The Oklahoma City Thunder had a record-setting performance in their incredibly lopsided win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
The Thunder beat Memphis 131-80 in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series between the two teams at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. The game seemed to be over from the opening tip, as OKC took a 68-36 lead into the half.
According to the NBA, the margin of victory was the largest for Game 1 of a playoff series in league history.
THUNDER TAKE GAME 1 AT HOME 🙌
— NBA (@NBA) April 20, 2025
It's the largest margin of victory in a Game 1 in playoff history. #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google pic.twitter.com/7DH8meBm2g
The Thunder also set a franchise record with 37 assists in the game. That easily bested the previous high of 29.
While the Thunder are a heavy favorite to win the Western Conference, very few people expected the type of blowout that we saw on Sunday. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got off to a rough start and had just 9 points on 2-of-10 shooting in the first half. He finished with only 15 points, but Oklahoma City was relentless on defense and got production from other players.
The Grizzlies were trolled with some ruthless memes at halftime, and things did not improve for them over the final 24 minutes of the game.
One game does not decide a playoff series, but the Grizzlies cannot be feeling very confident after that performance. They looked overmatched in every phase of the game.
