How OKC Thunder stayed true to identity before, during and after Game 3 rout of Pelicans

NEW ORLEANS — Jalen Williams had a request — close to a demand with an innocent shrug — and TNT’s Allie LaForce, confused yet inquisitive, followed him to find an answer.

Perhaps for the first time in the history of 23-year-olds, the Oklahoma City Thunder forward turned away from the national TV camera that’d been pinned on him for … a different interview. A local one.

Moments removed from a convincing 106-85 Game 3 road win that essentially ripped what life remained in the Pelicans, Thunder team reporter Nick Gallo was interviewing Josh Giddey. Williams didn’t cramp up, his mother didn’t call him, his life wasn’t in danger. He just needed to be part of the moment. In expected fashion, Williams’ teammates tugged at him, ushering him to the bigger group, where eventually eight Thunder players joined the scrum.

LaForce inquired into a daze. The Thunder’s lead PR man apologized. The broadcast pivoted, similarly confused. The national audience likely had no idea what Williams got himself (and LaForce) into. But the Thunder has stayed true to its roots, retaining authenticity and an identity despite public perplexity.

Williams was merely sinking into what he knew. This is what the Thunder does. Saturday’s Game 3 was a fitting emphasis of that.

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When Williams, who finished with 21 points and nine boards, checked out just minutes into the first quarter with a blow to the eye, the Pelicans had a window to gain an early advantage. Both defenses rotated as well as they could. Creases were seldom. New Orleans guard Trey Murphy III hit a gutsy moving 3, then slammed down an NBA Jam looking alley-oop to rile up the crowd.

OKC never quite let New Orleans creep through, though. Rookie Cason Wallace, not exactly a spitting image of the imaginatively clumsy and mistake-prone rookie, is still closer to the Lu Dort mold than the Williams one. Still, he took Williams’ place.

The Thunder won those minutes, surviving by replacing Williams’ star shotmaking with Wallace’s peskiness. A couple steals, a pair of necessary buckets. The answer.

Thunderisms like “zero and zero” or “next-man-up mentality” sometimes sound like mere programming, coaching blurbs passed on like folk stories. But days like Saturday, they appear poetic.

Wallace staked his claim until Williams returned. And despite being up 2-0 with an increasingly convincing advantage over the Pelicans in a third game, glimpses of Wallace’s energy could be seen in everyone.

In multiple players stealing entry passes, forcing 20 New Orleans turnovers. In the frustrating tag-alongs from defenders like Lu Dort and Jalen Williams, charging through screens like running backs to meet their destination. CJ McCollum shot 7 for 22, and Ingram fought to shoot his most efficient (7 for 14) game of the series.

Herb Jones, often relegated to the corner, went 4 for 11. Murphy, who starred in Game 1, went just 4 for 12 and was brutalized at the rim by Chet Holmgren. Jonas Valanciunas didn’t play a minute of the second half. The Pelicans shot just 38.1% from the field.

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The level of activity, plus the myriad lineups that’ve seen and therefore developed the ability to execute Saturday’s defensive stance.

It’s the homegrown Thunder foundation, pouring into the players the organization has a vision for, that’s conditioned Dort for this stage.

“His matchup difficulty in the NBA has gotta be the highest,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “If not, top-five, top-10.”

The answers slip away when a team so capable defensively turns in the shotmaking it did Saturday. Watching Williams do his best Shai Gilgeous-Alexander impression, breaking spirits with off-balance jumpers. Dort drilling 3s, Giddey doing the same.

Williams knows no team has ever overcome a 3-0 series deficit. He still returned to monotony after the game.

“I sound like a robot, but just that zero and zero mindset that we have going on,” Williams said. “We’ll enjoy this for the next hour or two. After that it’s kind of back to work.”

A number of spectators have tried to box in OKC as a young team. For most of the series, and especially Saturday, it got one. One full of vibrancy and spring and verve. A team with room for mistakes but a level of competence that overrides them. The team with similarly accepted strengths and flaws since the beginning.

The Thunder brewed its 3-0 lead in the building. With its own grounds, its own monotonous themes. The national landscape is seemingly still wondering where the smell is coming from.

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Lu Dort’s shooting night

In a perfect New Orleans utopia, hints of silky saxophone and whiffs of etouffee in the air, the Pelicans would only have to be concerned with how Dort defends Brandon Ingram.

If only.

The fifth-year guard has brought the cage match to Ingram. He’s bumped and bruised and followed Ingram everywhere for three games. But Dort has also improved as a decision maker with his shot selection. On Saturday, the shotmaking fell into his lap.

A 3 above the break. One from the corner. One just because. Dort finished with 12 points, shooting 4 for 8 from deep, with two coming during a backbreaking second-quarter stretch that helped break the game open.

During the regular season, Dort made 39.4% of his 3s on five attempts per game. Through the three games it took to get a 3-0 lead over the Pelicans, Dort has made 10 of his 18 3-pointers (55.6%).

Still, Dort has been relatively on the list of prioritizing who to leave open. A series of exhausting, antagonizing defense was already enough. Dort has only made New Orleans pay even more.

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Chet Holmgren, dead end

The old saying reads along the lines of insanity being the process of continuously trying something that continuously fails. Few in the NBA know insanity like Holmgren.

In the Thunder’s first round series, the Pelicans have leaned into Hannibal Lecter territory. Time and time again, they’ve leaped and soared and torpedoed toward Holmgren at the rim. He’s tossed them each back just as many times.

Murphy, Larry Nance Jr., others. They’ve all eyed the launching pad while licking their chops, only to be hit in the mouth by Holmgren’s bony contest.

Despite scoring just six points, Holmgren had four blocks, each seemingly emphatic and necessary. When free from defending any dump down or Valanciunas post up, refraining from mistiming jumps or being unwillingly grounded, Holmgren himself has appeared free.

The rookie center acknowledged that meeting players face-to-face at the rim — “Boy, they are face-to-face!” Williams added from the locker beside him — is easier than the “cat-and-mouse” game played in the pick-and-roll. Timing when to tag a big man and ditch a ball handler, though he’s done just fine in the series there.

He can tell when players load up and the runway is their only option. That’s when he pounces.

When potential dunkers are in his sights, Holmgren’s rim has been a cul de sac, better for handlers to loop around than to push through. His rim has been the hoop at Walmart, merely for display and not to try and touch the rim. The hot stove that children know not to touch but reach for anyway.

Pure insanity.

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OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans playoff series schedule

• Game 1: OKC 94, New Orleans 92

• Game 2: OKC 124, New Orleans 92

• Game 3: OKC 106, New Orleans 85

• Game 4: 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 29 in New Orleans (NBATV, BSOK)

• 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: Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren give Pelicans fits in OKC Thunder's Game 3 win