Both the host Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies are looking to put the first game of their Western Conference playoff series in the rearview mirror — for very different reasons.
The Thunder are trying to make sure not to get complacent after Sunday’s 131-80 blowout win in the opener.
“We’re not going to come in acting like we won the last game by 50,” Oklahoma City center Isaiah Hartenstein said. “We’re coming in hungry.”
The Grizzlies come into Tuesday’s second game of the series aiming to rebound from what was the second-worst loss in franchise history, the fifth-largest margin in NBA playoff history and the largest margin in a Game 1 in league history.
“At the end of the day, it’s one game,” Memphis’ Desmond Bane said. “If we lose by 50 or lose on a buzzer-beater, the series is still 1-0. Not the result we wanted for sure, but still got an opportunity to get one on the road.”
That was the message Memphis interim coach Tuomas Iisalo gave to his team following Sunday’s blowout.
“Our goal is to win one here,” Iisalo said. “There’s an old saying that a playoff series doesn’t start before there’s a road win.”
The good news for the Grizzlies? It’s hard to imagine things going worse for them than they did in the opener.
Memphis’ starters were a combined 14 of 56 (25 percent) from the field, including a 6-of-17 day from Ja Morant and a 2-of-13 outing from Jaren Jackson Jr.
“We’ll never play that bad again,” Morant said.
The bad news for Memphis?
Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the favorite to win NBA Most Valuable Player honors, had statistically his worst game of the season in the Thunder’s blowout victory. Gilgeous-Alexander had just 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the floor.
“Every shot I shot, it felt good,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s all you can really ask for. They’re gonna feel good and miss, they’re gonna feel bad and make sometimes, but as long as they feel good, you’re on the right track.”
So the climb might be uphill for Memphis.
“They’re a great team,” Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama said. “I think, in the playoffs especially, against a team that won however many games they have, you need to have a perfect game.”
Memphis might not need to be perfect, but it needs to be much better than it was in the opener in order to get back in the series.
The Grizzlies lost each of the four regular-season games against the Thunder by 13 or more points.
“There’s no magic tricks,” Iisalo said. “We’ll watch the tape and then do things better in the next game.”
Though Oklahoma City’s defense has been the best in the NBA this season, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday’s game was an outlier — especially against a team which ranked second in the league in scoring in the regular season.
“We did a good job in terms of execution, but at the same time, a good job on players of that caliber usually isn’t going to yield what it did (Sunday),” Daigneault said, “so we’ve got to be ready for them to be better, we’re expecting them to be better and we’ve got to rise to the level of that game.”
–Field Level Media
