LOS ANGELES – No. 1-ranked Oklahoma City took a commanding 2-0 lead in their first-round series against the eighth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans with an emphatic 124-92 thrashing on Wednesday (Thursday Manila time).
The Thunder took the lead early in the first quarter and were in complete control throughout, holding a double-digit advantage from the second quarter onwards, which reached 34 points at one stage late in the fourth quarter.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the scoring for Oklahoma City, finishing with 33 points from 13-of-19 shooting from the field.
Chet Holmgren added 26 points while Jalen Williams chipped in with 21. Luguentz Dort added 15 points, including four 3-pointers.
The result was in stark contrast to game one, which went down to the wire before Oklahoma City prevailed 94-92 on Sunday.
"Within a seven-game series, we've just got to take it day by day and try to get better every day," Gilgeous-Alexander said afterwards.
"And I think that's what we did tonight. We definitely had a better performance than we did in game one and that's our goal. So we'll take it."
The series now heads to Game 3 in New Orleans on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).