The Oklahoma City Thunder made easy work of the Brooklyn Nets with a 121-92 win. I can see why both of these teams have nearly symmetrical records as they’re on opposite sides of the NBA highway.

“I thought it was a business-like effort from the team. When it comes to your habits, you’re getting better or worse every night. We got better tonight. Which is a credit to the guys,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought we played in character the whole game on both ends of the floor. Good contributions from everybody. But most importantly, played to our identity and played to our habits.”

The Thunder didn’t need long to put this one away. Gilgeous-Alexander faced a whisper of ‘free-throw merchant’ chants early on. That proved to be the best defense Barclays offered against the reigning MVP. They had a 28-11 lead after the first quarter.

Things only got worse from there — for Brooklyn, at least. After sitting on ice for the last couple of games, Kenrich Williams checked in energized. He had three steals in five minutes. That was part of a bigger trend where the Nets coughed up the ball every other possession.

Some of the scores were pretty surreal to see pixelated. At one point, the Thunder were up 44-16. Gilgeous-Alexander got a few buckets in transition as Brooklyn committed live-ball turnovers. They had 32 points in the second frame. OKC entered halftime with an unreal 60-24 lead. Yep. No typo there.

The Thunder had more made field goals than the Nets had raw points. Gilgeous-Alexander and Jared McCain combined for 26 points at halftime — more than what Brooklyn had in total. Makes you wonder if the 1-16 seed March Madness games will be more competitive than this.

Growing a lead as high as 42 points, the Thunder turned the second half into a glorified scrimmage. In it, they tried to check off several agendas. One was to see Aaron Wiggins snap out of his monthlong slump. That finally happened as a corner 3-pointer and steal-anddunk sequence got him back into a groove.

With over six minutes left, Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren checked out. It was a short shift for OKC’s All-Star duo. Both teams had 31 points apiece in the third quarter — as the Nets enjoyed returning to playing some NBA-level offense.

The Thunder had a 91-55 lead after the third frame. The fourth quarter turned into garbage time. I started writing this during the game. Finally, for the first time in a while, the reigning NBA champion enjoyed a blowout win. Feels like it’s been a minute since they’ve had one of those — after the first one-third of the regular season was littered with them.

There was at least a must-watch factor involved in the final dozen minutes beyond the score. As the latest two-way newbie, Payton Sandfort scored his first NBA points on a corner 3-pointer. The entire OKC bench celebrated with him. He took home a memento with the game ball and conducted the postgame bark. The Thunder scored 30 points in the final frame.

The Thunder shot 53% from the field and went 14-of-35 (40%) from 3. They shot 17-of-22 on free throws. They had 26 assists on 45 baskets. Six Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander had a cool 20 points and six assists. McCain had a season-best 26 points and three rebounds. Holmgren finished with 11 points and two rebounds. Wiggins tallied 17 points and seven rebounds. Isaiah Joe had 13 points and four assists. Ajay Mitchell finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Nets shot 37% from the field and went 11-of-35 (31.4%) from 3. They shot 23-of-31 on free throws. They had 17 assists on 29 baskets. Four Nets players scored double-digit points.

Nolan Traore finished with 13 points and six assists. Jalen Wilson had 15 points and five rebounds. Chaney Johnson had 12 points and seven rebounds. Ochai Agbaji tallied 10 points and two rebounds.

This was a good and productive win for the Thunder. Can’t take the gimme’s for granted. Even if this game was over before it even started, they still needed to go out there and actually get the job done. You saw the reigning NBA champions do that from the jump against the youngest team in the league.

Everybody on the Thunder checked in. All of your starters weren’t super stressed in minutes on this road back-toback. Gilgeous-Alexander sleepwalked his way to another 20 points. When you get the chance to pad your record against NBA cupcakes, you can’t fumble those golden opportunities. OKC hasn’t had that problem in years.

“I thought our professionalism and focus and discipline were really good tonight. I think once the game opens up and becomes 30 in the first half, which it did, it becomes difficult not to play the scoreboard,” Daigneault said. “I thought the guys showed great maturity and discipline just to keep chipping away at the things we know are going to be important. Not necessarily just to win the game tonight, but be the best team we could be.”