The stage was set for a dramatic bit of basketball action on Sunday, with the Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. The winner would move on to the conference finals, the loser would be heading home.
Early in the game, it looked like we might get an instant classic. Aaron Gordon was playing through an injury, the Thunder crowd was electric and the Nuggets were able to jump out to an early lead that appeared to show they would not be going down easy.
Then, the Thunder flipped a switch, dominating across the court and ultimately cruising to a 125–93 victory.
The 32-point margin was one of the biggest in the history of NBA Game 7s.
Let’s check out the numbers below.
Rank Game Margin Year
1 DAL 116, HOU 76 40 2005
2 PHW 85, STB 46 39 1948
3 LAL 129, PHO 94 35 1970
4 BOS 99, ATL 65 34 2008
5 DAL 123, PHO 90 33 2022
5 MIA 106, CHO 73 33 2016
7 OKC 125, DEN 93 32 2025
8 PHO 121, LAL 90 31 2006
The Thunder’s dominant win over the Nuggets was just the eighth Game 7 in NBA history to be decided by a margin of more than 30 points, and the seventh largest Game 7 margin of victory ever.
The Dallas Mavericks hold the biggest Game 7 blowout in league history with their 116–76 win over the Houston Rockets in 2005—Yao Ming led all scorers with 33 points on the night, but he and Tracy McGrady were the only Rocket to reach double digits. Jason Terry led the scoring for the Mavs with 31 points.
From there, you have to go all the way back to the Philadelphia Warriors blowing out the St. Louis Bombers by 39 points in Game 7 of their series in 1948.
One more fun tidbit from the list—the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers are the only teams to have traded 30-point Game 7 blowouts, with the 2006 Suns avenging their brethren from a 35-point loss suffered in 1970.
The Thunder are hoping to avoid playing another Game 7 through their postseason journey—winning a series in four games is much preferred. Still, should Oklahoma City find themselves in another decisive game, they can have faith that they cannot just contend—they can dominate.
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