The Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday shattered the NBA record for the largest margin of victory with a 152-79 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The game was long decided and the Memphis starters were relegated to cheerleaders on the bench when John Konchar got a steal and headed to the basket.
His right-handed dunk gave the Grizzlies a 145-67 lead with 3 minutes, 2 seconds remaining and a new franchise record for points in a game.
Photo: Justin Ford-USA TODAY
That 78-point advantage was Memphis’ biggest lead, but by the time it was over the Grizzlies were still 73 points ahead.
“At that moment, I didn’t know it was a franchise record,” Konchar said. “I just kind of saw the lane and I dunked it, but it’s awesome.”
The 73-point margin easily topped the previous mark, which was the Cleveland Cavalier’s 68-point defeat of the Miami Heat in a 148-80 win on Dec. 17, 1991.
Photo: AP
“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.”
Memphis used 12 players and nine of them reached double figures in scoring, with Jaren Jackson Jr’s 27 points leading the way for the Grizzlies. Memphis were without their best player, injured guard Ja Morant.
It was 72-36 at halftime and the Grizzlies just kept adding to the lead.
“I think there was some slippage defensively and I think before you know it, teams are in a rhythm and the game is out of hand,” Oklahoma City’s Mike Muscala said.
“We didn’t fight, obviously. You’d rather go out fighting. You would rather go out putting your best foot forward and playing together,” Muscala said.
The Thunder flirted with being on the wrong end of the record last season, trailing Indiana by 67 points on May 1 before rallying — such as it was — to lose by merely 57 points, 152-95.
This was worse.
The Grizzlies set a franchise record for shooting, making 62.5 percent of their shots.
De’Anthony Melton scored 19 points, Santi Aldama scored 18 and John Konchar scored 17 for the Grizzlies. None of those three players even started.
“Man, it feels great. It feels great to be in the history books, especially in front of our home crowd,” Melton said. “And we did it 1 through 15. Everybody contributed, everybody played hard and we all got to get in the game. So, it’s always a blessing.”
In other games, it was:
‧ Knicks 115, Bulls 119
‧ Raptors 97, Bucks 93
‧ Suns 114, Pistons 103
‧ Trail Blazers 83, Spurs 114
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