Australia Josh Giddey helped himself to his ninth career triple-double as his high-flying Oklahoma Thunder matched the fifth-largest margin of victory in NBA history.
The Thunder defeated the Portland Trailblazers 139-77 in Thursday night’s home game, falling into a tie with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the best record in the Western Conference at 26-11.
Giddey contributed 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds – his first triple double of the season – in his 23 minutes on the court as the Thunder gave big minutes to their bench players while earning their eighth win in his last 10 matches.
Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points in the 62-point victory, shattering the Thunder’s previous record for a 45-point victory margin.
It was the Trail Blazers‘the second worst defeat in its history, after falling 65 to Indiana on February 27, 1998.
The Thunder were on the wrong side of the NBA’s biggest blowout, losing by 73 to Memphis on December 2, 2021.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t play that day, but he remembers feeling embarrassed for his teammates.
“After that game, we addressed it and we just made a promise to ourselves that we would never feel that feeling again,” he said. “I think it cost us some fuel to get to where we are tonight.”
Jalen Williams scored 21 points and Chet Holmgren added 19 for the Thunder, who shot 57 percent from the field despite coming back from Wednesday night’s victory at Miami to 3 a.m. Thursday morning.
For Portland (10-27) Anfernée Simons scored 14 points and Scoot Henderson shot 13-for-21 while his team shot just 27.7 percent from the field.
“It was almost like a perfect storm, to be honest with you,” the Portland coach said. Chauncey Billups said. “Nothing really worked for us.”
Australia Josh Green seized his extra scoring opportunities in the absence of his superstar teammate Luka Doncic and two other starters as he helped the Dallas Mavericks to a 128-124 home victory against the New York Knicks.
Green started and scored 18 points on eight of 12 shots from the field in his 35 minutes, adding three assists, two rebounds and a steal.
Kyrie Irving led the way with 44 points and Tim Hardaway Jr. added 32 in his fifth start of the season for the Mavs (23-16) who held off a late charge from the Knicks (22-16).
Doncic sat out with an ankle injury. The Mavericks also lacked a center Derek Lively II and Australian guard Dante Exum.
THE Milwaukee Bucks came out of his crisis by beating the NBA leader Boston Celtics 135-102 in their most dominant performance of the season.
Bobby Portis scored 28 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 24 and both players pulled down 12 rebounds. Damien Lillard scored 21 points for the Bucks.
“There was also a respect-slash-fear factor that is very important to this team, that we have to go out there and play our best today,” Antetokounmpo said after the Bucks (26-12) beat the Tired Celtics (26-12). 29-9) for only their second victory in six games.
