The Oklahoma City Thunder brought the boom.
Boasting a league-best 68-14 regular-season record, top-seeded Oklahoma opened its NBA playoff run with a whopping 131-80 Game 1 win over the No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies.
Six Thunder players eclipsed double-digit points, with Aaron Wiggins recording 21 off the bench for welcome output. MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was only the team’s fourth-leading scorer on the day with 15 points.
It marked the largest Game 1 margin in NBA history, but how did it fare compared to playoff history? Let’s take a look:
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Two games hold a tie for the largest NBA playoff win. Most recently in the 2009 playoffs, the Denver Nuggets crushed the New Orleans Hornets 121-63 for a 58-point win, as did the Minneapolis Lakers in their 1956 133-75 result over the St. Louis Hawks.
Denver’s win came in the first round, while Minneapolis’ was in the semifinals, though the formats differed.
Oklahoma City’s 51-point margin over Memphis is top-five worthy. Here’s a list of the 50-plus-point margins in NBA playoff history:
- 58 points: Minneapolis Lakers 133, St. Louis Hawks 75 (1956 Western Division semifinals)
- 58 points: Denver Nuggets 121, New Orleans Hornets 63 (2009 Western Conference first round)
- 56 points: Los Angeles Lakers 126, Golden State Warriors 70 (1973 Western Conference Finals)
- 54 points: Chicago Bulls 120, Milwaukee Bucks 66 (2015 Eastern Conference first round)
- 51 points: Oklahoma City Thunder 131, Memphis Grizzlies 80 (2025 Western Conference first round)
- 50 points: Milwaukee Bucks 136, San Francisco Warriors 86 (1971 Western Conference semifinals)
