New Orleans Pelicans – Oklahoma City Thunder · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 15 December 2021

NOP113–110OKC

Is it worth watching?

Highly recommended

It was more exciting than 96% of NBA games since 2017

· It was still open in the final minutes
· The win probability swung between the two teams 44 times
· It stayed close for almost the whole game

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ OKC winsNOP wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when OKC leads and falls when NOP does.

This is how the game was decided.

Brandon Ingram decided it, the New Orleans Pelicans player with the most points (34, with 8 rebounds and 4 assists; +7 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was Devonte' Graham's (+24). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

The game-winner in Oklahoma City Thunder 110-113 New Orleans Pelicans (December 15, 2021) was hit by Devonte' Graham: a three-pointer with 0.0 s left in the fourth quarter, putting the New Orleans Pelicans up 113-110. They never trailed again.

The biggest run of Oklahoma City Thunder 110-113 New Orleans Pelicans (December 15, 2021) was a 15-0 run by the New Orleans Pelicans between the second quarter and the third quarter, from 40-51 to 55-51. The Oklahoma City Thunder' best was a 7-0 run in the first quarter (from 7:20 to 6:20), from 8-14 to 15-14.

What were the keys of the last Oklahoma City Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans game?

▸See where these figures come from

Play: Devonte' Graham makes 61-foot three pointer (Josh Hart assists).

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

Devonte' Graham decided this game: his points put his team ahead at the buzzer of the fourth quarter, and the opponent never led again.

It is one of the 4 games he has decided this way in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.

His profile shows the games Graham decided

▸See where these figures come from

A game is decided by the last basket that puts a team ahead in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or of an overtime, if that team wins.

15 December 2021 · The source is the ESPN play-by-play, play espn:401360246:699; the date is the one on the NBA box score.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · NOP

Ingram · Hart · Graham · Alexander-Walker · Temple

Closing lineup · OKC

Gilgeous-Alexander · Giddey · Williams · Muscala · Jerome

Q1Q2Q3Q4

NOP

Brandon Ingram

37′ · +7

Josh Hart

35′ · +19

Jonas Valanciunas

34′ · +23

Herbert Jones

33′ · +1

Devonte' Graham

33′ · +24

Tomas Satoransky

11′ · -21

Nickeil Alexander-Walker

22′ · -5

Willy Hernangomez

13′ · -16

Garrett Temple

16′ · -10

Trey Murphy III

5′ · -7

OKC

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

37′ · -4

Josh Giddey

37′ · -6

Darius Bazley

24′ · -19

Aaron Wiggins

23′ · -23

Derrick Favors

19′ · -9

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl

26′ · 0

Kenrich Williams

26′ · +20

Tre Mann

23′ · +13

Mike Muscala

14′ · +7

Ty Jerome

11′ · +3

Theo Maledon

1′ · +1

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. NOP and OKC.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

New Orleans Pelicans

Ingram, Hart, Graham, Jones, and Valanciunas played 19.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 20 points.
Hart, Graham, Alexander-Walker, Temple, and Valanciunas played 7.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Hernangomez, Ingram, Alexander-Walker, Temple, and Satoransky played 4.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Gilgeous-Alexander, Bazley, Giddey, Wiggins, and Favors played 15.5 minutes together.
Williams, Jerome, Robinson-Earl, Mann, and Muscala played 11.3 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Robinson-Earl, Mann, and Giddey played 5.7 minutes together.

The plus-minus of each Oklahoma City Thunder lineup is not shown: its rotation stints do not add up with each other.

▸See every lineup of the game

New Orleans Pelicans

Hernangomez, Ingram, Jones, Murphy, and Satoransky played 3.1 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 9 points.
Ingram, Hart, Alexander-Walker, Jones, and Valanciunas played 2.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Hernangomez, Graham, Alexander-Walker, Jones, and Temple played 2.6 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
Ingram, Hart, Graham, Alexander-Walker, and Valanciunas played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Ingram, Hart, Jones, Valanciunas, and Satoransky played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 5 points.
Ingram, Graham, Jones, Murphy, and Valanciunas played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Gilgeous-Alexander, Bazley, Robinson-Earl, Giddey, and Wiggins played 2.5 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Bazley, Robinson-Earl, and Giddey played 2.4 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Mann, Giddey, and Muscala played 2.1 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Robinson-Earl, Mann, Giddey, and Wiggins played 1.9 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Robinson-Earl, Giddey, and Wiggins played 1.7 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Bazley, Giddey, and Favors played 1.6 minutes together.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Mann, Giddey, Wiggins, and Favors played 1.0 minutes together.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Josh Giddey covered 4.52 km, more than anyone in the game.

Josh Giddey touched the ball 90 times, a game high.
Josh Giddey made 67 passes, a game high.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl defended 10 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 7.
Jonas Valanciunas had 19 rebound chances, a game high.

▸See what was measured for each player

New Orleans Pelicans

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Brandon Ingram	4.23	6.3	64	34
Josh Hart	4.14	6.6	53	34
Herbert Jones	4.14	7.0	38	30
Devonte' Graham	3.93	6.5	75	57
Jonas Valanciunas	3.86	6.4	74	60
Nickeil Alexander-Walker	2.85	7.3	45	31
Garrett Temple	2.03	6.8	13	9
Willy Hernangomez	1.58	6.8	25	18
Tomas Satoransky	1.48	7.4	24	20
Trey Murphy III	0.58	6.7	6	4

Oklahoma City Thunder

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Josh Giddey	4.52	6.8	90	67
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	4.22	6.4	87	50
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl	3.20	6.9	44	34
Kenrich Williams	3.17	6.7	42	31
Aaron Wiggins	2.99	7.5	16

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2021-22 regular season, not this game.

New Orleans Pelicans

Herbert Jones deflected 3.2 passes per game over his 77 games.
He ranks 7 of 386 in the league.
Josh Hart recovered 1.0 loose balls per game over his 54 games.
He ranks 17 of 386 in the league.
Jonas Valančiūnas contested 9.6 shots per game over his 74 games.
He ranks 18 of 386 in the league.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Josh Giddey recovered 1.1 loose balls per game over his 54 games.
He ranks 13 of 386 in the league.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deflected 2.7 passes per game over his 56 games.
He ranks 19 of 386 in the league.
Kenrich Williams drew 0.18 charges per game over his 49 games.
He ranks 20 of 386 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have won 33 of their 49 games against the New Orleans Pelicans.

33-16record of the Oklahoma City Thunder · NBA 2013-14 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

3-0in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 2013-14 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

13.253

72.8% of capacity

Paycom Center · Oklahoma City

Scoring

223

combined points

1.8 above the season average (221.2)

⚖️ The last two minutes

Official NBA L2M report: every call in the endgame, reviewed by the league.

15 calls reviewed2 errors admitted by the NBA

Foul: Personal · 00:03.9

Garrett Temple → Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Temple (NOP) brings his hand forward to commit a take foul on GIlgeous-Alexander (OKC), and contact occurs to Gilgeous-Alexander's left arm. Additionally, the contact occurs prior to Gilgeous-Alexander's gather and upward shooting motion.

Stoppage: Out-of-Bounds · 01:46.0

Herbert Jones → Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Jones (NOP) is the last player to touch the ball before the ball goes out of bounds. Possession should have been awarded to Oklahoma City.