All the formulas were there for Thursday’s Thunder-Grizzlies game ending as an ugly loss and that’s exactly what happened as the short-handed Thunder fell to the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies, 152-79.
The 73-point margin of victory is an NBA record.
The fully healthy Thunder squad is one of the worst teams in the league, which was expected, given they are the youngest team in the league. But a banged-up Thunder squad missing two of its three best players along with all of its veterans on the second night of a back-to-back is just a recipe for disaster.
That was the case tonight as the teams struggled on both ends in a game that was pretty easy to predict how it was going to play out after the opening minutes.
Nonetheless, there’s really not much for fans to be irrationally angry about when discussing the long term health of the team. This lopsided loss speaks more about the result of bad circumstances than the Thunder as a team. There have been plenty of other examples this season of this team staying competitive in games they should not be in to begin with.
That does not mean that this historic loss should not be any less embarrassing. Losing by 73 is unprecedented. Especially against a team missing its best player. Getting blown out in the NBA is one thing; getting annihilated like this is just unacceptable and hopefully is more of a blip than a trend.
Let’s take a look at some grades: