OKLAHOMA CITY — A lot of pregame pageantry was involved in this one. This marked Josh Giddey’s first visit to OKC since he was traded this past offseason. Fans cheered and former teammates hugged. Turns out, that was the only interesting tidbit of the evening. Once the ball went up in the air, this became an otherwise standard blowout victory.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had a relaxed 145-117 win over the Chicago Bulls. The former led most of the contest by double- digit points and by as many as 43 points. They’ve now won 10 straight as the playoffs near.

“Dailyapproachhasbeen great and the consistency day-to-day has been there and I think that’s shown up on the court. We’re in a nice team rhythm on both ends of the floor game-by-game,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Got seven more. Not an insignificant amount of games. We got to keep improving, keep sharpening our blade as we run through the regular season.”

After both teams struggled to score at the start, the Thunder offense got it going. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander slithered his way around the paint and Isaiah Joe didn’t need long to heat up. Pair that with Giddey’s struggles against Jalen Williams, OKC exited the first quarter with a 29-18 lead.

That escalated in the second quarter. Highlighted by a dominant 20-5 run, the Thunder scored 49 points in the frame and entered halftime with a decisive 74-40 lead. Nearly doubling Chicago’s points, this was the rare game where the outcome was decided by the break. Everybody would’ve been better off with a running clock in the second half.

The Thunder continued their dominance out of the break. They surpassed 40 points against and put this one away. At one point, the score was almost 10050. Going with the hockey lineup change, all of the Thunder’s starters checked out for the final time before the third quarter even ended. They held a 114-74 lead after three frames.

The Bulls’ backups prettied up the final score in the fourth quarter with 43 points but that was pure optics. It was another fourth frame where Gilgeous-Alexander got to sit out and enjoy some extra rest.

The Thunder shot 53% from the field and went 23-of-43 (53.5%) from 3. They shot 18-of-23 on free throws. They had 39 assists on 52 baskets. Seven Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished

with 27 points and 12 assists. Williams had an efficient 23 points. Joe scored 31 points off the bench as he was on fire from deep. Isaiah Hartenstein had 14 points and seven rebounds. Lu Dort had 11 points. Cason Wallace and Kenrich Williams each scored 10 points.

Meanwhile, the Bulls shot 45% from the field and went 16-of-51 (31.4%) from 3. They shot 13-of-16 on free throws. They had 29 assists on 44 baskets. Seven Bulls players scored double-digit points.

Giddey finished with 15 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Mata Buzelis had 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Patrick Williams scored 13 points. Nikola Vucevic had 11 points and eight rebounds. Jevon Carter scored 17 points and Talen Horton-Tucker scored 16 points off the bench.

The Bulls are the latest team who entered OKC with a red-hot streak and got quickly extinguished. Not that the reminder was needed, but the Thunder showed again why they’re in their own tier alone compared to the rest of the league.

As the regular season winds down, the Thunder collected another historic record like Thanos with Infinity Stones. This time, they surpassed the 201516 Golden State Warriors for the most regular season wins against an opposing conference at 28-1. And it’s not like they were chasing that record. It just happened to land at their doorstep as a side effect of what they’ve done this year.

“In Indiana, we’re diving on the floor up 20. Against Memphis, that was a game that felt like a loss, to be honest with you. They punched us early. They had more juice to start the game,” Daigneault said. “We’re up 14 in the third and they came all the way back to take the lead. It had a feel of a home loss and then the guys just turned on a different level and ended up running away with that game. It’s impressive internal motivation the guys have. They feed off each other’s energy and it’s important for us right now.”

Next up for the Thunder is tonight against the Detroit Pistons at 8:30 p.m.

The game will be televised on ESPN.

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