The Oklahoma City Thunder wasted no time reminding everyone they are the league’s best heading into the postseason.
The No. 1 team in the NBA all season long came out with a bang to commence their 2025 Playoff outing, completely pulverizing the Memphis Grizzlies with a 131-80 wire-to-wire Game 1 victory of their Western Conference first-round series on April 20.
MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 15 points, but was strongly supported by the rest of OKC crew, led by Aaron Wiggins’ 21 off the bench.
Jalen Williams finished with 20 points and six assists while Chet Holmgren tallied a 19-point, 10-board double-double.
Dominant on both offense and defense, the Oklahoma City Thunder overwhelmed the Grizzlies for their series opener. This embarrassing loss led Ja Morant to vow that this won’t happen again for Memphis.
With their major victory, the Thunder certainly stamped a resounding statement to the entire league.
OKC’s 51-point beatdown serves as the fifth largest margin of victory in a single game of the NBA postseason record books.
But in the eyes of head coach Mark Daigneault, their emphatic Game 1 performance does not mean everything, considering the circumstances that the Grizzlies endured all the way to the 2025 postseason.
“They played 36 hours ago and had an emotional game, had to turn around and play at noon today, which is a really tough turnaround,” Daigneault said in his postgame interview after Game 1.
“So they’re going to be better Tuesday. I thought we did a good job.
“But I don’t think we can expect that from them [again]. You know they’re going to play a lot better than that.”
As the Thunder were taking a well-deserved break for a week after finishing atop the league standings, the Grizzlies were clawing their way for season survival.
Since dismissing Taylor Jenkins in the wake of their season struggles after the All-Star break, Memphis struggled at the end of the 2024-25 regular season.
They initially lost against the Golden State Warriors for the No. 7 spot of the West’s Play-In Tournament, before eliminating the Dallas Mavericks for the final playoff seat of the NBA Playoffs.
Behind the leadership of Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane, the Grizzlies deserve plenty of respect for how they kept their fight going, amid being the major underdogs.
And even if they sustained a gut-wrenching experience to commence their postseason outing, Memphis should respond with an improved performance in Game 2.
“They’re going to be fresher. They have big-time competitors, so we need to be ready to play on Tuesday [April 22 for Game 2],” Daigneault concluded.
