Mind-blowing stats from Grizzlies’ record-breaking 73-point win over Thunder

The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder by 73 points on Thursday, the largest margin of victory in NBA history.

With a final score of 152-79 – and no, there is no typo there – the Grizzlies handled the young, rebuilding Thunder in the most dominant fashion the league has ever seen.

The craziest part? They didn’t even have superstar guard Ja Morant. (To be fair, Oklahoma City was missing star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and reigning Rookie of the Month Josh Giddey, but that’s beside the point).

Jaren Jackson Jr. was the team’s leading scorer with 27 points, which shows just how much of a team effort the victory truly was. Nine different Grizzlies players scored in double figures as the team shot a blistering 62.5 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from 3.

And while the final score and deficit are eye-popping enough, the box score is a piece of art with a ton of hidden-gem stats.

Take a look at some of the most mind-blowing stats from the Grizzlies’ record-setting win.

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Mind-blowing stats from Grizzlies’ 73-point win over Thunder

The Grizzlies could have gone scoreless in the final 21 minutes and 39 seconds and still won.

Memphis scored its 80th point with 9:39 to play in the third quarter. The Thunder finished with 79 points total. Even though the Grizzlies went on to score 72 (!) more points after this point, they could have gone scoreless and still won the game by one.

The Grizzlies bench (83 points) outscored the Thunder as a team.

Six of Memphis’ nine players in double figures were reserves. Led by De’Anthony Melton’s 19 points, the Grizzlies bench outscored OKC’s entire roster. Santi Aldama (18 points) John Konchar (17), Xavier Tillman Sr. (11), Brandon Clarke (11) and Jarrett Culver (11) were the others to reach double-digits scoring.

The Grizzlies outscored the Thunder just on points in the paint.

This is just ridiculous. The Grizzlies had 82 points in the paint; the Thunder had 79 points as a team. It was a game-speed layup line in Memphis.

Santi Aldama recorded a +/- of plus-52 in 28 minutes played – the third-best +/- in any game in NBA history.

Aldama, the No. 30 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, is a Spaniard rookie from Loyola University Maryland. In just the 11th game of his NBA career, he registered the third-best plus-minus in NBA history. He had never scored in double figures or grabbed double-digit rebounds and he did both in this contest, recording the first double-double of his career with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (-56) and Luguentz Dort (-53) finished with the second- and third-worst +/- in any game in NBA history.

Of course, there had to be some ugly stats on the other side of this result.

Rookie Robinson-Earl, the No. 32 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft out of Villanova, had the worst +/- on the team. He went 0-for-7 from the field and scored two points on the night.

For what it’s worth, this was an outlier performance for the young forward, who has otherwise been awesome for OKC this season. Over his last five games, he has recorded two double-doubles while averaging 10.0 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.

Dort, a defensive specialist who has begun to make a name for himself around the league, had the second-worst +/- on the team. He did, however, finish with a team-high 15 points.

Like Robinson-Earl, Dort has been as good as he’s ever been for the Thunder this year. Defense is his calling card, but he’s posting a career-high 16.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.

The Grizzlies’ quarter-by-quarter scoring margin is laughable.

Memphis outscored the Thunder by 15 points in the first quarter, 21 points in the second quarter, 15 points in the third quarter and 22 points in the fourth quarter. OKC didn’t even come close to taking a single frame.

The Grizzlies’ offense jumped from 12th in the NBA to sixth in one game.

Prior to the start of this game, the Grizzlies offensive rating of 109.1 was good for 12th in the NBA. After their 152-point outing, their offensive rating jumped to 111.1, the sixth-best in the NBA.

While the second number is now somewhat deceiving, this offensive output is a positive sign for a team with the second-worst defensive rating in the NBA.

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