With the 2022-23 NBA regular season officially coming to a close on Sunday, fans and players alike will now shift their attention to the play-in tournament. The tournament consists of six play-in games in total, two of which will be played on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and two on Friday.
Wednesday’s Western Conference play-in game will be between the 10th-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and the 9th-seeded New Orleans Pelicans. The game will tip off around 9:30 PM EST on ESPN.
Despite the Thunder being the lower seed and a younger, more inexperienced team than the Pelicans, they are in a prime position to pull off an upset on Wednesday. Let’s break down two reasons why the Oklahoma City Thunder will beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2023 NBA play-in tournament:
2 reasons Thunder will beat Pelicans in 2023 NBA play-in tournament
The Pelicans will be without their best player
The injury bug continues to bite Pelicans star forward Zion Williamson. A hamstring injury limited him to 29 appearances in the 2022-23 campaign, and Shams Charania recently reported that the Pelicans don’t believe Williamson is “even close to getting back on the floor.”
The report from Charania should make Thunder fans breathe a sigh of relief because while Williamson only played one game against the Thunder this year, he dominated on both sides of the ball. Back on November 28th, Williamson scored 23 points — on 11-for-18 shooting from the field — grabbed eight rebounds, dished out eight assists, and blocked three shots in a game the Pelicans went on to win by a final score of 105-101. The Thunder don’t really have anyone with the size or strength to throw Williamson off of his game, especially without Chet Holmgren in the lineup.
Here’s to hoping that Williamson is able to recover from his hamstring injury sooner rather than later, but there’s no denying that his injury and absence will make life easier for the Thunder on Wednesday.
Superior three-point shooting
The three-point shot has, of course, become a fundamental component of modern NBA offenses, but some teams are embracing a three-point-centric offense more than others.
The Thunder are certainly embracing the three-point trend this season. The team ranks 12th in the association in three-point attempts per contest at 35.6. And the primary reason why the Thunder are able to shoot the deep ball with great frequency is that they have capable shooters up and down their roster. A whopping 14 players on the Thunder average at least 2.3 attempts from three a game, namely Isaiah Joe, who’s converting 40.9% of his threes on 5.4 attempts nightly.
Comparatively, the Pelicans are a bottom-dwelling three-point shooting team. At just 30.1 three-point tries per game, only the Bulls average fewer. The Pelicans aren’t without great three-point shooters (Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Trey Murphy), but they don’t have the same amount as the Thunder.
All in all, it’s evident that the Thunder are a bad matchup for the Pelicans. That’s not to say the Thunder will walk all over New Orleans on Wednesday, as the Pelicans have done a good job of protecting home court all season — they own a 27-14 record at home. But the Thunder’s team-wide three-point shooting ability will be too much for the Pelicans to overcome sans their best player. Expect the Thunder to shock New Orleans on Wednesday and steal a win in a hostile environment.
The post 2 reasons Oklahoma City will beat Pelicans in 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament appeared first on ClutchPoints.
