Oklahoma City (AP) – The Oklahoma City Thunder Beat the Memphis Grizzlies 131-80 in match 1 of their western conference in the first round Summary series Sunday, the fifth largest margin of victory in the history of the NBA in the playoffs.
THE 51 points margin was seven shy points of the record and was the biggest victory in match 1 in the history of the NBA qualifiers.
Aaron Wiggins scored 21 points, Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren collected 19 points and 10 rebounds. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league score champion with nearly 33 points per game, only scored 15. The Thunder has always fired 50.5% of the field.
“We have played our identity,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “Nothing more, nothing less than that. We were who we were all year round … And it will be the key to our success, remain faithful to whom we are.”
Gilgeous-Alexander had declared several times since the defeat of Oklahoma City against Dallas in the semi-finals of the western conference last season that it would be intentional to prepare for his teammates for this series.
So far, so good.
“I have a large group of guys around me, and I know it,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “And I have known it for a long time. … They obviously played incredible.”
There were two margins in 58-point playoffs in the history of the NBA: Denver defeating New Orleans 121-63 in 2009 and the Lakers of Minneapolis defeating the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 in 1956. The Los Angeles defeated Golden State by 56 (126-70) in 1973 and the Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks by 54 (120-66) in 2015.
JA MORANT scored 17 points for Memphis during shot 6 for 17. Jaren Jackson Jr., who collected on average a little more than 22 points in the regular season, scored four points on a shot of 2 for 13. Grizzlies only fired 34.4% in total.
The Thunder, which finished the regular season with a record of 68-14 of the League, took control with a 20-0 race which gave them a advance of 55-22 in the second quarter. They took a 35-point lead at halftime.
“I felt like after that, the energy was not there and we were just trying to talk to us to come back in the game,” said Morant.
It was Memphis’ first eliminatory match under the temporary coach Tuomas Iisalo. He led only nine regular NBA season competitions before the game matches.
“If you are in an eliminatory series, it’s the best of seven,” said Iisalo. “It does not matter whether you are winning by a point on a drummer of buzzer or that you earn 50 points, you get a victory. So, fortunately for us, there is only one way of that and it is in place. And we are going to analyze it and learn from it. And then we will repair these things that hurt us.”
Match 2 is Tuesday, and Thunder’s coach Mark Daigneault is waiting for a closer match.
“They played 36 hours ago and had an emotional game, had to turn around and play at noon today, which is a really difficult turnaround,” said Daigneault. “So they’re going to be better on Tuesday. So I thought we’ve been a good job. But I don’t think we can expect this (again). You know they’ll play much better than that.”
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