Barking to finish a post-match interview. It is now known on the Thunder side. This night, Jalen Williams was joined by many of his teammates at the microphone to support the collective strength of this group. The young Thunder continues his fabulous journey after sweeping the Pelicans.
Despite the form of carelessness displayed by this team, we had to go and get it, this fourth round, on the floor of New Orleans. It’s no coincidence that Jalen Williams talks about the match “ the strongest » signed by the Thunder.
There was a little more than 8 minutes left to play when CJ McCollum went on the counterattack, thinking he could give the Pelicans three possessions. But this same Williams put himself in opposition, and OKC was able to go in the other direction. After several offensive rebounds, Chet Holmgren ended up converting under the circle. The Thunder giant's basket would start a fatal 18-2 for the visitors: from 75-80 to 93-82 five minutes later.
Josh Giddey punishes
“ The guys played with a lot of confidence and when we play on offense like we did in the fourth quarter, the shots go in a little more. When we had to, we really worked together, executed, got good shots. The guys were up to the task “, summarizes their coach Mark Daigneault.
Obtaining these good shots is closely linked to the defensive seriousness displayed by his team. The Thunder contested a number of shots and touched a number of balls to be able to go in transition. Like this ball stolen by Aaron Wiggins in front of Jose Alvarado which allowed Josh Giddey to score a 3-pointer in transition.
A decisive Australian who converted a second winning shot a few seconds later, his fourth of the evening. “ He's been defended in lots of different ways this year. So for him, being present at an important moment was huge. “, salutes Jalen Williams.
Targeted by opposing defenses this season, the Melbourne native had already planted four 3-point baskets during the previous meeting. “ There are rooms in which you feel good. This is probably one of them for me. I don't know what it is, but I have confidence in myself. The first two games of this series, the shots weren't falling, but having confidence in your work is the key… I was lucky in the last two games, the shots were falling, but it won't be not like this every night », Judges the one who completed his series with 50% success by far.
Youngest team to win
This night was only the third time in his career that he had two consecutive games with at least four winning baskets. He therefore played a driving role in this “run”, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rather followed the pace set by his teammates.
“ Every time the ball goes in, it's easy to gain confidence. On defense, when we started making stops, we forced them to take a lot of difficult shots. They weren't successful, we had our phases in transition, we got what we wanted […]. Once a player sees the ball go in a few times, he starts to gain confidence and it's contagious. », Estimates Josh Giddey.
The success of the latter has indeed inspired Jalen Williams, author of eight points in a row in the sequence in question, with two big 3-point baskets.
And that's how the Thunder finished off the Pelicans, becoming the youngest team in history (age weighted by playing time) to win a series. The youngest, with an average age of 23 years and 343 days ahead… the Thunder version 2011 (24 years and 149 days) with the trio Kevin Durant – Russell Westbrook – James Harden.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 75 | 34.0 | 53.5 | 35.3 | 87.4 | 0.9 | 4.7 | 5.5 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 30.1 |
| Jalen Williams | 71 | 31.3 | 54.0 | 42.7 | 81.4 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 19.1 |
| Chet Holmgren | 82 | 29.4 | 53.0 | 37.0 | 79.3 | 1.6 | 6.3 | 7.9 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 16.5 |
| Josh Giddey | 80 | 25.1 | 47.5 | 33.7 | 80.6 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 6.4 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 12.3 |
| Luguentz Dort | 79 | 28.4 | 43.8 | 39.4 | 82.6 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 10.9 |
| Isaiah Joe | 78 | 18.5 | 45.8 | 41.6 | 86.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 8.2 |
| Aaron Wiggins | 78 | 15.7 | 56.2 | 49.2 | 78.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.9 |
| Cason Wallace | 82 | 20.6 | 49.1 | 41.9 | 78.4 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 6.8 |
| Gordon Hayward | 26 | 17.2 | 45.3 | 51.7 | 69.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.3 |
| Kenrich Williams | 69 | 14.9 | 46.8 | 39.7 | 50.0 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.7 |
| Ousmane Dieng | 33 | 11.1 | 42.2 | 30.0 | 87.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 4.0 |
| Jaylin Williams | 69 | 13.0 | 41.7 | 36.8 | 80.5 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.0 |
| Tre Mann | 13 | 9.2 | 50.0 | 42.1 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.8 |
| Lindy Waters III | 38 | 7.4 | 47.1 | 43.5 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 3.6 |
| Vasilije Micic | 30 | 12.0 | 40.7 | 24.4 | 73.7 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.3 |
| Davis Bertans | 15 | 6.1 | 38.5 | 41.7 | 93.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 |
| Olivier Sarr | 15 | 6.5 | 57.9 | 33.3 | 66.7 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2.3 |
| Bismack Biyombo | 10 | 7.3 | 58.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.8 |
| Adam Flagler | 2 | 7.0 | 14.3 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Keyontae Johnson | 9 | 7.4 | 31.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Aleksej Pokusevski | 10 | 6.0 | 25.0 | 18.2 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| Mike Muscala | 16 | 5.7 | 36.4 | 9.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
