After a brief warm-up, the scene quickly entered the opening ceremony.

The Rockets' starters were introduced first.

Paul, Harden, and Cousins all started the Big Three, with the remaining two being PJ Tucker and Luke Richard Bamott.

At the beginning of the season, the Rockets put Capela and Cousins in the Twin Towers, but it didn't work out well.

D'Antoni, in particular, is an attacking coach who can't stand the slow-paced attack.

After playing less than two games, he put Capela on the bench and began various trial lineups.

Brewer + David West, Brewer + Tucker, Tucker + West, Brewer + Bamot......

After various trials, he finally got the lineup he wanted.

Tucker was an instant 3-and-D player during his time with the Suns, and his strengths were further amplified by the increased exposure with the Rockets.

Although he is on the short side, he is especially good at confrontation, especially in the small-ball era, and the average No. 4 position can't hold him up in the low post.

And his corner three-pointers are also heavily underrated, and he can give Cousins plenty of offensive space inside in the corner.

Bamot was a complete defensive engineer before he came to the Rockets, and he played on a team that was basically a four-on-five scene.

The Rockets did the same with him at first, but D'Antoni experimented with the lineup, frantically encouraging three-point shots on the wing.

It was also in this process that Bamot showed a completely different outside shooting consistency from his previous career.

Everyone, even himself, realized that he could score.

In the end, he managed to squeeze Brewer into the starting lineup, and he and Tucker also supported most of the Rockets' defensive system.

After the introduction of the players, he was followed by the introduction of head coach D'Antoni.

When his name was read out, there was a boo.

D'Antoni had reached a tentative agreement with the Pelicans, but in the end he didn't choose the Pelicans and went to the Rockets.

The Rockets are offering a higher contract than the Pelicans, and it is understandable that people die for money.

But this kind of sudden departure after the negotiation is still unhappy for Pelican fans, although it will not go to social media to attack, but this home boo is inevitable.

The Pelicans have a regular lineup on their side, and when Stevens plays, there are now deafening cheers.

The comparison between the two coaches before and after, the fans are deliberately trying to embarrass D'Antoni.

Sure enough, D'Antoni's face is very unsightly, he is also a famous coach, and he must be unhappy when he is pressed by a young coach like Stevens.

The warm-up was over, and the starters of both teams came on one after another.

Davis jumped over Cousins to officially kick off the Christmas War.

Jokic went to the frontcourt to organize the ball, Tang Tian cut into the reverse run and was trapped, and the ball was given to Ariza in the bottom corner.

The ball was timely, but the Rockets defended quickly, Ariza flicked Tucker and broke inside, and the layup was interfered with by Cousins.

Cousins turned around and grabbed a defensive rebound, the Rockets counterattacked, and Paul made a long pass to Harden in the backcourt.

But the Pelicans retreated quickly, and Harden was chased and covered by Tang Tian for a layup.

The Pelicans played to the frontcourt, Tang Tiansan threatened to hit Bamot, and the emergency stop after the breakthrough hit.

Looking back, Harden took a step back and scored a three-point shot after receiving the ball in the positional battle.

The opening rounds became a microcosm of the first quarter of the game between the two teams.

The Pelicans' current offensive ability has been run-in to the point where Stevens wants, and they can play the average team more freely.

But this Rockets, because of the presence of Bouzdrick, is different from the Knicks and Lakers coached by D'Antoni in the past few seasons.

He's defensive, and he's a top-notch defender after the run-in of the lineup.

The reverse is also true, the Rockets' triumvirate has completed the run-in, and the offensive strength has increased significantly.

But against the Pelicans, who have basically run in completely on the defensive end, they also didn't play so well.

At the end of the first quarter, the two teams were tied at 27.

Such a situation is a lot of pressure for both teams, but the home fans are excited.

This kind of evenly matched high-level game, just like the previous Pelican battle, makes people want to stop.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Harden on the Rockets' side led the team on the court.

The Rockets traded Paul this season, but D'Antoni was ambitious and tried to get Harden to play the playhouse.

This is very much in line with his personal characteristics, he is good at training playmaking guards, and now he has two supergiant guards under his command, and he wants to be a point guard.

And it worked, so he could use Paul and Harden separately.

After Harden came up, he first passed West to score a layup, and then he threw his signature stepback 2+1 to lead the team to a wave of 5-0.

The Rockets had a poor bench last season, but now having Harden play this bench transition can not only level up Harden, but also greatly increase their bench strength.

Stevens called a timeout.

Coming back from a timeout, Bojan hit a crucial catch-and-shoot three-pointer through a tactical run that set the New Orleans arena on fire.

This summer, the Pelicans sent away Gordon, the team's sixth man, which also attracted reluctance and questions from fans.

But with Bojan's stellar performance with the Pelicans, it's starting to make them forget about Gordon.

This three-pointer helped the Pelicans narrow the gap to two points, and when they returned to the defensive end, the Pelicans had a tactical adjustment.

Stevens had studied the magic ball theory of rockets before, and he already had a set of coping methods in mind.

It's just that because this is the first time the two sides have met this season, he needs more on-the-spot observation to decide whether to use a response method.

He already knew how much time had passed in this section.

The Rockets have taken 20 shots so far, 14 from the three-point line, six from the restricted area, and not once from mid-range.

This includes positional battles and defensive counter-attacks, and shots in the mid-range area have been completely abandoned by them.

The Pelicans defended a 2-1-2 combination.

This is a defensive formation that is rarely used in joint defense, because it is basically equivalent to letting go of the air.

This joint defense, when the Spurs played the Pelicans last season, Popovich put it out, and in the end Tang Tian was forced to shoot and dare not use it again.

Now Stevens saw the weakness of the magic ball and used the same way.

Harden was heavily guarded from beyond the three-point line, West was also targeted under the basket, and the Rockets' offense was hampered.

However, as Stevens expected, they didn't go to the open mid-range area to shoot!

Terry's final catch-and-shoot three-pointer was jammed and deflected off the basket!

McGee's defensive positioning improved a lot, and the ball stuck Capela for a defensive rebound.

The Pelicans counterattacked, and Dinwiddie shook off Terry Sr. on a fast break and confidently flew to the basket to score.

The Pelicans tied the score!