There were concerns about some about the preparation of Oklahoma City qualifiers despite a dominant regular season that produced the best NBA record.
THE Thunder responded with a categorical response Sunday in match 1 of their first round series against Memphis' grizzly greeks. Oklahoma City opened an advance of 32-20 in the first quarter which it extended to 68-36 at halftime.
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When it was over, The Thunder won a 131-80 victory. The margin of the victory did not succeed in the NBA -58 NBA qualifying series, established by the Denver Nuggets 2009 and the 1956 minneapolis Lakers. But the 51 -point margin is The fifth largest in the history of the playoffs And the biggest ever for a match 1. The previous match 1 record was 47 points.
Memphis agitated the white flag at the start of the fourth by sending his entries to the bench. The Thunder responded in kind, then extended its advance at 56 points (129-73) at the end of the fourth quarter.
It was the kind of beat that is sometimes seen in high school or college when a team is completely overwhelmed. Seeing an eruption like this in the NBA is rare. Seeing him in the playoffs is even more.
Isaiah Hartenstein, Jalen Williams and the Thunder put the rest of the field in the playoffs on Sunday. (Photo / nate billings)
(Associated Press)
The eruption of OKC Memphis, by the figures
Oklahoma City has opened its advance with a dominant first half that has not been seen in the last 28 seasons by a team that did not include LeBron James. According to the Associated Press, The second quarter of Oklahoma City (61-28) is the third largest in the first half of an eliminatory match since the NBA began to follow the Play-By-Play statistics in 1996-1997. The Cleveland Cavaliers de James held a 41 -point lead during the 2017 qualifying series and a 38 -point lead in 2016.
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Oklahoma City then maintained the gas with an advantage of 44-27 in the third quarter.
The victory reported an extension of a dominant regular season during which the Thunder reached a record of 68-14 with The biggest margin of average victory in the history of the NBA (12.9 points per match). Despite this, there have been chatter on the lack of experience in the playoff series of a young nucleus which played together in two series in the playoffs while advancing in the semi-final of the conference of last season.
Sunday's victory should rest these concerns. It was a dominant performance in a matching match of their MVP candidate and the NBA score champion, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored less than 20 points for the first time in 73 games.
Thunder did this in the worst score match of the SGA of the season
Gilgeous-Alexander collected a 15-point season while pulling 2 out of 10 in the first half and 4 out of 13 for the match. In fact, no Thunder player scored more than 21 points in what was really a team effort that should put the rest of the NBA in notice – as if it were not.
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Six Thunder players scored two figures, led by 21 points from Aaron Wiggins out of the bench. Jalen Williams posted a plus-44 in the more / less column.
Desmond Bane A attempt with a less-51 while scoring nine points and turning the ball more than four times. For statmuseThis is the worst note more / less for a player in an eliminatory match in the NBA in the 21st century.
But Bane was not the only Grizzlies player suffocated by the teeming defense of Oklahoma City. JA MORANT was the only starter in Memphis to record more goals on the ground than reversals.
In total, the Thunder forced 22 reversals and limited the grizzleas to 34.4% of the shots on the ground and to 17.6% of shooting (6 out of 34) at 3 points. Oklahoma City ATTE with only eight reversals that are clean while firing at 50.5% of the land and obtaining a rebound margin of 54-43.
This increased to an effort overwhelming with the best NBA team and a message that the domination of the regular season of Oklahoma City for 82 games was certainly not a stroke of luck.
