80+15+13!Thunder three less, the first time in history!

Basketball Big History Ball

2024-04-26 14:19Published in Fujian

In the first round of G2, the Thunder defeated the Pelicans 124-92 at home, leading 2-0.

Previously, G1, the Pelicans and Thunder without Zion grinded to the last moment, and at that time, it was thought that this Pelicans might be able to cause trouble for the Thunder, but as a result, in this second game, the Thunder showed the strength of the first place in the West and completely beat the Pelicans.

At the end of the first quarter, the Thunder had a 13-point lead, and then they didn't fall behind all the way, until 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the difference had reached 29 points, and then the Pelicans surrendered and the main team was all down.

In this victory, Alexander deserved to be the best, he played a total of 35 minutes, shooting 13-of-19, 3-of-5 three-pointers, 4-of-4 free throws, scoring 33 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, plus or minus +24.

Alexander's strength lies in the fact that he is really too consistent, from the three-point line to the mid-range to the basket, there are no dead corners in the half, and he can always step up when it matters most.

For example, in the second quarter, the Thunder was limited by joint defense, and the score difference was close to single digits, and it was Alexander who scored consecutive points with his personal ability to help the Thunder stabilize the situation.

This was also reflected in the previous G1, when the Thunder trailed 88-90 with one and a half minutes left in the game, and then Alexander stepped up and first singled out Herbert Jones, one of the league's best defenders, and made a pull-up mid-range tie;

Then in the next offensive round, against McCollum's defense, he accelerated past Jones and made a strong shot, scoring and causing a foul, helping the Thunder lead by 3 points.

Back in G2, Chet Holmgren's performance was equally impressive.

Chet hit three consecutive three-pointers in the opening game, scoring 15 points in the first quarter to help the Thunder lay the foundation for victory;

He played a total of 29 minutes, shooting 9-of-13 from the field, 3-of-6 from three-point range, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line, scoring 26 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.

In addition to playing efficiently on the offensive end, Chet also contributed to the defensive end, and under his interference, the Pelicans players made a total of 8 of 21 shots, including 1 of 9 from 6 feet away.

Note this statistic, Chet's plus/minus is +32, which is just the difference in points in this game, that is, in the 19 minutes he was not on the court, the Thunder and Pelicans were still evenly matched.

It needs to be reminded that Chet is still just a rookie, and at this time last year, people were still thinking that he was "too thin and brittle", but this season, Chet immediately used his strength to tell the league that he was really not afraid of confrontation, and there was something on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends - if it weren't for Wembanyama, Chet would be the best rookie this year.

And, before the start of this series, there were fans who believed that Wallan might run over Chet, and judging from the results, Wallan did play well, averaging 16.0 points and 13.5 rebounds in both games, shooting a total of 13 of 23;

However, when Chet was in charge, Wallan scored just 18 points on 17-of-17 shooting and had four turnovers, which was not bad, and the Pelicans' other two cores, McCollum and Ingram, scored just eight points on 4-of-12 shooting against Chet.

I have to mention, there is also Jalen Williams.

In this G2 game, Jay Wei played a total of 35 minutes, shooting 10 of 17, 1 of 3 three-pointers, and got 21 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, of which in the second half, he scored 15 points, and his plus/minus was as explosive as Chet, reaching +30.

While lamenting Chet's maturity in his rookie year, don't forget that Jay is only in the second year now.

It is worth mentioning that between G1 and G2, the most improved player of the season was revealed, and Maxi was elected.

Maxey deserves his name, but Jay has also improved a lot this year, averaging just 14.1 points per game last season and improving to 19.1 points this season.

And Jayway's efficiency is as insane as Alexander's, shooting 54.0 percent from the field, 42.7 percent from three-point range, and 62.1 percent from the field while averaging just 3.1 free throws per game.

The success of the Thunder this season is inseparable from the amazement of Giddey, Dort, Isaiah Joe, Carson Wallace and others, and the coaching of Dagneault, but the most important thing is definitely the above three.

In this game, the three combined for 80 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists, while the Pelicans scored only 92 points as a team, and none of them scored 20 points, including Ingram (18 points).

There are two more stats that are very exciting:

1. Alexander, Chet, and Jewer all scored 20+ in this game, and the plus and minus values were all above +20, the youngest trio in history;

2. In this game, all the Thunder's scores were won by players aged 25 or younger, setting a record in the history of the NBA playoffs.

Finally, back to Alexandria.

After the game, Alexander was interviewed, and the Thunder players, as before, surrounded Alexander to "steal the show", and then Chet Holmgren took the microphone and said:

"I have one more thing to say, he (Alexander) is too humble to say, but he's the MVP, the league MVP. I spoke it for him, because he wouldn't say that. ”

As Chet said this, Alexander bowed his head in embarrassment.

Alexander has been on the MVP agenda this year, and although he may still lose to Jokic in the end, he has been very humble throughout the season, and he has the impression that he has only said it once, and he said: "I think I deserve to be an MVP too." ”

A good leader, a group of young people, grew up together, it only took one season to take the team from 10th in the West to 1st in the West, and now, they are competing for the championship together, it's good to be young.

Oh yes, and a good group of fans with whom they can learn to bark – hopefully this time, it's a story that ends on a good note.

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