Aaron Wiggins scored 21 points off the bench and Jalen Williams added 20 as the Oklahoma City Thunder earned a 131-80 home rout of the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series on Sunday.
The Thunder had plenty of blowout victories in the regular season, setting an NBA record for scoring margin in running away with the top seed in the West. They had also rolled past the Grizzlies in all four regular-season meetings by 13 or more points.
But this blowout was at a different level.
Oklahoma City’s 51-point victory was the fifth largest in NBA playoff history, according to ESPN, and the largest in the first game of a playoff series.
“We were amped up,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “I give the guys a lot of credit for the week of practice we had.”
Conversely, Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo expressed disappointment in his team’s performance.
“It’s very hard to play worse than this,” Iisalo said.
The Thunder, with the league’s top-ranked defense, smothered Memphis from the start.
Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., the Grizzlies’ top two scorers, finished a combined 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from the field and 1 of 10 from beyond the arc. Morant was 1 of 6 from deep.
“We’ll never play like this again,” Morant bluntly stated.
Memphis managed just 20 points in the first quarter and things only got worse.
Oklahoma City started the second quarter with a 23-2 run, scoring on 10 consecutive possessions, to turn the game into a blowout.
After scoring 20 or more points in each of his final 72 games of the regular season, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 15 points on 4 of 13 shooting.
Gilgeous-Alexander was just 1 of 7 from 3-point range with his only 3-pointer coming in the closing moments of the second quarter to send the Thunder into halftime with a 68-36 lead. The Thunder’s MVP favorite didn’t score less than 18 points in a game during the regular season.
Daigneault addressed the Thunder’s massive win, despite their superstar’s underwhelming performance.
“That’s what a team is,” he stated. “You don’t want to be dependent on one player for anything. … That’s what teams do, they pick each other up.”
Oklahoma City kept pouring it on in the second half, scoring the first 12 points of the third quarter.
Chet Holmgren had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Isaiah Hartenstein added 14 points as the Thunder outscored Memphis 27-5 on fast-break points and delivered 24 points off 24 Grizzlies’ turnovers.
Oklahoma City hadn’t played in a week, while the Grizzlies played a pair of play-in games to reach the series, including one on Friday.
“Thought we were tight in our stuff … set a good tone,” Daigneault added. “But they played 36 hours ago and had an emotional game, had to turn around and play at noon today, which is a really tough turnaround. So, they’re going to be better Tuesday, going to be fresher. They’re big-time competitors.”
Morant and Marvin Bagley III led Memphis with 17 points each. Bagley finished 8 of 8 from the field, including hitting a buzzer-beating shot from beyond halfcourt to end the third quarter.
The Grizzlies were just 6 of 34 (17.6 percent) from beyond the arc and finished shooting 34.4 percent overall.
“There’s no magic tricks,” Iisalo noted. “We’ll watch the tape and do things better next time.”
–Field Level Media
