It was a historic Wednesday in Memphis. The Grizzlies scored a franchise-high 152 points, beating the Thunder by an NBA-record margin of 73 points, 152-79.
Oklahoma City took a 57-point loss at home in February, losing 152-95 to the Pacers, marking the largest home defeat in league history. They’ve now added the worst road loss to the franchise ledger, supplanting the 68-point margin (148-80) suffered by the Heat in a Dec. 17, 1991 game against the Cavaliers. This is the first time a team has surpassed a 70-point margin at the buzzer.
“Man, it feels great. It feels great to be in the history books, especially in front of our home crowd,” said De’Anthony Melton, who scored 19 points. “And we did it one through 15. Everybody contributed, everybody played hard and we all got to get in the game. So, it’s always a blessing.
“We knew with (Morant) going down what we had to do,” Melton said. “We had to step up.”
Wtih Ja Morant sidelined due to a knee injury, Jaren Jackson Jr. led the onslaught, scoring 27 points on 9-for-11 shooting, including 6-for-7 from 3, in 20 minutes. Each of the 12 Grizzlies suited up played at least 14 minutes, with nine of them reaching double-figures. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey were out for Oklahoma City, paced by 15 points from Lugentz Dort.
Memphis shot 62.5% overall (60-96 FGs) and 52.8% from range (19-36 3Ps), dishing out 41 assists to only 10 turnovers. They controlled the boards by a 53-26 margin and racked up 16 steals and nine blocks. The score was 72-36 at halftime, and expanded with an 80-43 second half. While Jackson and the starters rolled up 59 points, the Grizzlies’ bench outscored the Thunder without them, totaling 93 points. And the team total of 82 points in the paint also topped the Thunder output, marking the first such occurrence since 2000.
“Franchise records are obviously great. Obviously proud of our guys that they don’t think about that,” Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said. “We’re just motivated by what are our standards every single night. Tonight was on pretty full display both offensively and defensively.”
The wire-to-wire victory was a third straight for Memphis; the Jazz were the last team to accomplish that feat (April 5-10, 2018).
Largest Margin of Victory, All-Time NBA Leaders
| RANK | MATCHUP | YEAR | FINAL MARGIN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grizzlies vs. Thunder | 2021 | +73 |
| 2 | Cavaliers vs. Heat | 1991 | +68 |
| 3 | Pacers vs. Trail Blazers | 1988 | +65 |
| 4 | Lakers vs. Warriors | 1972 | +63 |
| 5 | Warriors vs. Kings | 1991 | +62 |
Credit: NBA.com
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