The story is Mitchell. The preview called him the 2nd scorer OKC had been missing after his 23 in the Cleveland win. He went well past that here, scoring 35 and outscoring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who still added 28. The Grizzlies had to make somebody other than Gilgeous-Alexander beat them, and somebody else did.
That is the Memphis problem in one sentence. The Thunder's road blowouts in Dallas and Houston happened when the offense dried up behind Shai. This time the 2nd option carried more of the load than the MVP did, and a Memphis defense playing without Isaiah Stewart and Scotty Pippen Jr. never found an answer for either of them.
The 2nd quarter decided it. Memphis gave up 36 and scored 21, a 15-point swing in 12 minutes that turned a 7-point game into a 22-point one. The 3rd quarter finished 27-27, which is about the best the Grizzlies could say for themselves, and OKC won the 4th 30-21 to stretch the final margin to 31.
The box score we found didn't list Cameron Boozer's line, Zach Edey's minutes or anything on Memphis's bench, so the preview's Grizzlies storylines have no individual numbers to answer them. The team line does answer them. Coming off 103 against Indiana, Memphis scored 97, and only 49 of those came in the 1st half. That's now 3 straight losses at FedExForum, and this one wasn't close like the New Orleans and Indiana games.
Oklahoma City is 7-2 and has won 3 straight despite an injury list that covers half the rotation. If Mitchell can score like this regularly, the Thunder's ceiling without Holmgren and Jalen Williams is a lot higher than it looked after the trip through Dallas and Houston. Memphis drops to 6-3, and that 6-0 start is starting to look like something it has to prove again.
