OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder made it look easy most of the time en route to their 68-win regular season.
In Game 1 of their first-round series Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, they made it look unfair.
After battling through the Play-In Tournament and a tumultuous final month of the regular season, Memphis didn’t just look overmatched Sunday. It looked like these two teams didn’t belong in the same league.
The Thunder took a 1-0 lead in the first-round series after walking away with a 131-80 victory in the most lopsided playoff loss in Grizzlies history and one of the most dominant playoff performances in NBA history.
“Just flush it,” Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. said when asked how his team should respond to the loss. “That was such a bad loss. There’s not too much we can nitpick because it’s not like we lost because of one reason.”
By the end of the first half, the Grizzlies were down by 32 points. They had 15 field goals and 14 turnovers. They had the same number of 3-pointers (two) as plays where they accidentally threw the ball off a teammate’s head as they rolled down the middle of the lane. And the blooper reel only got worse.
The onslaught continued once the third quarter began.
The Thunder poured in 44 more points coming out of halftime, and the lead ballooned to 52 points before the start of the fourth quarter.
The Grizzlies were lifeless. They were uninspired. They looked like a team that wasn’t ready to perform against an OKC squad that smothered teams all season.
The Grizzlies were already in a tough spot, heading into Game 1 only 36 hours removed from an emotional Play-In win over the Dallas Mavericks, earning them the eighth seed in the playoffs. But a team with the Grizzlies’ high-end talent and big-game experience shouldn’t look this bad in the postseason.
Plenty of things went wrong that could easily be fixed, but this result showed how large the gap between these two teams is. MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was only 2-of-10 from the field after the first two quarters, and Oklahoma City still had a 32-point halftime lead.
Thunder guard Cason Wallace dunks against the Memphis Grizzlies. (Alonzo Adams/Imagn Images)
The biggest challenge after games like this has nothing to do with X’s and O’s after the team’s next practice session. It’s about the Grizzlies showing they still believe in themselves and their chances of winning after being steamrolled.
How bad do they want it? That’ll be the only thing that matters going into Game 2 on Tuesday.
“We’ll never play that bad again,” Grizzlies star Ja Morant said after Sunday’s loss. “If we win Tuesday, the series is 1-1. Then, this game won’t matter.”
But this Thunder team is the type of juggernaut few teams have faced in a playoff series.
They’re immensely talented at every position. They’re young, athletic and hungry to prove that their 68-win season wasn’t a fluke. The Thunder are the ninth team in the Western Conference to win 65-plus games in the regular season since 2000. Six of those teams went on to reach the conference finals, and four of them walked away as NBA champions.
Despite Oklahoma City’s accomplishments this season, there are still skeptics who don’t believe a team this young and this inexperienced will run through the West.
On Sunday, the Grizzlies fell victim to Oklahoma City’s desire to quiet those critics.
If they have any chance of making this a series, the Grizzlies must respond with a much better mindset and approach going into Game 2.
“If the other team is making a huge run and you’re watching a golden opportunity slip away, it’s human nature to have that feeling that, ‘We’re letting it go,’” Grizzlies interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “In those situations, (the trust among the team) is tested, but at the same time, it can bring some positives too. You test the system, and now you have a chance to respond.”
Against this particular OKC team, the first place to respond is by taking care of the ball. The Thunder had the best defense in the NBA this season, and it all started with their ability to force turnovers and create easy baskets on the other end.
They put pressure on the ball from start to finish, making it almost impossible for teams to find a flow on offense. This is where Memphis struggled the most on Sunday, leading to some atrocious stretches on offense.
In their four matchups during the regular season, the Grizzlies averaged 17.3 turnovers against Oklahoma City. They nearly matched that number by halftime in Game 1. By the end of the game, the Thunder scored 24 points off 24 Grizzlies turnovers. That’s not a formula for success against any team, let alone one that feeds off the mistakes made by their opponents.
Morant had some issues getting to his usual spots, shooting 6 of 17 from the field, but it got particularly ugly whenever he wasn’t on the floor. The non-Morant ballhandlers for the Grizzlies were getting swarmed everywhere they went. When they tried to get the ball to their big men closer to the basket, help defenders flooded the paint and took away passing lanes.
As Memphis prepares for Game 2, the main point of emphasis must be finding easier ways to generate offense without allowing the Thunder’s pressure to throw everything off track.
“They put relentless pressure on the ball,” Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane said. “Their bigs are active around the rim. Just taking care of the ball and getting good shots. I think that’ll solve a lot.”
Bane’s play must also improve, along with fellow Grizzlies star Jaren Jackson Jr., to give their team a chance. While Morant’s performance was below average compared to his usual standards, Bane and Jackson were invisible most of the game.
Bane finished with nine points on 3-of-12 shooting, while Jackson finished with four points on 2-of-13 shooting. It was the worst shooting performance of Bane’s playoff career and the fewest points Jackson has scored in a playoff game.
Considering how difficult it is to generate offense against this stifling Thunder defense, it puts even more pressure on Bane and Jackson to create looks for themselves and others to loosen up the defense and prevent Morant from having all the shot-creation responsibilities on his back.
If those two don’t show up in this series, the Grizzlies will be lucky to avoid a sweep.
“In every area, I can get better,” Jackson said. “There’s so much room for improvement after a loss like that. It’s definitely just one game. That’s how a series works. We can’t really overthink things in any way. … I’m going to figure out a way to play better and get myself involved in the series. Then, we’ll be good.”
There will be a lot of talk over the next 48 hours about the Thunder’s dominance and how the Grizzlies have no chance in this series. But Memphis remains a confident group. It’s a core part of their identity to keep believing even when others have given up on them.
That attitude is what helped them overcome their late-season spiral and make it to this point.
But they’ve also got experiences to look back on that show how quickly a series can change. Bane pointed to the Grizzlies’ run in the 2022 playoffs, which began with a Game 1 loss to Minnesota in the first round before winning four of the next five games to finish that series. They were also on the other side in 2021 when they beat Utah in Game 1 of a first-round series before being eliminated after losing the next four games.
Momentum in a series can change quickly. Teams that look invincible one day can start looking flawed once they face the same opponent three or four times.
The Grizzlies have an uphill climb to make this series more than the seemingly inevitable sweep that so many are expecting. If they’re going to prove everyone wrong, it starts with putting up a better fight in Game 2.
(Top photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: William Purnell / Getty Images)