OKLAHOMA CITY — Poking the ball out of Scotty Pippen Jr.’s possession before he even crossed halfcourt, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander threw down an easy transition dunk. That was enough for Taylor Jenkins to call one final timeout and wave the white flag. In a sudden shift, OKC went from an upset alert to another blowout.

The Oklahoma City Thunder surprisingly enjoyed a 125-101 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Like taking a video game seriously, the former toyed with the latter until closing time sealed the result. All four matchups this season had similar endings with double-digit margins.

“Great juice, great defense obviously, conversion on offense. Combination of converting after misses and turnovers and executing when we had dead-balls and stuff like that,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Just really dialed in. Impressive run right there. I thought our resilience during our floor game. They were really motivated, really fast, really hungry for that game. That’s the kinda night where you’re kinda lucky to be tied with the way they’re playing and you’re able to hang around long enough to put that run on them.”

Both squads took turns with the lead in the first half. The lead tracker resembled a hospital heart monitor with all the up-anddown waves. The Grizzlies held a slight 33-32 advantage after the first quarter. The Thunder punched back with 31 points in the second frame to enter halftime with a 63-59 advantage.

Coming out of the break, the Thunder looked sharper with eight quick points. Isaiah Hartenstein threw a baseline bounce pass to Chet Holmgren for the easy dunk to give OKC a 71-59 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter. That forced the Grizzlies to call a savvy timeout as the scoreboard was getting one-sided.

They made good with the stop. The Grizzlies answered with a 12-3 run to get right back into it. From then, it was a tight contest as the Thunder scored 28 points in the frame. They entered the fourth quarter with a small 91-89 lead. Memphis’ outside shooting kept it in it.

After the Grizzlies retook the lead for the first time in forever when Jaren Jackson Jr. made a 3-pointer, it felt like this game would come down to the final seconds. It’d be a change of pace from the first three meetings between these squads when it was pure Thunder domination.

Nope. That thought quickly died. Trailing 99-97 with a little under eight minutes left, the Thunder scored 17 consecutive points over the next three minutes. The game-sealing run started with Hartenstein’s second-chance tip-in and ended with him at the free-throw line.

Just like that, the Thunder grew back to a 114-99 lead over the Grizzlies with four minutes left. Memphis was in shell shock as multiple timeouts couldn’t snap it out of OKC’s avalanche. A back-and-forth affair between two top playoff teams suddenly turned into another ho-hum blowout win.

It didn’t take much more time afterward for the Grizzlies to call it quits. This was their best shot out of four tries to beat the Thunder and a fourth-quarter collapse turned what should’ve been at the very least a moral victory into laughter that further solidified the sea-sized gap between the two contenders.

The Thunder shot 49% from the field and went 13-of-31 (41.9%) from 3. They shot 24-of-28 on free throws. They had 28 assists on 44 baskets. Four Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with an efficient 37 points. Jalen Williams had 20 points in his return. Hartenstein tallied an 18-point double-double. Cason Wallace scored 10 points off the bench.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies shot 41% from the field and went 16-of-42 (38.1%) from 3. They shot 22-of-23 on free throws. They had 28 assists on 33 baskets. Four Grizzlies players scored double-digit points as Ja Morant was out.

Jackson Jr. had 27 points on 9-of-21 shooting, four assists and two rebounds. Pippen Jr. finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Jaylen Wells had 13 points and five rebounds. Santi Aldama totaled 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.

It took a little longer than usual, but a 34-15 fourth-quarter scoring advantage showed how easily the Thunder can overwhelm their opponents in an instant after sleepwalking through most of the game. That makes them such a dangerous threat to win a championship this season.

These last two weeks in the regular season ultimately don’t mean anything. The Thunder already clinched the first seed last week. But to drown out a possible second-round playoff opponent on the scoreboard with tenacious defense and soul-crushing outside shots is the type of experience worth running out their top players, instead of playing it safe and bubble-wrapping them until the postseason.

Even though the first seed is already locked up, the Thunder continue to chase history. With the result, they broke the Thunder’s franchise record for regular-season wins at 61. A clean 70 wins is on the table. Sure, it’d take winning out the rest of the way, but you can’t rule out that possibility with this special group.

“We don’t take it lightly. We honor those past teams and respect those teams. We honor and respect the organization and are grateful for the opportunity to be able to represent the organization this way,” Daigneault said. “I think of two groups of people with that particular record. The first is the people that have been here from the beginning of when the team moved here... The other group of people I think about is the players. These are a special group of players that operate in a special way.”

Next up for the Thunder is the Indiana Pacers tonight at 7 p.m. at home.