Horning: Where they've hardly been, they're only getting better

Where to begin?

As difficult as it’s been for Brandon Ingram to get shots up while guarded by Lu Dort since this Oklahoma City-New Orleans series began, it’s equally difficult coming up with a starting point on the Thunder’s 106-85 Saturday afternoon victory over the Pelicans.

Indeed, it’s hard not to go with Dort for all the defense he played, typified by an early third-quarter backcourt dive at a loose ball that creating one of the Pelicans’ 20 home-court turnovers, prompting Reggie Miller, part of TNT’s three-man broadcasting crew, to gush, “This is how you build championship winning habits.”

Of course, is that any more a keeper than Dort’s role in a 15-0 second-quarter explosion spanning just 101 seconds, a run sparked by a consecutive trio of Dort trifectas causing play-by-play man Kevin Harlan, as only he can, to exclaim, “He is a flamethrower.”

Or do you begin with Dort at all given Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led OKC with 24 points, followed by 21, nine rebounds and five assists from Jalen Williams and 21, eight boards and six helpers from Josh Giddey?

You could even begin with Chet Holmgren, who scored just six points on 2-of-8 shooting, yet blocked four Pelican attempts, seemingly all of them would-be dunks, changed other shots and went a long way toward New Orleans having next to nothing left by, say, the midway point of the third quarter.

Three games into the playoffs and it’s an embarrassment of riches for the No. 1-in-the-West seeded Thunder, who now own a 3-0 advantage over the No. 8 Pelicans and appear well on their way to a sweep they can lock down when Game 4 arrives Monday night in New Orleans, perhaps six whole days before the Mavericks and Clippers finish their scrum, the winner of which would gain a spot on OKC’s docket.

“I thought we were ready to play,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought our physicality, our defense, our focus on that end of the floor, was really, really good, made them earn everything, and I thought that set the tone for the game.”

That might cover it.

If you did not know, New Orleans averaged 115.1 points per game over the regular season, but has now scored 92, 92 and 85 over three playoff games against OKC.

Yes, the Pelicans are without frequently injured Zion Williamson, missing with a hamstring injury, so there’s that. Yet, don’t fool yourself, what the Thunder are doing is nothing short of crushingly dominant.

We’re well past the start of this thing, but if we’d really had to limit it to one thing from the top, the choice would have been the opening salvos of the third quarter, when New Orleans finally found its shot and OKC was no longer on fire as it had been heading into the half.

The Thunder led 60-46 to begin the second half and the Pelicans hit their first four post-intermission shots. But when the last one fell, a 3-pointer from Ingram, the Thunder were still on top 69-58 and their next trip down the floor, after a 19-footer from Gilgeous-Alexander, they were up 71-58.

The reason New Orleans couldn’t close its deficit?

The Thunder forced turnovers on the Pelicans’ second, third, fourth and fifth possessions of the half. New Orleans was finding its shooting rhythm, but was hardly getting off any shots.

While the Thunder dished 27 assists against 13 turnovers, the Pelicans dished 18 against 20 and that’s not taking a basketball team anywhere at any level.

OKC was no great shakes offensively in the third quarter and still it added two points to its lead and by the time the fourth began with a free-throw from Holmgren and a 3-pointer from Jalen Williams, the lead was 20 points, 89-69.

Having to work so hard for everything from the tip forward, the Pelicans were done, netting no points until their eighth possession of the final period, not because they were shooting poorly but because they were just finished.

“Offensively,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, “we didn’t play as well as we could have,” and he was absolutely right.

OKC netted 37 points in the second quarter but no more than 25 in any of the other three.

That means the Thunder, on one end of the floor, perhaps not the other, can still be quite a bit better.

There is also this.

All the regular season long, OKC’s longest win streak was six games, achieved twice.

The Thunder have now won eight in a row, five to close the regular season and three more to begin the postseason.

The playoffs are a marathon for those who go far, but if you root for OKC, you’ve got to love watching the youngest team in the playoffs raise its game in the playoffs.

Good signs abound.

They’re everywhere.