The Oklahoma City Thunder have taken the NBA by storm this season — and their latest feat could be their most impressive yet.
The youthful Thunder on Thursday night recorded one of the largest margins of victory in an NBA game, as Oklahoma City blew the rebuilding Portland Trail Blazers out of Paycom Center with a 139-77 thrashing. The 62-point victory places the Thunder in rare company, with only a handful of other teams in league history ever winning a game by that significant an amount. Coincidentally, the Thunder appear twice on the list of biggest blowouts — although OKC was on the receiving end that night.
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Two years later…the shoe is on the other foot
The Thunder’s win over the Blazers represents the fifth-largest margin of victory in NBA history. The record itself was set during a game between the Thunder and the Grizzlies in Memphis on Dec. 2, 2021. Oklahoma City’s 152-79 loss that night — a 73-point margin — is the largest gap ever recorded in the Association‘s history.
Just over two years later, Oklahoma City is now good enough to inflict that kind of damage on an opponent rather than receiving it in the midst of a 24-58 season. The Thunder improved to 26-11 after pounding Portland, with point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pacing all players with 31 points in only 21 minutes. Chet Holmgren scored 19 points in 20 minutes, while Josh Giddey posted a triple-double —13 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds — in 22 minutes of action.
The next-largest margins of victory
Aside from the Grizzlies‘ 73-point win over the Thunder from the 2021/22 season, there are seven other games in NBA history where one team has defeated another by at least 60 points. Only three of them — including Thursday night — have occurred in the 21st century.
The second-largest margin of victory in an NBA game is 68 points, when the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Miami Heat by a 148-80 score on Dec. 17, 1991. Behind that, the Indiana Pacers‘ 124-59 win over the Blazers on Feb. 27, 1998 — a 65-point win — is third on the blowout list. The Golden State Warriors‘ 153-91 victory against the Sacramento Kings (Nov. 2, 1991) and the Syracuse Nationals‘ 162-100 win over the New York Knicks (Christmas Day 1960) are the other two games that were decided by exactly 62 points.
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