Tag Archives: Bally Sports

Thunder vs. Pelicans – Game 4 Adjustments

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  • Series: OKC leads 3-0
  • When: Monday, 29 April 2024 at 7:30pm CST
  • Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
  • TV: NBATV/BallySportsOK (WTF?)

Game 3 Notables

  • New Orleans was held to 28.1% shooting from deep, while OKC registered 47.2% from distance.
  • Lu Dort and Josh Giddey tied for the most 3-points made on either team with 4 each.
  • The Thunder forced 20 turnovers.

Game 4 Adjustments

  1. Close-out Game – This is always the hardest game from a mental standpoint. Take into account that this is the Thunder’s first close-out game under this recent iteration. The only players on the team that have any sort of experience in close-out games are Mike Muscala, Bismack Biyombo, and Gordon Hayward. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort were part of a Game 7 against Houston in the 2020 Bubble, but lost that game in close fashion. Psychologically, the Thunder have to be tougher than ever in order to avoid a let-down due to being up 3-0 in mostly dominant fashion. As we’ve seen in these playoffs, you don’t want to leave anything up to chance. If you can avoid playing games and avoid injuries, you do that if at all possible.
  2. Continue playing your game – There hasn’t been any over the top performances by the Thunder players in this postseason. It’s been a hard-hat and lunch pail approach in these first three games. Force turnovers. Hunt the best shot. Focus defensively on the opponent’s top guys. Block another Trey Murphy III dunk attempt. Listen to the Coach of the Year. Rinse and repeat. Oklahoma City had a plan heading into this series and are executing it flawlessly. Any deviation from this norm could prove to be detrimental.
  3. Watch out for shenanigans – The Pelicans will be in desperation mode. The refs, in an effort to see this series extended, may either allow more than usual contact or may have a quick whistle. Either way, the Thunder will have to be smart about how they defend and will need to keep their cool, which will eventually be tested.
  4. Congratulations to the Coach of the Year, Mark Daigneault. – MVP next???
  5. The Ultimate Disrespect – If you are wondering why the Thunder shunned Allie LaForce on the TNT post-game interview after Game 3 in favor of Nick Gallo, look no further than to what is happening tonight. The game tonight will be televised on NBATV….only if you have NBATV and only if you live outside of the OKC and New Orleans viewing area. Unfortunately, if you live in the OKC and NO viewing area and have NBATV, you will be blacked out from watching the game unless you have Bally Sports. If you are blacked out and chose not to get Bally Sports (such as myself), you will have to either illegally stream the game or watch it on a gamecast. This is so wrong, on so many levels. But, hey, we’ll remember that the next time you want to interview the guys and Nick Gallo is standing there waiting.

Thunder @ New Orleans Pelicans preview (Game 45 of 82)

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  • Oklahoma City Thunder (31-13, 2nd in the West) @ New Orleans Pelicans (26-18, 6th in the West)
  • When: Friday, 26 January 2024 at 7:00pm CST
  • Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
  • Offensive Rating – NO: 117.9 (8th) / OKC: 119.9 (4th)
  • Defensive Rating – NO: 112.7 (8th) / OKC: 111.6 (4th)
  • Net Rating – NO: 5.2 (7th) / OKC: 8.3 (2nd)

The Set-Up

If you follow me on Twitter at all, you know the disdain I have for Bally Sports. Their parent company, Sinclair, bought Fox Sports after the Disney merger for an exorbitant amount and then thought that they could bully the various cable networks and streaming services into paying a high dollar amount to show sports on their various platforms. It blew up in their face and eventually they filed for bankruptcy. But my issue is that watching games on the TV allowed many Oklahomans to fall in love with the first iteration of the Thunder. Not everyone can afford to go to games. Not everyone lives close to OKC. So the TV was their way to connect with the team.

In sports, generations are measured in 3-5 year bursts. Take a snapshot of your team now and see how it looks in 3-5 years. More than likely, it is completely different. Because of all the Bally-caused blackouts, there are a lot of people in Oklahoma, of all ages, that haven’t been able to “grow” with this new iteration of the Thunder since the rebuild started. To me, I’ll always have a sore spot for Bally for preventing a “generation” of fans from not being able to connect with this team from it’s inception.

But fast forward to the news that has been coming out over the last couple of weeks. First, Bally Sports is belly-up and only covering regional sports for the rest of this season. Secondly, Amazon seems to be making a play to somehow show the games on their platform (that is still being worked out). And, thirdly, the team, itself, came to an agreement with Bally to show all the rest of the Friday games on local cable TV throughout the state (and neighboring states). Tonight is the first game for that arrangement. The Friday games will only be shown on local TV. They will not be shown on Bally. For information regarding what channels will be showing these games, please visit: https://www.nba.com/thunder/watchlocal

This is the 2nd of three meetings this season between these two teams. The Pelicans won the first meeting early in the season, 110-106.

Betting Info

  • Line: NO -1.5
  • O/U: 239.5

Injury Report

OKC

  • Olivier Sarr (hip) – OUT

NO

  • Zion Williamson (foot) – Questionable

Three Big Things

  1. Combating Size – The New Orleans Pelicans are a big team. Their front court rotation of Jonas Valanciunas, Zion Williamson, Cody Zeller, and Larry Nance Jr. are all big and beefy and their wings (Brandon Ingram, Herbert Jones, and Trey Murphy III) would all be power forwards if this was the 90’s. The Thunder struggled with New Orleans’ size as the game wore on the last time they played. It’ll be interesting to see how the Thunder will combat that. They may need to use the blueprint that was used against the Minnesota Timberwolves the last couple times the team has played them. Also, this is Chet’s second time playing against Valanciunas and Chet usually does a good job of adjusting once he has a scouting report on someone.
  2. Defending the 3-point line – When you think of the Pelicans, you think of Zion’s inside prowess and Ingram’s mid-range game. But what makes New Orleans dangerous is their 3-point shooting. On the season, the Pels are shooting 38.6% from the 3-point line, which is 4th best in the league. While 3-pointers don’t account for a huge part of their offense, if they are hitting them, it makes them almost unguardable.
  3. Jalen Williams – SGA will be preoccupied a lot of the evening with Jones and Murphy. While SGA does okay against the Pels, it’s usually an inefficient night by his standards. This may be a game where Jalen Williams can go to work against a 2nd-rate defender instead of Pels main big wings.