On April 28, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued, and the Thunder, the first in the West, challenged the Pelicans away. In the first two games, the Thunder won all at home, leading 2-0, and they were hindered this time, but they quickly adjusted and began to take the initiative on the court, and in the second half the Pelicans were also unable to catch up, and the point difference was further widened. In the end, the Thunder defeated the Pelicans 106-85 on the road, and the series took a 3-0 lead.
In this game, the Pelicans have no way out, and only by winning can the suspense of the series be preserved, but unfortunately the feeling of coming up is not good, but fortunately, the point difference has not been stretched, and it is only 4 points behind in the first quarter. But in the second quarter, the Thunder regained their touch, and the Pelicans fell into complete passivity, trailing by 14 points at halftime. In the second half, the Pelicans fought back, but they couldn't continue to score points, and the point difference was further widened, falling behind by up to 24 points, and the game lost suspense early, and finally the Pelicans lost the game again.
In this way, the Thunder led 3-0, killing the suspense of the series in advance, and no team in the history of the NBA has been able to complete a big reversal of 3-0 behind, at most it only dragged the series into a tie-break. When the Thunder advanced to the playoffs as the first in the West, they thought they would be a soft persimmon, after all, the young players in the team lacked playoff experience, and they didn't expect to take a direct 3-0 lead, and the Black Eight would not appear.
The Pelicans returned home and didn't show a lot of momentum, and without Zion, they lost their variables. McCollum was sluggish this time, scoring just 16 points on 7-of-22 shooting and committing six turnovers. The Pelicans had a whopping 20 turnovers in the game, which was still deadly on the playoff stage, giving the Thunder too many opportunities to fight back. And Ingram couldn't step up, finishing with 19 points and four rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting.
The Thunder Big Three didn't feel very good this time, with a total of 51 points, of which Holmgren only scored 6 points on 2-of-8 shooting. Alexander had 24 points and 8 rebounds on 8-of-20 shooting, and Jalen Williams had the best touch, with 21 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists on 9-of-16 shooting. The Big Three are not in great shape, but they still have helpers around them, Keady played well this time, with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists on 8-of-13 shooting, and Dort's 12 points on 4-of-8 three-point shooting, which directly filled the void.