The 5 Worst Blowouts In The NBA Over The Last 30 Years

The Oklahoma City Thunder laid the smackdown on the Bobcats on Monday night, winning 114-69, and negating the positive work new head coach Mike Dunlap had done with the Bobcats to start the season. The Thunder’s 45-point rout of the Bobcats was highlighted by their early 79-25 lead, which prompted DailyThunder blogger, Royce Young, to tweet: “It’s time like these where I really miss Cole Aldrich.” Hasheem Thabeet even recorded his first career double-double (!) in some prolonged garbage time. But the Bobcats can take solace in the fact their loss wasn’t the worse in NBA history. In fact, it’s not even the worst since the beginning of the shot clock era. Nope, we have five other losses that were worse than the Bobcats last night. Lets get to it, and may God have mercy on the losing teams from this list.

Cheer up Charlotte fans. Things could have been worse…

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5. January 31, 2003: DETROIT PISTONS 118 at BOSTON CELTICS 66
Ahh yes, the pre-Doc Celtics and the pre-Larry Brown Pistons. In their place, we had Jim O’Brien coaching the Celtics and Flip Saunders coaching a tough defensive team in Detroit. Like most of these blowouts, things started poorly for the prideful Celtics, who were embarrassed by their worst loss as a franchise on their once monarchial home-court. They were down 12 after one quarter, and down 27 at the half. From there it just got worse: the lead was 35 at the end of the third quarter, and the final period saw the Pistons scrubs outscore the Celtics scrubs 32-15. Aside from the first quarter when they scored 20, the Celtics didn’t crack the 20-point mark in the ensuing three quarters, scoring 44 points collectively over those 36 minutes of action.

This wasn’t a bad Celtics team. They featured superstar-in-the-making Paul Pierce and a pre-bankruptcy-and-bloated-torso Antoine Walker. Pierce averaged over 25 points a game that year, and Walker over 20, but Walker especially couldn’t find the bucket on this night. ‘Toine would finish 1-for-15 from the field for six points, three rebounds, two turnovers and zero assists in 30 minutes of action. Pierce was better, dropping 23 points on 8-for-18 shooting in 31 minutes of action. But aside from ten points from J.R. Bremer, no other Celtic cracked double-figures. It’s never a good sign when your leading scorer (23 points) has more than a third of your team’s points overall. Also, simply because spotting him in the box score was a delightful surprise, Vin Baker played 20 minutes for the Celtics on this night; he attempted no shots, grabbed just two rebounds while also committing two fouls.

On the flip (Saunders) side, Detroit wasn’t having much trouble scoring buckets. Detroit’s two leading scorers that year came from their dynamic backcourt tandem of Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. For the game, Rip was 10-for-17 from the field for 29 points in 31 minutes, and Billups was 9-for-14 from the field (including 4-for-8 from deep) for 24 points in 26 minutes of action. As a team, Detroit shot 52 percent from the field, and 12-for-34 from behind the arc. The Celtics shot a shade under 30 percent from the field as a whole, but they were 8-for-22 from long range, which wasn’t that much worse a three-point shooting percentage than Detroit (36 percent vs. Detroit’s 37).

Despite the worst loss in Boston history (and on their home court no less), the 2002-03 Celtics went on to finish 44-38 and advance past the Pacers, 4-2, in the first round of the playoffs. Jason Kidd‘s New Jersey team then swept them in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Pistons finished 50-32 on the season, but made it past Tracy McGrady‘s Magic team and Allen Iverson‘s 76ers team to eventually lose four straight to the Nets in the Conference Finals. The next year saw Larry Brown take over for Flip and, buttressed by a midseason trade for Rasheed Wallace, the Larry O’Brien trophy went back to Motown for the first time since Isiah was running point.

The Celtics, as most fans know, toiled in mediocrity for the next few years before their blockbuster trades brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to town in the summer of 2007. But on this night, the Celtics were embarrassed by Detroit, and it remains a black stain on possibly the greatest NBA franchise of all time.

4. November 8, 2001: CHICAGO BULLS 74 at MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 127
Even after the loss of MJ, Scottie, Dennis and Phil from the prior millennium’s three-peat heavy decade, no one in Chicago expected the Bulls to be this bad. To be fair, like a few of these blowouts, the Bulls were not at full strength. Their leading scorer that year (on a per game basis) Jalen Rose was out, as he was for much of that season, appearing in just 30 games total. That left the scoring duties to their second-leading scorer, Kentucky standout Ron Mercer. Mercer obliged, but only scored 15 points to lead the Bulls during their dressing down by the Timberwolves.

The opening quarter saw the ‘Wolves out-score the Bulls 34-14, and they continued that into the second quarter to go up by 32 points at the half, 68-36. Then in the third quarter, instead of making it a game, the Bulls were outscored 33-10 to give Minnesota a 55-point lead after three quarters. If it weren’t for the Bulls’ reserves out-scoring the Timberwolves’ reserves in the fourth quarter, 28-26, this might have approached the worst loss of the last 30 years. Even so, the Timberwolves embarrassed the visiting Bulls.

Some interesting names were involved in this game: Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry were rookies with the Bulls that season, and they both actually played pretty well, all things considered. Chandler was 3-for-4 from the floor for six points to go with four rebounds and an incredible five blocks (perhaps foreshadowing his DPOY award in 2012) in just 22 minutes of action. Curry, foreshadowing his brilliant offensive game, was 3-for-5 from the field for nine points in just 11 minutes. But despite their rookies playing well, the Bulls could not match the Timberwolves and their maturing power forward, Kevin Garnett.

Garnett was playing his seventh NBA season that year, but was only 25 years old after being drafted out of high school. During the 2001-02 season, Garnett would average 20 and 10 for the fourth-straight year (he would go on to average 20 and 10 over a nine-year stretch that ended during his first year in Boston). For this game, Garnett was 7-for-9 from the field, with those two misses coming from beyond the three-point arc. He finished with 15 points and seven boards in just 28 minutes of action. Joe Smith led all five of the Timberwolves starters in double-figures with 17 points.

All told, seven Timberwolves scored in double-figures for the game, and collectively, the team shot 64 percent from the field; they were also 5-for-11 from long range. The Bulls shot poorly from the field, connecting on just 39 percent of their attempted field goals, and only hitting one of their seven three-point attempts. Minnesota also grabbed 39 rebounds to Chicago’s 29, and assisted on 39 baskets to Chicago’s 19. The Bulls finished the season 21-61 under Tim Floyd, and Minnesota would go on to win 50 games that year to finish third in the tough Midwest Division before falling to Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash‘s Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs.

3. December 29, 1992: DALLAS MAVERICKS 81 at SACRAMENTO KINGS 139
Before Mark Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000, Dallas’ basketball team was a woeful mix of wasted potential (remember the Triple Js of Jamal Mashburn, Jason Kidd and Jimmy Jackson?), and calamitous basketball. Never was this more apparent than during this game in late 1992 when the Sacramento Kings, themselves a franchise with very little to brag about, blew them off the court.

The Kings opened up the game by outscoring the Mavericks by 15 in the opening quarter, and 20 in the next to go into halftime with twice as many points as the Mavericks, 70-35. Things didn’t get much better after that. Mitch Richmond led Sacramento’s starters with 22 points in just 21 minutes on 9-for-11 shooting from the field. Anthony Bonner, a 6-8 reserve forward who averaged just 8.6 points a game on the season, led all Sacramento scorers with 23 points on 8-for-10 shooting. For the game, Sacramento shot over 51 percent from the field, but a pedestrian 6-for-17 from behind the three-point line. Conversely, Dallas didn’t make a single shot from long range, and was just 37 percent from the field as a whole.

The primary reason behind Dallas’ offensive struggles in this game was due to the absences of its top three leading scorers that season: Derek Harper, Jimmy Jackson and Sean Rooks. You read that right. Derek Harper was the leading scorer for this 1992-93 Mavericks team. To give you some context, Tim Legler was a 26-year-old reserve guard that appeared in 30 games with the Mavericks that year. The Kings probably wouldn’t have embarrassed the Mavs so thoroughly if they had had one of their top three leading scorers in uniform, but such is the fate of an NBA franchise.

On the year, the woeful Mavs would approach historical levels of sucking when they barely cracked double-figures in wins, finishing 11-71. The Mavericks weren’t much better, losing a significant amount of time from their leading scorer, Richmond, who only appeared in 45 games as the Kings finished 25-57. On a per game basis, the Kings lost their top three scorers for significant chunks of games that year, and Wayman Tisdale, yes Wayman Tisdale, actually scored the most points for them over the course of the season. Regardless of how awful both teams were over the year (they finished at the bottom of their respective divisions in the West), Sacramento was decidedly less awful than the Mavericks during this blowout.

2. April 27, 2009: DENVER NUGGETS 121 at NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 63
This is a relatively recent game where New Orleans basketball fans got to watch their team get destroyed by the visiting Nuggets in Game 4 of a playoff series, with Carmelo Anthony playing 35 minutes for Denver and Chris Paul logging significant time for New Orleans. Paul obviously struggled, recording just six assists to go with his six turnovers. He was also just 2-for-7 from the field for four points. Conversely, Anthony was 9-for-17 from the field and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc to pace seven different Nuggets in double-figures with 26 points. ‘Melo also added seven assists, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals for a great all-around game (take note Knicks fans – he can do things besides score). The leading scorer for the Hornets was David West with 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting.

The Nuggets jumped out to a 21-point first quarter lead after outscoring the Hornets 36-15. The Hornets never got close after that. The Hornets were only outscored by a point in the second quarter, but their failures were exacerbated in the second half when they were outscored 60-24 over the duration of the half. The Hornets scored as many points in the entire second half as they scored in a second quarter they still lost to the Nuggets, 25-24.

The Nuggets were 10-for-20 from behind the three-point line, and shot 57 percent from the field for the game. Meanwhile, the Hornets were a deplorable 2-for-15 from long range, and shot just over 31 percent from the floor. The Nuggets had 49 rebounds to the Hornets 32; the Nuggets also passed for 29 assists to the Hornets woeful total of 10. About the only thing the Hornets did well was grab ten steals on the game. Of course, the Nuggets grabbed 15, so even that stat was lopsided.

This was also the year when Carmelo Anthony finally led his Nuggets out of the first round of the playoffs. Their first round opponent? You guessed it, the New Orleans Hornets. The Nuggets did drop the third game in this series to New Orleans, 95-93, but they won the other four to advance before finally falling to the eventual champion Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. New Orleans finished fourth in a tough Southwest Division that year with a decent record of 49-33, good for a No. 7 seed. But the Nuggets handled them in the playoffs. Now Chris Paul is in L.A. and Carmelo Anthony is in the Big Apple. Even though this game only happened less than three years ago, a lot has changed.

1. December 14, 1991: MIAMI HEAT 80 at CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 148
What a strange drubbing this turned into during the 1991-92 season. For a frame of reference, Steve Smith was the leading scorer on the Heat that night, with 15 points on a respectable 7-for-13 shooting. The Heat’s leading scorer that year at over 22 points a night, Glen Rice, was just 3-for-8 from the field for nine points in 21 minutes of action.

After building a 15-point lead at the half, the Cavaliers outscored the Heat 33-14 in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 34. With the reserves in, the Cavaliers continued to dominate, scoring 42 points in the final period against only 13 from the Heat. The Cavaliers out-rebounded the Heat 59-41 and the Cavs had 39 assists compared to the Heat’s 19.

Miraculously, with no starter except forward Winston Bennet playing more than 30 minutes, not a single Cavalier cracked 20 points on the night. Mark Price and John Battle each led the Cavaliers in scoring with 18, but with the Heat playing elementary school defense, eight different players scored in double-figures for the Cavaliers as they shot 54 percent from three and 57 percent from the field on the whole. Another strange fact from this game, and a telling trend of the three-point line’s growing influence in the contemporary game: both teams hit six three-pointers on the night, with Miami going a respectable 6-for-14 from long range and Cleveland going 6-for-11.

The 1992 Cavaliers, with their dynamic point Mark Price, and their dependable big man Brad Dougherty, finished with the third-best record in the East that year, and stretched MJ‘s Bulls to six games in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat also made the playoffs even after this drubbing. They finished 38-44 on the year to squeak into an 8th seed, and the opportunity to get swept by MJ’s Bulls in the first round.

It remains the largest margin of victory in NBA history. ‘Nuff said.

What’s the worst blowout you’ve ever seen?

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