The Oklahoma City Thunder build an 18-point lead in the first quarter largely on the back of making seven of their first 11 3-pointers.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the Memphis Grizzlies took the lead. The Thunder couldn’t catch up, taking a 121-92 loss to a team desperately holding onto the eighth seed.
“It thought it was a little bit of fool’s gold in the first quarter, to be honest,” Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said.
The Thunder went 7-for-11 from deep to start the game, but over the final 37 minutes went 6-for-32.
Both teams had 11 rebounds in the first quarter, but then Memphis finished with a 58-36 edge.
Oklahoma City led 37-25 after the first. The Grizzlies outscored them 70-41 over the next two quarters, effectively putting the game out of reach.
“I thought (the Grizzlies) missed some very, very good shots that they had (in the first quarter),” Donovan said. “I didn’t think our defense was great. I think we were very fortunate … And what happened was, we did not shoot the ball at all from that first quarter on.”
The Thunder only made three 3-pointers in the second quarter, two of which came in the final five seconds of the half.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not score until there were only about three and a half minutes left in the first half. He finished with 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting and made just one of eight 3-pointers.
The bench unit could not find the basket. The eight guys who came in off the bench combined for 26 points on 10-for-47 shooting. Only Hamidou Diallo and Darius Bazley made more than one shot.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies’ bench scored 46 points on just 28 field goal attempts.
Three bench players scored double-digit points to complement starters Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks and Jonas Valanciunas combining for 60.
“We never really made them feel us all game long,” point guard Chris Paul said.
“They were just so comfortable. They got a little bit of everything. They got some floaters. They got some 3s. They got to the free throw line … Our defense was just bad.”
Forward Danilo Gallinari said the Thunder were lacking energy.
It was a team without Steven Adams and Dennis Schroder, but they were unwilling to use those absences as an excuse for the loss after the game.
Oklahoma City built a lead. Memphis is clinging to the eighth playoff spot for dear life after losing the first four bubble games.
“If we got a lead, if it’s 10 (points), 15, we gotta be one of those teams that tries to take it to 20, 25,” Paul said. “Know that every team out here is fighting.”
On Friday, that was Memphis fighting. The Thunder built up that 18-point first-quarter lead, but as Donovan said and Paul repeated, it was fool’s gold.
The Grizzlies got an 18-point lead, and then pushed it up to 20, then 25, and eventually exceeded 30 before winning by 29.
“Once they started to get into a rhythm and started to make some shots, and we shot the ball like we did, we weren’t able to stop them enough defensively to overcome or offset the way we shot it today,” Donovan said.
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