Thunder Fly High Against Pelicans; Beat the Birds For 8th Straight Time

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 16 of his 31 points in the first quarter and Jalen Williams added 27 to power the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 119-109 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night.

The Thunder built a 77-51 halftime lead by dominating New Orleans in the paint and in transition, and won for the seventh time in eight games.

Dejounte Murray scored 26 points and Herb Jones added 24 for the Pelicans, who committed 18 turnovers and lost for the 16th time in 18 games.

New Orleans cut its deficit to 99-80 with by outscoring the Thunder 29-22 in third quarter and got as close as 114-105 with 3:31 left. The Thunder scored five straight to pull away.

Thunder: OKC outscored the Pelicans 40-18 in the paint and led by 26 points at halftime. The Thunder shot 67.4% in the half (29 of 43), with 19 layups.

Pelicans: New Orleans committed six turnovers in the first 5:42 and trailed 20-5. It never got better. Leading scorer Brandon Ingram (23.2), who had just returned from right foot injury, left 17 seconds into the third quarter after landing awkwardly on Lu Dort’s foot and twisting his left ankle. He had five points.

Six of Gilgeous-Alexander’s first seven field goals were layups, and the other was a 3-point during a 16-point, first-quarter outburst. The Thunder led 35-23 after the first and coasted to the win. Gilgeous-Alexander had his 11th game of 30 or more points this season.

The Thunder came into the game with an NBA-best 12.1 steals per game, and had 13 against New Orleans.

The Thunder will host Dallas on Tuesday night in the first round of the knockout stage of the NBA Emirates Cup. The Pelicans play the Spurs on Sunday in San Antonio.