After a rough trip to Oklahoma City, the New Orleans Pelicans returned to the Smoothie King Center looking to get a game back on the Thunder. However, another dominant game from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along with Josh Giddey paced OKC to another big win and a 3-0 lead.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Pelicans got the crowd going early with a deep pass from CJ McCollum to Trey Murphy III for a big alley-oop that put New Orleans up 4-0 early. However, the Thunder proceeded to outscore the Pels 14-7 over the next seven minutes to hold a 14-11 lead with 3:43 left in the opening quarter of Game 3. Murphy had five points to lead the Pels while Cason Wallace led OKC with five of his own.
At the end of the first quarter, Oklahoma City led 23-19 in a closely contested game, but the Thunder spaced it out early in the second to take a 29-21 lead before the Pels cut it to 31-26 with 9 minutes left in the first half.
After making it just a one-point game, OKC connected on three-pointers in three consecutive possessions to take a 49-39 lead and force Willie Green to reset his team. At the half, OKC led 60-46 behind 15 first-half points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
After three-quarters of play, Oklahoma City continued to dominate the second half like they’ve done much of the series, leading 85-69 at the end of the third after a buzzer-beater 3 from Brandon Ingram. SGA had 21 to lead OKC, but Lu Dort (12), Jalen Williams (14), and Josh Giddey (13) all played critical roles in pacing away from the Pelicans.
Things went from bad to worse in the fourth for New Orleans, scoring just seven points in the first six minutes of the quarter and falling behind 97-76 to the top seed in the West. The Pelicans and Thunder put in all of their reserves in the final three minutes as OKC took a 3-0 lead in the series with a 106-85 win over the Pelicans.
BIG NUMBER: 20
New Orleans committed 20 turnovers in the Saturday afternoon contest, leading to 24 points scored by the Thunder.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SGA played like the league MVP on Saturday, scoring 24 points with 8 assists, five rebounds, and four steals. His shooting line wasn’t great at 8-20, but 7-9 from the free throw line mixed with the other stats made him the best player on the floor.
UP NEXT: Pelicans will look to chip away at the massive 3-0 lead the OKC Thunder have with Game 4 on Monday night. Tip off in the Smoothie King Center is TBD.