THUNDER WIRE - In a battle of the West’s top two records, OKC turned what could’ve been a schedule loss to Memphis into an impromptu win. All this heavyweight bout showed was that the gap between the former and the field might be painfully wider than most think.

The Oklahoma City Thunder collected a 125112 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. It’s one of OKC’s most impressive wins in a season filled with them.

Entering the contest, everything before tipoff favored the Grizzlies. They were fully healthy and fresh off two-day rest. They were also winners of four in a row and nine of their last 10. Meanwhile, the Thunder were short-handed — which shocker, is nothing new — as Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort and Cason Wallace were out. They were also on the second night of a homeand- road back-to-back part of a larger three games in four nights stretch.

Overall, the Grizzlies had several advantages that should’ve equalized their matchup against the Thunder. Instead, OKC kept chugging along and was a winning machine that didn’t slow down despite juggling missing parts.

“Just great toughness, collective toughness and grit to come out here with a win under those circumstances,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. “They’re a great team and they’ve been great all season. They’re also redhot to come in. I thought it was similar to the Portland game recently. Portland was similar. They were playing really well and playing well since. I just thought our guys’ tone coming into the game was impressive.”

After both teams exchanged baskets early on, the Thunder gained some distance on the scoreboard thanks to a 15-6 run. They built a 34-26 lead at the end of the first quarter. They one-uped themselves in the second frame with 35 points and entered halftime with a stunning 69-52 advantage.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did what he usually does in the first half but Jalen Williams and Aaron Wiggins stepped up as scorers to help make up for the notable absences. Alex Caruso’s fit with the starters was also about as perfect as hoped.

Needing a hot start out of the break, the Grizzlies couldn’t muster much energy. Instead, the Thunder continued their dominance. A 21-8 run ballooned their lead. Gilgeous-Alexander nailed an outside 3-pointer and Kenrich Williams forced a turnover by diving for a loose ball and giving it to Dillon Jones for the transition and-one layup.

Suddenly, the Thunder had a 97-70 lead. The Grizzlies crowd was stunned. They likely entered the game hoping for a potential statement win. Instead, the depleted Thunder ran them out of their own gym. They exited the third quarter with a 104-83 advantage.

Two straight rare fourpoint plays gave the Grizzlies some life. They had a quick 11-0 run to cut the Thunder’s lead to 104-90 with 11 minutes left. Plenty of time for Memphis to make a 14-point comeback — especially since Gilgeous-Alexander sat out with five fouls.

Instead, the Thunder’s bench lineup did just enough to stiff-arm the Grizzlies. A 28-point cushion gave them plenty of margin for error. Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein led the second unit to keep Memphis away on the scoreboard. Gilgeous-Alexander checked back in with a 15-point lead with less than four minutes to go.

The Grizzlies couldn’t score quickly enough to escape the deep hole they dug themselves into. A 29-point fourth quarter only served to pretty up the final deficit of a lopsided affair that flexed the Thunder’s depth.

The Thunder shot 43% from the field and went 18-of-42 (42.9%) from 3. They shot 17-of-21 on free throws. They had 29 assists on 45 baskets. Five Thunder players scored double- digit points. They finished with a plus-24 shot attempt advantage.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 32 points and eight assists. Williams helped with 25 points and six assists. Wiggins went off for 26 points and 11 rebounds. Hartenstein had a 12-point double-double and Caruso finished with 14 points.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies shot 44% from the field and went 12-of-28 (42.9%) from 3. They shot 28-of-39 on free throws. They had 21 assists on 36 baskets. Five Grizzlies players scored double-digit points.

Jaren Jackson Jr. had 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting and three rebounds. Desmone Bane finished with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Ja Morant was limited to 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting and seven assists. Santi Aldama had 18 points and GG Jackson had 11 points off the bench.

These types of wins separate the Thunder from the rest of the pack. They could’ve easily shrugged their shoulders and taken a close loss considering fatigue and absences. Instead, they went into a healthy and rested second seed’s homecourt and blew them out with a near wireto-wire win. “Every game is a different challenge but to come on the road short-handed on a back-to-back and play a team that’s as good as Memphis, that’s playing as well as Memphis, we really challenged ourselves and test ourselves tonight and rose to the level of the game,” Daigneault said. “Which I thought was very impressive. It’s February, we smell All-Star break, we obviously had a good year. You got all the reasons to not fully compete in the game and yet we had a group of guys tonight that fully competed into the game. I was very impressed.” Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points on 8-of-26 shooting and eight assists. He shot 3-of-5 from 3 and went 13-of-16 at free throws.

The superb-efficient scorer had a rare off-night where the jumper didn’t fall. To the Grizzlies’ credit, they did as good a job as anybody else in the league to limit his buckets. But a player of Gilgeous-Alexander’s caliber will always get their numbers. He did that with constant drives to the basket.

Jalen Williams had another awesome outing. He’s back to his previous hyper-efficient scoring games. He finished with 25 points on 12-of-20 shooting, six assists and six rebounds. He shot 1-of-5 from 3.

The Thunder needed the 23-year-old to step up with the amount of players out. He did exactly that as OKC’s second scorer. He got to the free-throw line zero times but kept attacking the paint. Memphis couldn’t contain him inside as he collected several highlight dunks.

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