
Pope was left open at the 45-degree angle.
Pope felt incredibly comfortable with this shot, the opponent did not exert much defensive pressure at all.
After the Nuggets took back the lead, they started controlling the game.
Until five minutes remaining in the third quarter, the score reached 78 to 68, and the Nuggets were leading by 10 points.
Though Davis kept increasing his score, his efficiency wasn’t very high, and his disruptions to the Nuggets’ defense weren’t that substantial.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets’ perimeter defense remained solid, consistently pressuring Evans and Gordon, disrupting their offense.
Davis was somewhat fighting alone.
Zeng Xingyang wasn’t scoring much tonight, but he had already delivered 9 assists, seemingly headed for double digits.
For most of tonight, Zeng Xingyang played as the point guard, using his offensive abilities to create numerous opportunities for his teammates.
At 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
Zeng Xingyang passed the ball to Jokic, who wanted to continue feeding the ball to Pope outside.
But Evans anticipated this move.
Evans surged out and stole the ball, with Zeng Xingyang closely chasing behind.
Evans prepared for a tomahawk dunk.
Evans went diagonally on the fast break, while Zeng Xingyang took a straight path; he didn’t need to pivot, allowing him to follow up effectively.
Evans felt Zeng Xingyang’s pressure, he accelerated again trying to quickly send the ball into the basket.
But, he couldn’t evade.
Evans and Zeng Xingyang jumped almost simultaneously; Zeng Xingyang’s long arm directly overshadowed Evans, once more, fiercely pinning the ball against the backboard with a single hand.