Adams tastes sweet success

Steven Adams’ stats hardly troubled the scorers but an NBA all-time record-breaking win over his old outfit yesterday was still pretty sweet.

The Memphis Grizzlies broke the NBA record for winning margin when beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 152-79 at the FedExForum in Memphis.

Adams was traded from the Thunder to the Grizzlies over the off-season.

The big Kiwi centre has been quiet at the beginning of the season as he looks to gel with his new team.

In 21 minutes on court, Adams contributed just nine points with eight rebounds and two assists.

The 73-point winning margin easily topped the previous mark, which was Cleveland’s 68-point win over Miami (148-80) way back in 1991.

Memphis used 12 players and nine reached double figures in scoring, with Jaren Jackson Jr.’s 27 points leading the way.

Memphis were without their best player, injured guard Ja Morant. It was 72-36 at halftime and the Grizzlies just kept adding to the lead, eventually pulling ahead by as many as 78 points.

The Thunder flirted with being on the wrong end of the record last season, trailing Indiana by 67 points on May 1 before rallying — such as it was — to lose by merely 57 points, 152-95.

The Grizzlies set a franchise record for shooting, making 62.5% of their shots. De’Anthony Melton scored 19 points, Santi Aldama scored 18 and John Konchar scored 17 for the Grizzlies, and none of those three players even started.

No Memphis starter played more than 21 minutes. Lu Dort led the Thunder with 15 points, and Oklahoma City shot only 33%.

It was 12-8 after five minutes. From there, there was no stopping Memphis. The Grizzlies outscored the Thunder by 15 points in each of the four quarters and was the third straight game the Grizzlies have led from start to finish. –AP