Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, Josh Giddey had a triple-double and the Oklahoma City Thunder rolled past the Portland Trail Blazers 139-77 on Thursday night, a 62-point victory that matched the fifth-worst loss in the history of the NBA.
“It was almost a perfect storm, to be honest,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. “Nothing really worked for us.”
Oklahoma City shattered its previous record with a 45-point margin of victory, achieved twice during the 2012-13 season. The Thunder tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the best record in the Western Conference at 26-11.
The Thunder were on the wrong side of the NBA’s biggest blow, losing by 73 to Memphis on December 2, 2021. Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t play that day, but he remembers feeling embarrassed in front of his teammates.
“After that game we talked about it, and we promised ourselves that we will never feel that feeling again,” he said. “I think it’s been a little bit of our fuel to get where we are tonight.”
It was the Trail Blazers’ second-worst loss, having fallen by 65 to Indiana on February 27, 1998.
Jalen Williams scored 21 points, Chet Holmgren added 19 and Giddey had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists for his ninth career triple-double as the Thunder shot 57% from the field. It was a complete victory for an Oklahoma City team that had won in Miami the night before and returned home at 3 a.m. Thursday.
“I thought we cleared a few hurdles tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought the first one was the start of the game, how ready we were to play and the energy we were able to generate, obviously with a tough schedule, which is a step forward. It’s mind over matter. And then the other hurdle was playing with an edge… I thought we played pretty well with an edge, on both ends of the floor.
Portland’s Anfernee Simons scored 14 points and Scoot Henderson had 13 on 4-for-21 shooting. The Trail Blazers shot just 27.7% from the field.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City had 41 assists on 53 field goals made.
“I mean, this was, sheesh – there’s not really much good to say about it for us,” Billups said. “I mean, I’ll say this. I thought we generated some pretty good looks in the first half. The fact that we could make virtually nothing deflated us.”
Henderson scored the first five points of the game before the Thunder responded with a 22-2 run to take control. The highlight of the run was an odd basket from Holmgren. He drove to the rim on a fast break and was actually tackled from behind by Portland’s Jerami Grant. Somehow, Holmgren threw the ball over his shoulder and into the hoop to give Oklahoma City an 18-7 lead.
Oklahoma City dominated from there, extending the lead to 75-39 at halftime. Portland’s frustration boiled over when Shaedon Sharpe and Billups were both called for technical fouls with 1:45 left in the second quarter.
The Thunder held on in the second half. Giddey threw a pass like a quarterback almost the entire length of the field and found Williams for a layup to put the Thunder up 86-46. Oklahoma City outscored the Trail Blazers 43-17 in the third quarter and took a 118-56 lead into the fourth.