Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cold finish, ending New Orleans Playoffs dream

Before the waves of continuous attacks of the opponent, it seemed that the Oklahoma City Thunder could not stand and faced the threshold of elimination.

But with the brilliance of two young stars, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey (each scored over 30 points), plus Shai's extremely cold floater at the end, OKC won 123-118 in the match. The first play-in meets the New Orleans Pelicans.

The New Orleans Pelicans are playing at home and have a 6 point lead after the first two innings. In the 3rd half, Thunder rose up with excellent attacking form, leading back to the home team with a score of 96-87.

Not faltering under the pressure of scores, the Pelicans opened a series of 7-0 points to bring the game back to balance. Then the two teams tit for tat until the last seconds of the 4th half, taking turns to take the lead.

To the floater of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, New Orleans was unable to respond with two failed shots from CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.

Things took a turn for the worse for the Pelicans when they were hit by a disastrous turnover from Herb Jones with the match remaining 2.8 seconds, leaving the entire Smoothie King arena dumbfounded.

Jones' straight pass threw the New Orleans Pelicans' Playoffs hopes off, ending their season at home.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished the game with 32 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Josh Giddey nearly hit a triple-double, scoring 31 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists.

Lu Dort, in addition to a top-notch defensive performance in the last 2 minutes, added 27 points, his most scoring game since the beginning of the season.

Not to be missed Vietnamese-born player Jaylin Williams, the owner of 8 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and the highest plus/minus stats on the team (+20).

On the other side of the line, Brandon Ingram played Shai's counterweight with 30 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. All five players in the Pelicans' starting lineup scored above 10 points, including Trey Murphy (21 points) and Jones (20 points).

But that was not enough when New Orleans was both absent from Zion Williamson and had a match under CJ McCollum (5-15 FG, 1-5 3PT).

The win put the Oklahoma City Thunder into its second play-in, against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The winner of this match will advance to the Playoffs as the 8th seed and meet the Denver Nuggets in the first round, the losing team will be eliminated.