The Pelicans Five Tigers slashed 65+35, the first in the West advanced to the second round, Alexander was 8 of 21, and Zion saw the reality clearly!
Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
On April 30, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs ushered in the first round of G4 battles in the West, and the Oklahoma City Thunder went to New Orleans to challenge the Pelicans away. At present, the two sides have an absolute advantage with a big score of 3-0 Thunder, and the first G1 Thunder team narrowly defeated the Pelicans by 2 points, giving the outside world a lot of illusions, as a result, G2 and G3 have two consecutive games, and the Thunder team has defeated the Pelicans one after another with the real thunder momentum, directly breaking many doubts from the outside world and showing the absolute dominance of the biggest dark horse in the West. Before the game, the American media ESPN gave a prediction of the winning rate: the Pelicans only had a 39.2% win rate, while the Thunder had a 60.8% win rate.
In fact, the strength shown by the Thunder this season is definitely beyond many people's expectations. During the regular season, Alexander rose strongly with the first record in the West, and was ranked in the top three MVP lists for 12 consecutive weeks, although the average age of the players on the team is only 23.9 years old, the youngest No. 1 seed team in NBA history, but the team is full of talent and balanced offense and defense. In contrast, although the Pelicans are also a youth army, after the lack of Zion's strong point, the team feels a bit leaderless. For the Pelicans, this game is not only a battle of life and death, but also a battle of face.
In terms of injuries, Zion is still absent on the Pelicans' side, with the starting lineup of McCollum, Jones, Ingram, Murphy, Valanciunas, and the Thunder team is fully staffed, with the starting five of Alexander, Giddey, Dort, Jalen Williams, and Holmgren.
At the beginning of the first quarter, the Pelicans took the lead, Ingram made a strong foul, hit one of two free throws, Dort's three-pointer responded, Alexander and Dort worked together to block Ingram, and then counterattacked the fast-break Alexander to make it 2+1. With the advantage of his size, Da Varan continued to hit Chet in the low post and hit a hook shot. McCollum was whistled for an offensive foul on a breakaway overrun by Jalen Williams, and the referee looked back for a long time before declaring the Pelicans challenge unsuccessful. Then the two sides entered a tiebreaker, and both sides did not score for three consecutive minutes, and the first quarter was played, and the two sides fought to a 21-21 draw.
In the first quarter, the Thunder made 3 of 11 three-pointers, shooting 27 percent, and the Pelicans made 2 of 12 three-pointers, shooting less than 16.7 percent. Coming back in the second quarter, Holmgren made a layup high, and Jalen also hit a step-back jumper, but after Alexander's three-point shot, he stepped on his bench teammate and accidentally kicked his foot when he landed, and he has returned to the locker room for treatment. Fortunately, after a short period of treatment, he has returned to the bench and is back on the game. Unaffected, he scored a layup past Marshall, and then made a turnover jumper that caused Marshall to foul, and at halftime, the Thunder led by one point at 44-43.
In the first half, both teams didn't feel good, the Pelicans made 3 of 19 three-pointers in the half, shooting 15%, and the Thunder made 4 of 19 and shot 21%. In the first half of the game, Alexander was 3 of 10 in the half, with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, Len Williams contributed 13 points and 5 rebounds, and Ingram only got 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist on 1 of 7.
Yibian fought again, CJ was suspected of being injured and gave up the offense and walked to the bench, and the Thunder counterattacked. Alexander scored two points again, M, McCollum checked, fortunately there was no big problem, after returning to the game, it was a three-pointer, Da Valan scored 6 points in a row, Holmgren and Dort could also respond, the difference between the two sides in this quarter has been deadlocked, Ingram made two free throws after making a foul, and after the third quarter, the Pelicans led the Thunder by 1 point into the final quarter, it is worth mentioning that the two sides tied a total of 17 times in the first three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Varland turned over and made a jumper to help the Pelicans lead by 5 points, and Giddey hit a three-pointer to tie the game. Jalen Williams hit another long-range three-pointer against the defense, and the Thunder led by a game-high six points, and then, the three-pointer at the buzzer was able to hit a solid shot, and the Thunder went on a 16-4 offensive surge to lead to 11 points. Ingram faced Dort's mid-range shots in the face of Dort's defense, Alexander made a quick stop and turned over and scored a back-to-back jumper, with 1 minute left, the Thunder led 10, basically closing the coffin, CJ McCollum missed three points, the game was no longer suspenseful, and in the end, the Thunder swept the Pelicans 4-0 and advanced to the second round, and the Pelicans became the second team to be swept this season. Zion really should see the reality clearly, Ingram is not the qualified second leader at all!
In terms of statistics, on the Thunder's side, Alexander blasted 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, Jalen Williams 24 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, Holmgren 14 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, Josh Keady 14 points and 3 rebounds, and Dort 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. On the Pelicans' side, Murphy III scored 21 points and 4 rebounds, CJ McCollum had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, Ingram was sluggish, only 8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, Valanciunas had 19 points and 13 rebounds, Jones had 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and the Pelicans started the Tigers combined for 65 points and 35 rebounds.