Bumping off Herb Jones, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander launched a baseline fadeaway one-legged jumper.
The ball gently landed through the basket in what is arguably Gilgeous-Alexander’s biggest made shot of his young career.
After enjoying the best season of his career and establishing himself as a superstar, Gilgeous-Alexander added the first of many superstar moments in the postseason with the go-head bucket.
“We’ve been battle tested. We’ve played in a lot of close games all year, for the past couple of years,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the win. “Even when the season wasn’t going our way, we played in a lot of close games and we have good habits and we know what gets it done down the stretch.”
The shot gave the Oklahoma City Thunder the one-point lead with 28 seconds to go. By the end of the night, it served as the dagger in their 123-118 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
“All season, I’ve been impressed with the team’s confidence,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Even coming into the season, before we even played together, there’s a swagger and confidence inside the group. … They feed off of each other, they encourage each other, there’s no judgment inside the team. They build each other up.”
The Thunder advance in the play-in tournament. They play the Minnesota Timberwolves for the eighth seed on Friday. The winner will earn a playoff berth and face the top-seeded Denver Nuggets in a first-round series.
With the Thunder trailing, 63-57, at halftime, offensive fireworks followed in the third quarter. The Thunder outscored the Pelicans, 39-24, to create a nine-point lead entering the final frame. Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 17 points to spearhead OKC’s season-saving third quarter.
The Pelicans retook the lead at multiple junctures in the fourth quarter; their last advantage occurring at the 1:21 mark. A Brandon Ingram jumper gave the Pelicans the two-point lead, but OKC finished on an 11-4 run in the final 59 seconds to come away with the upset win.
Although, the final minute was still extremely stressful to watch than what the 11-4 run would suggest.
With 18.1 seconds remaining, Ingram had a shot to take the lead facing a one-point deficit. After getting the ball in the post, Ingram managed to shoot a turnaround fadeaway jumper that was contested by Dort that clanked off the rim.
Both Ingram and Dort matched up again on a critical possession 14 game seconds later, where the former made a prayer long 3 that he thought should’ve been a potential 4-point play on a foul by the latter that could’ve tied the game late.
Instead, the referees let the final seconds play out without their interference on a judgment call. It’ll be an interesting L2M report for sure.
The trio of Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Lu Dort were absolutely phenomenal in OKC’s first do-or-die game since 2020. The trio scored 90 points on 30-of-58 (51.7%) shooting.
“With teams throwing double teams at Shai, other guys are going to have to step up and make plays,” Giddey said. “I was trying to do that tonight. I thought Lu did a great job, Dub did a great job. We had a lot of guys contribute in a big way tonight.”
Meanwhile, the Pelicans were led by Ingram, who finished with 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, seven assists and six rebounds. Herb Jones also had 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting, five assists and five rebounds. Trey Murphy III added 21 points on 6-of-16 shooting.
C.J. McCollum had 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting. After a dominant first half, Jonas Valanciunas was quiet in the second as he finished with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 18 rebounds.
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.