Russell Westbrook had 27 points and nine assists, Kevin Durant added 25 points and the Thunder blasted the Lakers 119-90 on Monday night in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinals.
The Thunder took a 15-point halftime lead, opened the third quarter with a 15-2 blitz filled with crowd-pleasing 3-pointers and dunks.
Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum scored 20 points each for the Lakers and Bynum had 14 rebounds.
Two games after trailing by as many as 28 points in a blowout loss in Game 6 in Denver, it got even worse for the Lakers, who were down by as many as 35. They responded to their last loss by beating the Nuggets 96-87 in a thrilling Game 7 on Saturday night.
They’ll need another big bounce-back for Game 2 in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
Information from Espn.com contributed to this report.