How OKC Thunder aced psychology test with Game 2 rout of Pelicans in NBA playoffs

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How OKC Thunder aced psychology test with Game 2 rout of Pelicans in NBA playoffs

Joel Lorenzi, The Oklahoman · The Oklahoman

Thu, Apr 25, 2024 ·

7 min read

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Mark Daigneault 's Game 2 seminar began with psychology.

The 39-year-old Thunder coach spent days looking league wide at teams in situations like the OKC 's, winners of competitive Game 1s that lit an internal flame in the road teams forced to come back for more. He saw the trend of pesky squads with a resolve heightened by days of film and swallowing every mistake.

Daigneault needed to instill empathy. In war, to know an opponent is to understand how they think, how they'd move.

To know what it would take to stomp a deflated Pelicans squad in a 124-92 win in Wednesday's Game 2 , it would take the Thunder knowing how it felt after Sunday's two-point loss — improbable, though not impossible, for a band composed mostly of players who hadn't played in a playoff series yet.

"You kinda have to use your imagination a little bit," second-year forward Jalen Williams said. "Like, 'How would it feel if we lost the first game?' … Because we easily could have.

"How would we respond? I'm pretty sure they feel some type of way coming into this game. It's more of being humble enough to know that the game can go either way and then taking that and using that to our advantage."

More: Mussatto: How Chet Holmgren set tone vs. Jonas Valanciunas in OKC Thunder rout of Pelicans

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) takes the microphone beside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during a post game interview after Game 2 of the NBA basketball playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the New Orleans Pelicans at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Oklahoma City won 124-92.

The Thunder came face-to-face with fallibility Sunday. Almost unfathomably out of character, a wild CJ McCollum shot away from disappointment, victim of playoff shotmaking woes and part of a low-tallied final score that would make the late David Stern smile.

It knew the Pelicans felt competitive. That it evoked the idea that Sunday's close made them closer to peers than anything. The Thunder took that sense and crushed it. On Wednesday, OKC got back to its ways, clicking until it ran New Orleans off the court with what seemed like little sympathy. Only empathy.

And at some point, Brandon Ingram just shrugged, fearful of the whistle but drowned by it to the point of indifference.

Thunder guard Lu Dort , who'd been glued to Ingram for seven straight quarters by then, bounced off the elbow the Pelicans wing used — needed, really — to detach Dort from him. Dort fell, only this time was one of the few instances Ingram didn't trigger a whistle. It was merely PTSD.

Dort and others had triggered something in the win. They eliminated New Orleans' airspace, beat it to different spots almost to the point of annoyance. In those points, Ingram and others needed separation via elbows and physicality, things OKC braced itself for and dealt back.

By the end of the night, the Pelicans committed 17 turnovers to the Thunder's eight. Eight of them were offensive fouls like the one Ingram grew conditioned to expect.

The constant turning of heads toward whistles, the inability to navigate pick-and-rolls without Thunder defenders gaining advantage more often than not became visible defeat. Trey Murphy III finished arguing whistles. Willie Green no longer pleaded for Dort flop calls. Ingram shrugged.

More: Why it's a 'blessing' for New Orleans' Willie Green to coach against OKC's Mark Daigneault

Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) celebrates beside Pelicans guard Trey Murphy III (25) after a dunk during OKC's 124-92 win Wednesday night in Game 2 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs at Paycom Center.

The onslaught made the fourth quarter an avalanche. Unanswered run after run built an insurmountable deficit, even in a league of wild runs. The Thunder ran and ran, displaying back-breaking vigor against a group that'd already been beaten senseless. A Pelicans squad running out of options and seconds.

Ingram's attempts at running the show ran awry. Jonas Valanciunas ' early dominance flamed out. The Thunder outran and outgunned the Pelicans, armed like Rambo in a "Tom & Jerry" cameo. Different worlds, different weaponry.

Rookie Chet Holmgren seemingly tapped into a different mode, showing off world-class tough and perfect timing. He slipped out of screens, molding to every adjustment New Orleans placed in his lap. He finished through Ingram. He made Valanciunas pay for any distance he left him, shooting 9 for 13 and scoring 26 points.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander matched that. The two combined for 59 points on 32 shots, dissected a typically vicious Pelicans defense. Add in Jalen Williams , and OKC's Big Three combined for 80 points.

Williams was as fired up as anyone. Screaming from the bright Paycom Center hardwood after plucking McCollum, doing the same toward a crowd enamored with his powerful one-handed slam.

"I probably should stop, I be lightheaded," Williams said. "Sometimes I yell and I lay on the floor after just to kinda catch my breath. … Some people go their whole career and don't ever make (the postseason). I think just embracing that and having fun while I'm playing, regardless of what's going on in the game, I think is what drives me."

Energy like what Williams displayed came in bunches. It gave the Pelicans death by 1,000 drive-and-kicks. OKC shot 59% from the field and made 14 of its 29 3s. That energy turned 17 turnovers into 22 points. It blossomed into something too great to handle.

OKC felt every part of the beating and applied more pressure. For days, Daigneault and Co. wondered, "What if that was them?"

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Glass half full

After a Sunday night in which Valanciunas ruled the boards, talking heads rehashed their talking points. About whether OKC's trade of dominant size for uncommon fluidity would bode well.

The Thunder nearly watched its win slip away then, with a possession in the final minute that saw the Pelicans grab multiple offensive rebounds. Wednesday looked nothing like it, though.

OKC snagged 37 boards to New Orleans' 35. After being out-rebounded on the offensive glass by 10 on Sunday, it lost the count by just three on Wednesday.

Part of it was a difference in effort, a struck balance between first-shot defense (the Pelicans made just 7 of 26 3-point attempts) and well-distributed attention on the defensive glass.

Part of it was the aforementioned tradeoff swaying in OKC's favor. The Thunder's counters ran so deep, its fluidity so overwhelming, that Green opted for a lineup with Herb Jones at center in hopes of no longer being put in rotation.

Valanciunas only held up so well before being turned around. He played nearly seven fewer minutes than he did on Sunday, a worthy note considering how much his low-post touch mattered in the early going of Wednesday's game.

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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) celebrates after making a 3-pointer during Game 2 of the NBA basketball playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the New Orleans Pelicans at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

Dorture chamber

Sunday night turned out to only be a glimpse of Dort's defensive torture.

After limiting Brandon Ingram to 5-of-17 shooting three days earlier, Ingram took just 10 shots in Wednesday's game. Of his three turnovers, several were by way of Dort being in Ingram's bubble. Ingram could only use so many methods to free himself up.

Ingram didn't remain idle, though. Two of his most eye-popping buckets came with as much distance as he's had all series, a pair of pindowns he shot the gap on to become less predictable. On one, Ingram had to skip through the gap in order to avoid Dort's feisty navigation.

"I'm glad I don't have to play against him," Gilgeous-Alexander said of Dort. "How he hasn't made an All-NBA team defensively or anything like that, I don't know. I don't vote. But he has some of the best defense I've ever seen in my life."

And maybe some of the best Ingram has ever seen, too.

More: How OKC Thunder shirts became NBA playoffs tradition: 'So much more than a shirt'

OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans playoff series schedule

Game 1: Thunder 94, Pelicans 92
Game 2: Thunder 124, Pelicans 92
Game 3:At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27 (TNT) in New Orleans
Game 4:TBD Monday, April 29 in New Orleans
Game 5 (If necessary):TBD Wednesday, May 1 in OKC
Game 6 (If necessary):TBD Friday, May 3 in New Orleans
Game 7 (If necessary):TBD Sunday, May 5 in OKC

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder aced psychology test vs Pelicans in Game 2 of NBA playoffs

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