OKLAHOMA CITY — A millisecond before the buzzer sounded, Jalen Williams swished in a stepback mid-range jumper to end the third quarter. It was the cherry on top of OKC’s most impressive win in a season filled with them.

The Oklahoma City Thunder flat-out embarrassed the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 134-114 win. In an NBA Finals preview billed as “The Rematch,” OKC turned it into a laughingstock of a sequel from its first dramatic showdown.

“It was nothing new for us in terms of the way we attacked,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “We’ve played small before. We just had to double down on that package. I thought the carryover from Cleveland, we played them on short turnaround, and we carried over some really good things in the gameplan where we really executed.”

Without Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, the Thunder turned to Jaylin Williams as their starting center. The early returns showed that perhaps OKC needed to go bucket for bucket in a high-scoring affair. Right up the Cavaliers’ territory. Max Strus made a 3-pointer to give Cleveland an early 12-10 lead.

Then the Thunder finished the quarter on an unreal 22-2 run. They ended the first quarter with a 32-14 lead. That momentum bled into the second frame as they scored the first eight points to cap off a game-changing 30-2 run. Just like that, it went from a two-point deficit to a 24-point lead.

The crowd resembled a playoff atmosphere. The building was nearly deafening. The Thunder’s defense was about as perfect as it can get. Every other Cavaliers possession ended in a turnover. OKC immediately made them regret that carelessness with a fast bucket on the other end. Before Cleveland could even process what happened, the game was unofficially over.

The Thunder scored 43 points in the second quarter. They entered halftime with a monstrous 75-49 lead. The heavyweight bout between the league’s top two teams didn’t even reach the halfway point before Cleveland was knocked out cold.

“We were stacking stops, we were turning them over, great activity,” Daigneault said on the 30-2 run. “I thought we just handled the point-of-attack tonight way better. We were able to blunt that part of the game.”

The second half turned into an impromptu party for the Thunder crowd. Leading by as many as 42 points, OKC didn’t have to worry about an improbable comeback. They scored 44 points in the third frame to ensure that. It had a jaw-dropping 119-81 lead. It was another game cut short for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 40 points in three quarters.

The fourth quarter resembled an OKC Blue game. None of the Thunder starters logged a single second. The Cavaliers’ third-stringers did their best to pretty up the final score. They scored 33 points in garbage time to turn in a deceptive deficit.

The Thunder shot 51% from the field and went 18-of-53 (34%) from 3. They shot 10-of-11 on free throws. They had 25 assists on 53 baskets. Six Thunder players scored double-digit points. All 13 players saw notable action.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with an efficient 40 points. Williams had 19 points. Lu Dort scored 22 points and limited the Cavaliers’ best scorer. Alex Caruso, Isaiah Joe and Branden Carlson were OKC’s other double-digit scorers.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers shot 47% from the field and went 13-of-42 (31%) from 3. They shot 17-of-21 on free throws. They had 32 assists on 42 baskets. Only three Cavaliers players scored double-digit points.

Darius Garland finished with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting and nine assists. Jarrett Allen had 13 points and seven rebounds. Evan Mobley was held to five points and three rebounds. Donovan Mitchell only had eight points on 3-of-15 shooting.

It feels repetitive to say, but this might be the Thunder’s most impressive win yet. Without Holmgren and Hartenstein, it looked dire against the high-octane Cavaliers. Mobley and Allen already dominated OKC once — and that was with Hartenstein. The likely All-Star frontcourt duo should’ve taken OKC’s lunch money.

Instead, the Thunder fully embraced their smallball lineup and out-ran the Cavaliers. They relied on their lockdown defense to force turnover after turnover. The plan worked as Cleveland committed 21 turnovers, which led to 30 points for OKC. The latter finished with a plus-15 shot-attempt advantage. Just unreal stuff.

“A lot of it was the gameplan. We were just really, really aggressive with their two guards up in Cleveland and kinda betting on that winning the day,” Daigneault said on the difference between the first and second game. “To their credit, they played great out of advantage that night. A lot of that was the bigs. They really made us pay for that. Made us reconsider our plan. Even if Isaiah Hartenstein played tonight, we would’ve had a much different plan against them because of the way they were able to toast us last week. Great job of the guys to just carry over what we talked about.”