Thunder rumble to record win

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 largest Game 1 win in NBA playoff history.

Aaron Wiggins scored 21 points, Jalen Williams scored 20 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 percent from the field.

"We played to our identity," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Nothing more, nothing less than that. We were who we were all year, and it's going to be the key to our success: just staying true to who we are."

Gilgeous-Alexander had said several times since Oklahoma City's loss to Dallas in last season's Western Conference semifinals that he would be intentional about getting his teammates better prepared for this postseason.

So far, so good.

"I have a great group of guys around me, and I know that," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "And I've known that for a long time. They obviously played amazing."

Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams both said the Thunder's big scoring runs all started with defense.

"Usually, if you can get stops, it opens up a lot of stuff," Williams said.

There have been two 58-point playoff margins in NBA history: Denver beating New 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 in the regular season, scored four points on 2-for-13 shooting. The Grizzlies shot just 34.4 percent overall.

The Thunder, which 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 in the second quarter. They took a 35-point lead into halftime.

"I just felt like, after that, the energy just kind of wasn't there and we were just trying to talk to ourselves to get back into the game," Morant said.

Having topped the West with the best record in the league in the regular season, OKC had time to get ready for the playoffs, while the Grizzlies fought their way through the play-in tournament.

The Grizzlies were suffocated by the Thunder defense, led by Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.

Memphis scored just 36 points in the first half, and fared little better in the second.

"We'll never play that bad again," Morant vowed, promising the team could regroup in time for Game 2 on Tuesday.

"If we win Tuesday, the series is one-one. This game won't matter," 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.

"If you're in a playoff series, it's a best of seven," Iisalo said.

"It doesn't matter if you win by one point on a buzzer-beater, or you win by 50 points, you get one win. So, luckily for us, there's only one way to go from this, and that's up. We will analyze it and learn from it, and then we will fix those things that hurt us."

Game 2 is Tuesday, and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault expects a closer game.

"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," Daigneault said. "So, they're going to be better Tuesday. I thought we did a good job, but I don't think we can expect that from them (again). You know they're going to play a lot better than that."

Agencies