Tag Archives: Herb Jones

Thunder @ New Orleans Pelicans preview (Game 15 of 82)

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  • Oklahoma City Thunder (13-1, 1st in the West) @ New Orleans Pelicans (2-11, 15th in the West)
  • When: Monday, 17 November 2025 at 7:00pm CST
  • Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
  • Offensive Rating: NO: 107.6 (27th) / OKC: 118.2 (5th)
  • Defensive Rating: NO: 120.7 (28th) / OKC: 102.8 (1st)
  • Net Rating: NO: -13.1 (28th) / OKC: 15.4 (1st)

The Set-Up

These are two teams heading in completely opposite directions. Oklahoma City is the defending champions and have a coffer filled with draft picks and assets, with none of their draft picks being in jeopardy of going to another team. New Orleans, on the other hand, is stuck somewhere between a rebuild and a fringe playoff team, with a star player that can never stay healthy or perform to his maximum potential and some possible juicy draft picks that may be heading to other teams in the near future. OKC has a coach who is often mentioned with the other top coaches in the league. New Orleans has an interim coach who is currently 0-1. When we say appreciate what the Thunder has, don’t take it lightly. So many other teams in the league don’t operate with an efficient sense of purpose. They don’t rely on data, experience, and hard truths. Instead, they operate using the hope principle, whether deserved or not.Β 

This is the 2nd of three meetings this season between the Thunder and Pelicans. Oklahoma City won the first meeting 137-106 a little over two weeks ago in OKC. In that game, the Thunder tied a franchise record with eight players scoring in double figures.

Betting Info, presented by Fan Duel

  • Line: OKC -17.5
  • O/U: 224.5

Injury Report

OKC

  • Alex Caruso – Questionable (hand)
  • Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)
  • Nikola Topic – OUT (cancer treatment)
  • Aaron Wiggins – OUT (adductor/thigh)
  • Jalen Williams – OUT (wrist)
  • Kenrich Williams – OUT (knee)

NO

  • Dejounte Murray – OUT (achilles)
  • Jordan Poole – OUT (quad)
  • Zion Williamson – Questionable (hamstring)

Three Big Things

  1. Trey Murphy III – Primarily used as a 3&D guy in his first 3 seasons, Murphy scored a career high 21.2 points per game last season as injuries decimated much of the Pelicans roster. This season hasn’t been too different and Murphy has had to assume of the mantle of veteran scorer on this team. Over the past 5 games, Murphy has averaged 27.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.6 steals on 55/36/93 shooting splits. The increase in usage has also increased his turnover totals. Over that same 5-game span, he’s averaging 3.8 turnovers per game, which against the Thunder, could be significant.
  2. “Shai-stoppers” – I remember back in the rebuild days when people would often refer to Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III as the “Shai-stoppers”. I really don’t know why that moniker stuck. It was literally one bad game in the 2023-24 season, where SGA scored 20 points on 8/20 shooting from the field and 0/5 shooting from deep. That would be a “let me call home and tell Mom about this game” kind of night for most players in the NBA. Since that game, SGA went on to sweep the Pelicans later in that postseason while averaging 27 points on 48% shooting from the field. Last season, in 3 games played against the Pelicans, SGA averaged 30.3 points on 51% from the field and 42% from deep. And this season, in their last meeting, SGA went for 30 points on 57% shooting from the field. While the length of those two can give SGA fits, once he’s figured you out, it’s barbecue chicken time.
  3. Pace – The Thunder and Pelicans are right next to each other in the bottom third of the league in relation to pace. OKC is 25th and New Orleans is 26th. But for some reason, it feels like the Thunder absolutely destroy teams that play slow. And I know the reason for New Orleans playing slow is probably because they have a rookie point guard out there and they are trying to keep the schema as vanilla as possible. But, the more you keep that ball in the halfcourt set, the more the possibility that the Thunder defense will get a deflection that could set them up for the other side of the court.

Pelicans vs. Thunder – Game 2 Adjustments

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  • Series: OKC leads 1-0
  • When: Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at 8:30pm CST
  • Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  • TV: TNT

Game 1 Notables

  • Pelicans shot 1/15 on corner 3’s, Thunder shot 3/10 from the same area.
  • Pelicans beat the Thunder 24-11 on 2nd chance points
  • Thunder beat the Pelicans 20-7 on fast break points.

Game 2 Adjustments

  1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – SGA had an okay game, by his standards. He scored 28 points, but was inefficient, shooting 46% from the field and 0 of 3 from deep. For the first three quarters of the game, SGA had 0 turnovers. In the fourth quarter, he had 3 HUGE turnovers. Additionally, three of SGA’s shots were blocked. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was the fact that the Pelicans’ defense was focused almost entirely on Shai. Maybe (hopefully) it was just a one-off. For game 2, I would like to see a more decisive Shai. Instead of stopping 8 feet from the basket to pump-fake and pivot in order to get Herb Jones or Trey Murphy III in the air, keep driving to the basket and force the refs to blow the whistle. More pick and roll action may be needed to get certain match-ups that are more geared towards SGA’s liking. When Jose Alvarado is in the game, that is the match-up that needs to be hunted. Same with CJ McCollum.
  2. Trey Murphy – The Thunder cannot allow Murphy III to shoot that many threes. He almost single-handedly kept the Pelicans in the game when the Thunder made their runs. Murphy has the possibility of being the Pelicans’ best player in this series. The Thunder need to treat him as such.
  3. Progress to the mean – Game 1 is entirely different if either team shoots closer to their regular season averages. I have more faith that Oklahoma City can reach those number when compared to New Orleans. Not only was the corner shooting atrocious for both teams, but the points in the paint were inefficient also. It’s a make or miss league, so hopefully making more tonight will lead to a Thunder victory.
  4. Stop being loud on Thunder player free throws (BONUS) – Listen, I get it. SGA is our MVP and we want him to know how much we appreciate him. But, if we are loudly chanting “MVP” on first quarter free throws, I think it can throw anyone off their rhythm a bit. No one wants to miss the free throws where people are chanting “MVP” for them. Let’s wait until we are up by 8 with 22 seconds left to chant “MVP” then. Our guys will get enough distractions on their free throws when they hit the road.