NBA fans got their fair share of blowout victories over the first couple of days of the playoffs. There were a total of eight games on tap, and seven finished with the margin of victory in double digits.
How did the Thunder win by 51 points?
None of them were more impressive than the historic performance from the Oklahoma City Thunder, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies by a whopping 51 points. It was the largest margin of victory in a game one in NBA playoff history and the fifth largest in any playoff game –– just seven points from the record.
“We get stops and we’re able to play fast, play to our strengths, playing open space,” Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s the key to it all. I mean, if you look at any of those runs, we stack multiple possessions of great defensive possessions. Then, it allows us to be who we are offensively. It’s no like, it’s no secret. That’s what it takes to have those stints in the game.”
Head coach Mark Daigneault was particularly impressed that his team showed no rust after a seven-day break between the regular season and the playoffs.
“We were amped up,” Daigneault said. “Give the guys a lot of credit for the week of practice that we had. It’s a sneaky tough week because it’s a lot of days without games, and it gets you out of rhythm of games.”
Are the Thunder really that good?
The question needs to be asked: Are the Thunder really that good? They were the NBA’s best team this season, winning 68 games and setting a league record for point differential at 12.9 per game. They led the game by 35 points at halftime on Sunday, April 20.
The Grizzlies had to win a couple of play-in games to make it to the big tournament, so they may be simply running out of gas, but Marvin Bagley III was not about to make any excuses during the postgame interview.
“We going down like that, losing by 50 or whatever it was,” Bagley said. “You never want –– you never plan for that. You never want that to happen, but it’s a long series. We’re not going to hang our heads game one. Figure it out, come back, and you know, it’s one game. Just keep playing. Keep showing up.”
Who else won big and what factored in?
Other big-time game-one performances included the Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Miami Heat by 21 and the Indiana Pacers besting the Milwaukee Bucks by 19. Fatigue, injuries and home court advantage all become heightened during the playoffs, when the intensity is ramped up along with a winning team’s defensive effort.
The three-point line also becomes either the great equalizer or the big separator, depending on how the shots are falling. For instance, the Minnesota Timberwolves shot an impressive 50% from behind the arc in their 22-point win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Julius Randle and Naz Reid combined for 10 three-pointers.
“It was good, you know, it was just finding open spaces on the floor,” Randle said. “We knew how they were going to defend us defensively, so I knew when Ant [Anthony Edwards] had the ball where to be, and he did a great job. He had like eight or nine assists tonight… and that’s what coach said he needed.”
The only close game over the weekend was the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers, the No. 4 and No. 5 seed teams in the West, respectively. They went into overtime before the Nuggets scratched out a 112-110 win. On Monday night, April 21, those two teams will meet in game two in Denver, but don’t expect a blowout.
As for the other series, predicting what might happen next, it seems, is a bit of a fool’s errand.
