2024 NBA Playoffs - West 1st Round: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #8 New Orleans Pelicans (OKC SWEEPS 4-0)

[Mrakar]

That was probably our best chance to do something in this series.
Again awful offensive preformance in the clutch. CJ/Ingram/Willie the clutch big three.

Team fought their asses off, but it circles back to same old problems.

Btw can someone sane explane me why Jonas didnt play a single minute in last 6 minutes and then played that last possession even though Wille "draw" a "play" for CJ, not a play but said him to go ISO...

[Patches Perry]

Read on Twitter

Really good defense by Chet here. Show out on the screen to make McColum dish it, recognize Shai is stepping over to stop the roller, and Chet "helping the helper" by getting back to Shai's man who was cutting. Then once Nance stepped through, blocked his shot at about 11-12 ft.

If only he could effectively block out Jonas

[socal74]

Willie Green lost them the game not calling timeout in that crucial possession that ended in a Chet block and then Sga scored

For some reason Nba coaches think theyre coaching the 2014 Spurs and trust their team to execute in high stakes situations instead of drawing up a play. I swear its ALWAYS a brick or turnover. Just call a **** timeout dumbass

It wasnt even a transition possession they were inbounding the ball and defense was set, no timeout horrible offense that nearly turned over then a desperate Nance floated that got swatted by Chet. Game basically over

Nance is such a bonehead. He also had that one rebound and then passes it to Trey Murphy who was partially out of bounds instead of holding onto the ball

[socal74]

There was an offensive foul called on BI that looked pretty sus with only a few mins left, but I was watching on TNT OT, so no replay. Was it actually legit?

Looked like a flop but I was kinda rooting for the Pels.

Should have been a no call

[evilution]

Read on Twitter

Really good defense by Chet here. Show out on the screen to make McColum dish it, recognize Shai is stepping over to stop the roller, and Chet "helping the helper" by getting back to Shai's man who was cutting. Then once Nance stepped through, blocked his shot at about 11-12 ft.

If only he could effectively block out Jonas

Willie Green is doing that job effectively enough

[Mamba Mentality]

KD please go to OKC in a couple years

Thunder would slam the door in his face just as a matter of principle. They don’t need help from mr fair weather.

[Jta444]

Lol Thunder weakest 1st seed i can remember. Lakers Nuggets Suns Wolves Clippers easily sweeps this team

Mavericks that lost to 8th seed golden state was the weakest 1st seed. Most people felt that there would be an upset.

That Golden State team was much better than this Pelican team without Zion. And Dirk > Shai wtf

[Diop]

That was probably our best chance to do something in this series.
Again awful offensive preformance in the clutch. CJ/Ingram/Willie the clutch big three.

Team fought their asses off, but it circles back to same old problems.

Btw can someone sane explane me why Jonas didnt play a single minute in last 6 minutes and then played that last possession even though Wille "draw" a "play" for CJ, not a play but said him to go ISO...

when Pelicans played team ball and moved it around for a good % shot, they looked good.

As soon as BI or CJ tried to go solo it looked terrible.

[WentzerWuver]

Lol Thunder weakest 1st seed i can remember. Lakers Nuggets Suns Wolves Clippers easily sweeps this team

the lakers are the only team that won the season series against the thunder this year lol

Nuggets 1-3
Suns 1-3(no SGA in their win)
Mavs 1-3
Wolves 2-2
Clippers 1-2

No chance anyone but maaaaybe denver sweeps them.

That's why my playoff predictions was based on losing to NO (even purposely if necessary) then beat the next play-in team to face OKC otherwise they lose to Denver in a likely swept once again. I guess LAL want to lose embarrassingly in the first round Lol

[UcanUwill]

Weakest West 1st seed i can remember… how tf are they the 1st seed and in the west too???

How are they weak? They won their division over a 57 win and a 56 win team.

They are definitely not weak, tho possibly not as strong as their record. They are deep and young and healthy, and that is advantage in marathon that is regular season. In playoffs, old dogs are no longer on leashes and the game somewhat changes. It will definitely get tough for OKC.

P.S. Warms my heart seeing realgm praises for my man Jonas.

[UcanUwill]

This entire OKC playoff run is going to be about them not having any size.

Lots of takes of who OKC should have targeted, from Bill Simmons to all of us. I will chip in - Jakob Poeltl. That guy should be a Thunder right now, imo that was the fit.

[jkvonny]

Lol Thunder weakest 1st seed i can remember. Lakers Nuggets Suns Wolves Clippers easily sweeps this team

Mavericks that lost to 8th seed golden state was the weakest 1st seed. Most people felt that there would be an upset.

That Golden State team was much better than this Pelican team without Zion. And Dirk > Shai wtf

That GSW team came out of nowhere and barely made the playoffs (42-40) after sucking for over a decade. Did miss the playoffs the following season with a better record. But after those 2 seasons, then they went back to sucking for another 5 seasons before players like Steph, Klay developed (mid 2010s).

[donkki]

I had a feeling the Pelicans might be able to upset the Thunder in this series, and that feeling is still there after game 1. The Thunder as a #1 seed just seems vulnerable with their young roster.

[CobraCommander]

KD please go to OKC in a couple years

Thunder would slam the door in his face just as a matter of principle. They don’t need help from mr fair weather.

As they should -

They don’t need an old curmudgeon around that only cares about hooping but doesn’t care about culture or the city or the fans.

Sga is the leader they need -

[kaansunman]

That was probably our best chance to do something in this series.
Again awful offensive preformance in the clutch. CJ/Ingram/Willie the clutch big three.

Team fought their asses off, but it circles back to same old problems.

Btw can someone sane explane me why Jonas didnt play a single minute in last 6 minutes and then played that last possession even though Wille "draw" a "play" for CJ, not a play but said him to go ISO...

He prefered Nance's athleticsm and switchability but at least he could have take a timeout when its a tie 90-90. Ball was alreay out of bounds at the half court. Last possesions at offense were terrible, you have 2 TOs left, take one cool the team, bring Jonas, draw something...
I am a big believer of Ingram but the number of these kind of games (poor clutch) increasing along with his career unfortunately.
Jose is way too small for this OKC team this means, playing even less with a real point guard.

[BuddyBuckets]

Honestly I think this isn't the Pels' best chance to win a game this series. They played poorly, their best scorers were horrid. Will be overtime hours for the film guys and coaches but I'm sure they can tweak a few things. Wouldn't be surprised if the Pels stole the next one and go 1 and 1 at home.

[evilution]

Lol Thunder weakest 1st seed i can remember. Lakers Nuggets Suns Wolves Clippers easily sweeps this team

the lakers are the only team that won the season series against the thunder this year lol

Nuggets 1-3
Suns 1-3(no SGA in their win)
Mavs 1-3
Wolves 2-2
Clippers 1-2

No chance anyone but maaaaybe denver sweeps them.

That's why my playoff predictions was based on losing to NO (even purposely if necessary) then beat the next play-in team to face OKC otherwise they lose to Denver in a likely swept once again. I guess LAL want to lose embarrassingly in the first round Lol

LAL was 0-4 against Kings during the season - had they lost to NO, LeBron and AD would probably be in Cancun already.

[Wallace_Wallace]

Damn, we are getting to a point where we'll never know what the Pelicans can accomplish with Zion. A couple years back, they took the #1 seed (Phoenix Suns) to a hard fought 6 games series without Zion and now they may be stuck in the same step.

I would give it one more season and if Zion were to break down again, I may look to move him (also try to unload CJ's contract) to see if I can push the team's ceiling.

[lethalizer]

Rough game for our young guys, can't say I didn't see this one coming, but that stretch in the 4th quarter was definitely surprising.

Both teams have stuff to improve upon, I don't think the Thunder will have that kind of a stretch again and I expect the Pels to hit more of their corner threes.

We need to put JV more in action on defense, if we can't force the Pels to go small it gives a massive advantage to New Orleans the rest of the series.

It surely does help that we have the best player on the floor in clutch time though.

Can't complain too much about a win I guess, a playoff win is a playoff win. We'll see how both teams adjust come Wednesday.

[WentzerWuver]

the lakers are the only team that won the season series against the thunder this year lol

Nuggets 1-3
Suns 1-3(no SGA in their win)
Mavs 1-3
Wolves 2-2
Clippers 1-2

No chance anyone but maaaaybe denver sweeps them.

That's why my playoff predictions was based on losing to NO (even purposely if necessary) then beat the next play-in team to face OKC otherwise they lose to Denver in a likely swept once again. I guess LAL want to lose embarrassingly in the first round Lol

LAL was 0-4 against Kings during the season - had they lost to NO, LeBron and AD would probably be in Cancun already.

They lost to Sactown more often than that which is nothing more than a mental thing of playing badly against them for whatever reason than a match up problem with the Nuggets regardless of their play. To put it bluntly, the Lakers can only win if Denver plays badly against them. If both Lakers and Kings plays to their potential, Kings would lose every time.

Once the game matters like in elimination games, Lakers would realized the urgency and destroy them by double digits, and the Kings knows it. Sorry but only those who can grasp fundamental match up between two teams would understand.