Josh Giddey has played a key role as his Oklahoma City Thunder continue to dominate their NBA Western Conference playoff series against New Orleans.
The Thunder took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Australian star Giddey contributing 21 points and eight rebounds – second only to superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 24 points.
Jalen Williams also scored 21 for OKC, who escaped Game 1 with a two-point victory before posting winning margins of 32 (Game 2) and 21 (Game 3).
Top-seeded Oklahoma City hit 17 of 36 (47.2 per cent) from 3-point range and held a lead of 10 points or more throughout the second half, going up by as many as 24 in the fourth quarter.
The eighth-seeded Pelicans, who’ve been without star forward Zion Williamson during the series because of a hamstring injury, will attempt to avoid elimination at home in Game 4 on Monday night.
Even if they do, the stats are not on their side: no team in NBA history have come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
Brandon Ingram scored 19 points and CJ McCollum had 16 for New Orleans, who struggled to hit from the perimeter and to take care of the ball.
The game was competitive until the Thunder went on a 14-0 run in the second quarter to take a 54-39 lead they never seriously looked like relinquishing.
While Giddey has grabbed most of the headlines back home after another strong season with the Thunder, fellow Australian Joe Ingles also enjoyed a playoffs win on Saturday night.
Ingles contributed two points during his five minutes of court time as his Orlando Magic beat Cleveland 112-89 to tie their Eastern Conference first-round series at 2-2.
Franz Wagner was the standout for Orlando, outscoring Cleveland by himself in the third quarter and turning a competitive game into another rout in this series.
Wagner had 34 points and 13 rebounds in total as the Magic held the Cavaliers scoreless for a second-half stretch of almost seven minutes.
After putting up 60 points in the first half, Cleveland were outscored 37-10 in the third quarter and managed only 29 points in the entire second half.
Wagner had 10 points in the first five minutes of the third quarter and finished with 12 in the period.
Game 4 of the series will be on Tuesday night in Cleveland, where the No.4-seeded Cavaliers won the first two by double digits before getting blown out twice in Florida.
“We’re not satisfied at all,” Wagner said.
“We just got two wins. We need two more against them so we’ve got to stay locked in and try to get the next one in Cleveland.”
Source Agencies
