The Grizzlies have just made history for all the wrong reasons, as they just suffered the most lopsided NBA playoff defeat in over a decade. After their 131-80 loss in the opening of their Western Conference postseason series, Ja Morant gave a strong message to both fans and teammates.
“We will never play that bad again,” the Memphis superstar promised after losing by 51 points to the top-seeded Thunder this Sunday. With this result, it became the fifth highest loss in playoff history. The last time something like this happened, was back when the Bulls beat the Bucks by 54 in 2015.
As for Oklahoma City, who didn’t even play any of their starters throughout the fourth quarter, at one point led by as many as 56. The largest margin victory ever set in postseason history was back when the Nuggets won by 58 over the New Orleans Hornets 16 years ago.
“Luckily for us, there’s only one way from this, and that’s up,” shared Thomas Iisalo, who has been acting as the Grizzlies interim coach ever since Taylor Jenkins was fired three weeks ago. “We will analyze it, we’ll learn from it, and then we will fix those things that hurt us. But there were a lot of things.”
Despite the impressive-point margin between both teams, the blowout victory doesn’t come as a surprise. During the 2024-25 regular season, the Thunder became the league-best record with 68-14 and broke the NBA mark for point differential during the regular season (plus-12.9 per game).
This season, OKC swept Memphis in all four games by double figures, while the average margin in regular-season win over them was 18.75 points. “We kind of have to take this win, like, they’re going to be way better in Game 2,” said Jalen Williams, who posted 20 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals in 26 minutes.
The young star then added: “We’re trying to not give them a lot of life in regards to that. That’s a really good team over there, so Game 2 is going to be completely different. We’re kind of competing with ourselves in a way to make sure we’re sharp for Game 2.”
