Three Takeaways from the OKC Thunder's Near Collapse in New Orleans
After leading by 20 points in the third quarter on Tuesday night against the Pelicans, Oklahoma City gave up the lead before eventually pulling out a win.
On Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder got out to a big lead over the New Orleans Pelicans early in the third quarter.
After scoring 73 points in the first half, OKC built its lead to 20 before CJ McCollum, Zion Williamson and the Pelicans came roaring back. In addition to New Orleans allowing just 23 points in the third and fourth quarters, McCollum began to knock down shots from the perimeter consistently, scoring 13 of his 23 points in the third period.
In the end, however, the Thunder outlasted New Orleans, holding the Pelicans to 22 points in the final frame to escape The Big Easy with a bounce-back win.
Here are three takeaways from Oklahoma City's Tuesday night victory.
Josh Giddey continues to find his rhythm
After a rough start to the season both on and off the court, third-year guard Josh Giddey has played much better over the past month. In his last eight games, the 6-foot-8 Australian is averaging 15.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 53% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc.
In OKC's win over the Pelicans on Tuesday, Giddey tallied 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists, going 10-of-14 from the field and 5-of-8 from 3-point range. In Sunday night's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the former All-Rookie honoree recorded 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists while turning the ball over just once and shooting 4-of-6 from deep.
While Giddey's stats have not quite returned to where they were during the first two years of his career, the talented playmaker will completely open up the Thunder's spacing and improve the team's offense if he can continue to make his 3-point attempts at a decent rate.
In addition to Giddey's passing ability, the 21-year-old's size and strength make him a solid rebounder next to Chet Holmgren.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is clearly dealing with an ailment
While Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has looked like an MVP-caliber player nearly all season, the Thunder's standout guard has not looked quite like himself over the past week weeks.
Despite averaging over 30 points per game and breaking the Thunder record for most 30-point performances in a season, Gilgeous-Alexander has scored less than 25 points in four of his last five outings.
In Oklahoma City's Sunday night contest against the Bucks, SGA scored just 12 points, his lowest output since late October.
On Tuesday night, the 2023 First-Team All-NBA selection notched 24 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals. While this is solid production, Gilgeous-Alexander has looked hobbled recently, airballing a handful of his patented mid-range shots against the Pelicans.
According to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, Gilgeous-Alexander has been dealing with a slight injury.
"He’s banged up, for sure," Daigneault said postgame. "He’s not one hundred percent. We’re monitoring it, but he’s certainly not a hundred percent."
In Gilgeous-Alexander's postgame press conference, he confirmed what Daigneault told reporters, adding that his ailment is a quad injury suffered against Utah on March, 20.
With Daigneault and Gilgeous-Alexander both admitting that the Thunder's primary star is nursing an injury, it would not be surprising to see the fifth-year player out of the lineup at least once in the coming weeks.
Oklahoma City played Jonas Valanciunas off the court
Averaging over 12 points and nine rebounds per game this year for New Orleans, Lithuanian big man Jonas Valanciunas has carved out a solid role with the Pelicans.
Yet, the 265-pound center played just 11 minutes against the Thunder before being benched in favor of Larry Nance Jr., who earned 33 minutes on Tuesday.
With Valanciunas' size and strength, he is the type of player that many skeptics assumed Holmgren would struggle against, considering the rookie big man is just over 200 pounds.
Yet, Holmgren ended up providing a bigger challenge for Valanciunas, as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft is significantly more agile than New Orleans' center. Valanciunas struggled to stay in front of Holmgren, who has much better foot speed.
Holmgren finished the game with 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks while shooting 7-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Against Nance, who is smaller but much more mobile than Valanciunas, Holmgren had a harder time getting good shots off as Nance was able to stick with Holmgren off the dribble.
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