The Oklahoma City Thunder’s 139-77 win over the Portland Trail Blazer made history as the 62-point win was the largest margin of victory in OKC history.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault pulled his starters halfway through the third quarter as OKC led by 49 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points in 21 minutes. Josh Giddey collected his first career triple-double of 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Chet Holmgren had 19 points and four rebounds. Jalen Williams scored 21 points on 10 shots.
Leading by a significant margin for most of the game, the score caught the eyes of X, formerly known as Twitter. Let’s look at some of the best tweets reacting to the Thunder’s lopsided win.
Thunder starting 5 tonight
SGA: 31 PTS/11-15 FG
Giddey: 13 PTS/10 REB/12 AST/3 BLK
JDub: 21 PTS/9-10 FG/7 REB/2 BLK
Dort: 11 PTS/3-5 3PT
Chet: 19 PTS/9-13 FGIn only 2.5 quarters. pic.twitter.com/xDCd6X0YDE
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) January 12, 2024
OMG
IM DYING
THERES STILL 3:42 LEFT IN THUNDER BLAZERS
AND THE NBA APP HAS ALREADY GIVEN THE THUNDER THE WIN pic.twitter.com/2C0jkbxNx2
— Andrew Schlecht (@AndrewKSchlecht) January 12, 2024
2 years 1 month ago: OKC lost by 73 points.
Tonight: OKC won by 62 points.
Beginning of last season: Thunder was bottom 3 in Vegas preseason win odds.
Halfway through this season: Thunder is tied for #1 in the West.
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) January 12, 2024
OKC is the first team to shoot 50% or better in 10 straight games since the 1993 San Antonio Spurs.
The KD Warriors, the Kobe Lakers, the Duncan Spurs, the Nash Suns… none of them did it.
But this young Thunder squad did.
(stat guru @BasketballGuruD)
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) January 12, 2024
Final score:
139 — Thunder
77 — BlazersTied for the 5th-largest win in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/kYBSqCLKEG
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 12, 2024
Mark Daigneault asked about any thought in going after the 73-point margin the Thunder had in Memphis two years ago:
“That’s our record.”
Maybe my favorite quote ever from Mark.
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 12, 2024
Thunder in 2021 —
73-point loss to GrizzliesThunder in 2024 —
62-point win vs BlazersHow times have changed. pic.twitter.com/GRcukbrxor
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 12, 2024
The 2nd youngest team in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder are tied for 1st place in the western conference.
— Thunder Film Room (@ThunderFilmRoom) January 12, 2024
Final from OKC ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/OazvDLTapJ
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) January 12, 2024
The all time record for point differential is 73. Need to witness history tonight. Go Thunder. pic.twitter.com/rtd0cI3726
— Jason Gallagher (@jga41agher) January 12, 2024
An insightful Mark Daigneault, asked about the journey from the 73-point loss to tonight’s win: “You learn that the sun comes up the next day, you have practice the next day. … that’s like your worst nightmare, that game. But the fear of it is worse than the reality of it. The…
— Joel Lorenzi (@jxlorenzi) January 12, 2024
