Australia’s Josh Giddey has helped himself to his ninth career triple double as his high-flying Oklahoma Thunder matched the fifth-biggest winning margin in NBA history.
The Thunder thumped the hapless Portland Traiblazers 139-77 in Thursday night’s home match, moving 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 court as the Thunder gave big minutes to their bench players while notching an eighth win from their last 10 games.
All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points in the 62-point victory which shattered the Thunder’s previous record for victory margin of 45 points, set twice during the 2012-13 season.
It was the Trail Blazers’ second-worst loss in their history, having fallen by 65 to Indiana on February 27, 1998.
The Thunder were on the wrong end of the NBA’s biggest blowout, losing by 73 to Memphis on December 2, 2021.
Gilgeous-Alexander did not play that day, but he remembers being embarrassed for his teammates.
“After that game, we addressed it, and we just made a promise to ourselves to never feel that feeling again,” he said. “I think it’s been a little bit of our fuel to get to where we are tonight.”
Jalen Williams scored 21 points and Chet Holmgren added 19 for the Thunder who shot at 57 per cent from the field despite returning from Wednesday night’s win at Miami at 3am on Thursday morning.
For Portland (10-27) Anfernee Simons scored 14 points and Scoot Henderson had 13 on 4-for-21 shooting as theit team shot at just 27.7 per cent from the field.
“It was almost like a perfect storm, to be honest with you,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. “Nothing really worked for us.”
Australia’s Josh Green seized his added scoring opportunities in the absence of superstar teammate Luka Doncic and two other starters as he helped the Dallas Mavericks to a 128-124 home win over the New York Knicks.
Green started and scored 18 points on eight of 12 shooting 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 were also missing centre Dereck Lively II and Australian guard Dante Exum.