OKLAHOMA CITY — Winning the opening tip-off, Collin Gillespie didn’t even have time to run a play. Cason Wallace blitzed him from the start and ripped the ball away. An easy transition layup foreshadowed the one-sided contest that transpired.

The Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely humiliated the Phoenix Suns in a 138-89 win. They led by as many as 53 points. The 2025 NBA Cup quarterfinals victory punched their ticket for a December trip to Las Vegas for a second straight year.

“I thought we had good mental toughness tonight. It’s hard to play with leads. It’s hard not to get distracted by the score. I thought the group to start the third quarter came out and threw the first punch. They did a great job,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “That energy continued through the third. The group in the fourth did a great job just playing the next possession. That’s how you build habits.”

It didn’t take long for the Thunder to bury the Suns. With Devin Booker, they had a puncher’s chance. But without him, this was over before the game even started. Jalen Williams passed it out to Chet Holmgren for the catchand- shoot 3-pointer. That put them up by double-digit points before most folks even had a chance to settle in.

The Thunder had a 38-23 lead after the first quarter. That only ballooned for the rest of the night. The Thunder scored 36 points in the second frame. To end the half, they went unconscious from the outside with a 20-6 run. Lu Dort sank a couple of deep 3-pointers. Williams joined in on the fun at the buzzer.

The Thunder had a 74-48 halftime lead over the Suns. It didn’t get any prettier from there. Holmgren went into the post and finessed his way to an easy layup. Williams then bulldozed his way to a floater. And Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the cup for the scoop layup. Eight quick points out of the break put this one away.

As the Thunder buried the Suns on the scoreboard, the only drama that happened in the third quarter involved Grayson Allen. Pushing Holmgren out of frustration, a little scuffle took place. Williams egged the OKC crowd on to cheer. Allen was eventually ejected with a flagrant foul.

Flirting with a 40-point lead, the Thunder finally pulled the starters. All before the end of the third frame, too. Something that’s rarely happened. They scored 36 points in the quarter and held a 110-72 lead. The fourth quarter turned into garbage time, slash the Suns trying to pretty up the final margin. Couldn’t do that either, as OKC scored 28 points in the final frame.

The Thunder led by 30-plus points throughout the entire second half. At one point, the score was 100-62. Yep. You read that right. The lead eventually peaked at 133-80. Yep, you read that right. This is one way to fluff up your net rating and point differential as you chase NBA history.

The Thunder shot 59% from the field and went 22-of-40 (55%) from 3. They shot 12-of-13 on free throws. They had 32 assists on 52 baskets. Six Thunder players scored double-digit points. All 13 OKC players scored points.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 28 points and eight assists. Holmgren had 24 points and eight rebounds. Williams tallied 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. Dort scored 12 points. Ousmane Dieng and Branden Carlson each had 11 points.

Meanwhile, the Suns shot 39% from the field and went 10-of-31 (32.3%) from 3. They shot 13-of-16 on free throws. They had 24 assists on 33 baskets. Four Suns players scored double-digit points. Dillon Brooks finished with 16 points and three rebounds. Allen had 10 points and four assists before his ejection. Jordan Goodwin scored 15 points. Jamaree Bouyea had 14 points and six assists.

The Thunder were on another level as they suffocated the Suns with the league’s best defense and hot outside shooting. It didn’t stop, either. All the way from the starters to the third-stringers.

This is why the reigning NBA champions are viewed as the clear-cut favorite to repeat. They’ve got off to one of the greatest starts in league history. And now, they’ll go into Las Vegas as the overwhelming favorite in the NBA Cup semifinals. They can cross off one of the last items left on their bucket list.

“All that’s great, but none of it matters Saturday. We can’t take any of it and carry into that game. It’s 0-0 when we start that game. We have to do those things. You have habits that you build but none of it carries over. That’s a competitive challenge,” Daigneault said. “It takes mental toughness and discipline and commitment to do that. These guys have exhibited that over a long period of time, but we got a lot of the season left. That’s our challenge moving forward.”

You can say that all again. One of the big offseason storylines was whether the Thunder would fall complacent. After all, that’s how ‘championship hangover’ was first coined and part of the average sports fan’s vocabulary. Instead, they showed why they could barely crack open champagne after they won the Larry O’Brien trophy. It’s been on blowout win after another.

“We’re trying not to anticipate what the concerns are. There’s no boogeyman in the closet. We try to deal with what’s in front of us. But we have to understand, anything in the past takes you out in the present moment. Anything in the future takes you out in the present moment,” Daigneault said. “The game and the competition happen in the present moment. The championship is great, but if we’re thinking about it, it’s a distraction.”

The Thunder will play the San Antonio Spurs in the 2025 NBA Cup semifinals on Saturday, Dec. 13. Both teams will travel to Las Vegas as the in-season tournament is down to four teams. This will be the first matchup of the season between the two squads.

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