THUNDER WIRE - The Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely destroyed the Los Angeles Lakers in a 139-96 win. Ahead wire-to-wire, they led by as many as 46 points in a game that saw some unreal scores.

“There was a make-or-miss element for the first half, especially. I thought they got good looks. The data would back that up. They had pretty good shots that they shot below expected,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said.

Didn’t even take two full minutes before the Thunder set the tone. Jalen Williams ripped away the ball and sprayed it out to Lu Dort for an outside jumper. The latter joined in on the turnover fun when he punked Austin Reaves into coughing it up.

It took nearly five minutes before the Lakers finally made a bucket. That’s how bad things were. The Thunder had a 44-21 lead after the first quarter. Dort put up 14 points with four outside makes. Refusing to let up, OKC slammed its foot on the gas pedal.

The Thunder put up 38 points in the second quarter. They had a daunting 82-51 lead at halftime. Required to play the second half out of necessity, nights like tonight would be awesome with a running clock. OKC looked like the Conquest to Los Angeles’ Oliver. The third quarter was much of the same.

Both sides cleared their benches at the start of the fourth quarter. Nikola Topic and Branden Carlson received a good ovation. The Thunder tallied 27 points in the final frame in front of a half-filled crowd.

The Thunder shot 54% from the field and went 19-of-42 (45.2%) from 3. They shot 10-of-13 on free throws. They had 32 assists on 55 baskets. Five Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 28 points and seven assists. Dort had 14 points. Williams flirted with a triple-double of 10 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Joe dropped 20 points. Ajay Mitchell had 10 points and three rebounds.

Just pure dominance. Sometimes, you just gotta remind other teams who the top dog is. The Thunder have done that twice this regular season with the Lakers.

Next up for the Thunder is Utah ay home on Sunday at 6 p.m.