How the Grizzlies just pulled off the largest margin of victory in NBA history

The Memphis Grizzlies just beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 152-79. No, I’m not talking about MyNBA franchise mode in NBA 2K22, I’m talking about a real score to a real basketball game.

If that sounds like a scoring margin that you’ve never seen before, it’s probably because it is. The Memphis Grizzlies’ 73-point margin of victory is a new NBA record, according to Grizzlies PR.

A big win shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as the Grizzlies are an objectively better team than the Oklahoma City Thunder. That said, the NBA rarely sees games enter the 50+ point margin of victory territory. So surely the Grizzlies’ NBA All-Star-caliber point guard in Ja Morant had a huge say in this win.

The Memphis Grizzlies completely embarrassed the Oklahoma City Thunder without Ja Morant

The wildest part about this entire thing is that the Grizzlies are still playing without Ja Morant. They just secured a 73-point win over an NBA team without Morant playing in the game.

This isn’t even the first strong performance from this team without Morant, though. I’m not here to claim that the Grizzlies are better without him, but the team is 3-0 in his absence, including this absolute demolition of a game.

But how did they do it?

In short, everybody on the team played an incredible game of basketball. On the night, Memphis played a 12-man rotation and the argument could be made that every one of those 12 men played their best basketball game of the season. It started with Jaren Jackson Jr., who scored a team-high 27 points, and ended with guys like Santi Aldama, who scored 18 points. In fact, Santi Aldama has to have broken some record with a +52 on the night.

The only Grizzly who didn’t have his best performance was Desmond Bane, who only scored two points. Outside of him, the team was firing on all cylinders.

Rather than list specific scoring totals, I’m going to give you a list of every double-figure scorer on the night. Here it is.

• Jaren Jackson Jr., Dillon Brooks, Tyus Jones, Brandon Clarke, Santi Aldama, Xavier Tillman, John Konchar, De’Anthony Melton, and Jarrett Culver.

In short, what happened on Thursday night is what happens when the starters blow out the opposing team and the reserves blow out the opposing team’s reserves.

After a heartbreaking loss to a bad Thunder team last year, this may have served as revenge for the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night. One thing is clear — we won’t see a scoring margin like this again for a very long time.