Leading by 78 points with 3:02 left in the fourth quarter following a dunk by bench player John Konchar, the Memphis Grizzlies had to settle for a 73-point win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
Memphis’ 152-79 win over the visiting Thunder was the biggest blowout in the history of the NBA, a league that has seen its fair share of blowouts. Cleveland previously held the record after beating Miami 148-80 in December of 1991 for a 68-point win.
Of the 12 players Memphis used in the win, nine reached double figures, with Jaren Jackson Jr. leading the way with 27 points. In addition to setting a team record for points scored, the Grizzlies also set a franchise mark for shooting by making 62.5% of their shots.Â
“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 Thunder have made it somewhat of a habit of losing big, as OKC also suffered a lopsided 152-95 defeat to the visiting Indiana Pacers last season. Thanks to last night’s beatdown by the Grizzlies, the Thunder now own the worst road loss (73 points) and home loss (57 points) in NBA history.
“Tonight is not necessarily who we are,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think we’ve definitely shown that from a competitive standpoint. This isn’t indicative of who our team is. Obviously, it was a combination of things. They played with great force and pace. They made some shots. We didn’t shoot it well early and just really couldn’t get a grip on the game. Any part of the game.”
The Thunder have lost eight games in a row. The Grizzlies, who are playing without injured star point guard Ja Morant, have won three in a row.
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