OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Memphis Grizzlies 131-80 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Sunday, the fifth-biggest margin of victory in NBA postseason history.
The 51-point margin was seven points shy of the record and was the biggest Game 1 win in NBA playoff history.
Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s scoring champion with nearly 33 points per game, scored just 15. The Thunder still shot 50.5% from the sector.
“We played to our identity,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Nothing more, nothing lower than that. We were who we were all 12 months … and it’s going to be the important thing to our success, just staying true to who we’re.”
Gilgeous-Alexander had said several times since Oklahoma City’s loss to Dallas in last season’s Western Conference semifinals that he can be intentional about getting his teammates higher prepared for this postseason.
Thus far, so good.
“I even have an excellent group of men around me, and I do know that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And I’ve known that for a very long time. … They obviously played amazing.”
There have been two 58-point playoff margins in NBA history: Denver beating Latest Orleans 121-63 in 2009 and the Minneapolis Lakers beating the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 in 1956. The Los Angeles Lakers beat Golden State by 56 (126-70) in 1973 and the Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks by 54 (120-66) in 2015.
Ja Morant scored 17 points for Memphis on just 6-for-17 shooting. Jaren Jackson Jr., who averaged just over 22 points within the regular season, scored 4 points on 2-for-13 shooting. The Grizzlies shot just 34.4% overall.
The Thunder, who finished the regular-season with a league-best 68-14 record, took control with a 20-0 run that gave them a 55-22 lead within the second quarter. They took a 35-point lead into halftime.
“I just felt like after that, the energy just type of wasn’t there and we were just attempting to check with ourselves to get back into the sport,” Morant said.
This was Memphis’ first playoff game under interim coach Tuomas Iisalo. He coached just nine NBA regular-season contests before the play-in games.
“In case you’re in a playoff series, it’s a better of seven,” Iisalo said. “It doesn’t matter when you win by one point on a buzzer-beater otherwise you win by 50 points, you get one win. So luckily for us, there’s only a method from this and that’s up. And we are going to analyze it and learn from it. After which we are going to fix those things that hurt us.”
Game 2 is Tuesday, and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault expects a better game.
“They played 36 hours ago and had an emotional game, needed to turn around and play at noon today, which is a very tough turnaround,” Daigneault said. “So that they’re going to be higher Tuesday. So I assumed we did a great job. But I don’t think we are able to expect that from them (again). they’re going to play quite a bit higher than that.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Memphis Grizzlies 131-80 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Sunday, the fifth-biggest margin of victory in NBA postseason history.
The 51-point margin was seven points shy of the record and was the biggest Game 1 win in NBA playoff history.
Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s scoring champion with nearly 33 points per game, scored just 15. The Thunder still shot 50.5% from the sector.
“We played to our identity,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Nothing more, nothing lower than that. We were who we were all 12 months … and it’s going to be the important thing to our success, just staying true to who we’re.”
Gilgeous-Alexander had said several times since Oklahoma City’s loss to Dallas in last season’s Western Conference semifinals that he can be intentional about getting his teammates higher prepared for this postseason.
Thus far, so good.
“I even have an excellent group of men around me, and I do know that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And I’ve known that for a very long time. … They obviously played amazing.”
There have been two 58-point playoff margins in NBA history: Denver beating Latest Orleans 121-63 in 2009 and the Minneapolis Lakers beating the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 in 1956. The Los Angeles Lakers beat Golden State by 56 (126-70) in 1973 and the Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks by 54 (120-66) in 2015.
Ja Morant scored 17 points for Memphis on just 6-for-17 shooting. Jaren Jackson Jr., who averaged just over 22 points within the regular season, scored 4 points on 2-for-13 shooting. The Grizzlies shot just 34.4% overall.
The Thunder, who finished the regular-season with a league-best 68-14 record, took control with a 20-0 run that gave them a 55-22 lead within the second quarter. They took a 35-point lead into halftime.
“I just felt like after that, the energy just type of wasn’t there and we were just attempting to check with ourselves to get back into the sport,” Morant said.
This was Memphis’ first playoff game under interim coach Tuomas Iisalo. He coached just nine NBA regular-season contests before the play-in games.
“In case you’re in a playoff series, it’s a better of seven,” Iisalo said. “It doesn’t matter when you win by one point on a buzzer-beater otherwise you win by 50 points, you get one win. So luckily for us, there’s only a method from this and that’s up. And we are going to analyze it and learn from it. After which we are going to fix those things that hurt us.”
Game 2 is Tuesday, and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault expects a better game.
“They played 36 hours ago and had an emotional game, needed to turn around and play at noon today, which is a very tough turnaround,” Daigneault said. “So that they’re going to be higher Tuesday. So I assumed we did a great job. But I don’t think we are able to expect that from them (again). they’re going to play quite a bit higher than that.”
