At 10:00 a.m. Beijing time on April 25, the NBA playoff matchup is in full swing, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are sitting at home to face the New Orleans Pelicans. The G2 battle between the two sides is on the verge of breaking out, and in the first G1 game, the Thunder only narrowly beat the Pelicans by two points at home, and did not show their dominance of the first place in the West in the regular season. After all, the Thunder team as a whole is still too young, with an average age of only 23 years old, and the players are basically playing in the playoffs for the first time and lack some experience. They are also considered to be the most likely team to be eliminated by the Black Eight, although the Thunder have been excellent in all aspects of the regular season, ranking first in the league in 8.5 steals per game, 6.6 blocks per game, and first in the league in 38.9% three-point shooting percentage.
On the other side, the Pelicans, although they are also a dark horse, are not considered the top in the league in terms of book strength, but the Pelicans are more experienced after all, and they have some players who are at their peak and have more experience, like core players McCollum and Ingram have many playoff experiences. It's just that for the Pelicans, it's a pity that Zion was injured in the play-offs, and it is not known when he will be able to return to the game. Talking about his injury, Zion also said: "This hamstring injury is not as serious as last year. But the timing of the injury was mixed and it was very frustrating for me at first, but I'm actively recovering and a return in the playoffs is possible. But I had to test it to get back to normal and then get better from there. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Pelicans sent CJ McCollum, Jones, Murphy, Ingram, and Valanciunas, and the Thunder sent Giddey, Alexander, Dort, Jalen Williams and Chet. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, the Pelicans jumped the ball and won the first attack, Valanciunas hit a single with his back, and the man and ball were combined to make an ingenious layup easily, scoring the first goal of the game, Valan Dragonfly scored another goal, Chet chased three points at the top of the arc and opened for the Thunder, Jay Wei jumped to the low post and threw smartly, the large hook in the Wallan penalty area immediately responded to a shot, Dort took a bow and shot an arrow outside the three-point line at the bottom corner and pierced Yang in 100 steps, Giddey flew through the wipe board and scored, Jones's 45-degree angle three-point shot blossomed directly.
In the first half of the first quarter of the game, the score gap between the two teams was still very close, and soon, the home game Thunder took the lead in breaking the deadlock. Rookie Chet exploded, shot inside and outside, and scored 15 points and 2 rebounds on 5-of-5 shooting in a single quarter, leading the Thunder team to open the score in an instant, and the first quarter ended with the Thunder leading the Pelicans by 13 points 35-22. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Chet continued to hit a mid-range dry pull-out jumper to help the Thunder take the next city, McCollum faked a point to fly defense, and the three-point shot was decisive and pierced through the heart, Dort's ultra-long three-point shot was immediately colored, McCollum smartly drilled through the defensive bottom line to break through the layup, wiped the board and also succeeded, Chet continued to exert his strength, and the air cut basket was a one-handed splitting and dunking skill, and Wiggins also had a strong layup under the basket.
The Thunder were unstoppable and continued to extend their lead to over 20 points. The Pelicans launched a wave of counterattacks at the end of the quarter, relying on Valanciunas' back-to-back strong shots and Ingram's mid-range to narrow the gap back to within 15 points. At halftime, the Thunder led the Pelicans by 13 points at 63-50. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Ingram's iconic turnaround jumper two-point pocket, opening the third quarter of the game, Alexander flew to break through the layup in response, Jay Wei faced the defense and hit the layup, Alexander pressed the whistle and rushed into a difficult mid-distance, Ingram flew through the layup to make damage, stood on the free throw line and made two free throws, Chet vacant inside, received the ball and slammed the dunk ignited the whole court, they all thought that Chet's small body could not play the playoffs, but he didn't expect his confrontation to be a loss.
At the same time, Alexander began to explode in the third quarter, blossoming in the middle distance, and the darts must be hit, scoring 12 points in a single quarter, and the Thunder also firmly dominated the situation. At the end of the third quarter, the Thunder led the Pelicans by 18 points at 92-74. In the final quarter of the battle, the Pelicans completely collapsed, the point difference was stretched to more than 30 points, the Thunder did not give face at all, and the outcome of the game lost suspense early, and in the end, the Thunder defeated the Pelicans 124-92 by 32 points, leading 2-0.
In terms of statistics, on the Pelicans' side, CJ McCollum had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, Brandon Ingram 18 points and 4 rebounds, Jonas Valanciunas 19 points and 7 rebounds, Trey Murphy 8 points and 5 rebounds, Naji Marshall 10 points, and Herbert Jones 18 points. On the Thunder's side, Shay Gilgeous-Alexander had 33 points, 5 assists and 2 steals, Jalen Williams had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, Chet Holmgren had 26 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, Josh Giddey had 13 points and 6 rebounds, and Lugunz Dort had 15 points. It is worth mentioning that Chet became the first rookie in Thunder history to play 25+5 in a single playoff game.