MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- After Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault drew up a play for him to open the third quarter, Chet Holmgren swished a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
Holmgren's first bucket of the game was a sign that the second half would be a different story from the first.
So, unfortunately, was Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant's exit due to a hip injury suffered after a hard fall late in the second quarter.
With Holmgren catching fire and Oklahoma City's top-ranked defense putting the clamps on the short-handed Grizzlies, the Thunder pulled off the biggest second-half rally in NBA playoff history. Oklahoma City overcame a 26-point halftime deficit in a 114-108 win in Thursday's Game 3 that put the Grizzlies on the brink of elimination.
"In the moment, it sucks," Thunder forward Jalen Williams said of falling behind by as many as 29 points in the first half. "It's not something you want to make a habit of, but we also have extreme confidence in how we can play to turn the tide. We were able to do that."
It was the second-largest comeback win at any point in a playoff game since at least 1997-98, trailing only the LA Clippers' 31-point rally against the Golden State Warriors in a 2019 first-round game, according to ESPN Research. Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 31 points, was a rookie on that Clippers team.
"I completely forgot about that [game], so it didn't cross my mind, but that is crazy," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "If they could build it, we could erase it. That's how we see it. That's what we did."
The Grizzlies built the big lead with sizzling shooting in the first half. Memphis was 11-of-22 from 3-point range in the half, including 5-of-6 by guard Scotty Pippen Jr., who had 23 of his 28 points by the break.
The Thunder outscored the Grizzlies by a 74-41 margin after Morant's exit with 3:14 remaining in the second quarter.
"I thought we did a great job of fighting for 48 minutes against this team," Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo said. "It's not enough to fight. You also have to execute."
Memphis' shots stopped falling and Holmgren's started going down after halftime, allowing Oklahoma City to slice the deficit to single digits by the end of the third quarter. Holmgren had 16 of his 24 points in the third quarter, when he hit 4-of-5 3s after failing to score from the floor in the first half.
"Mark changed the trajectory of the game," Holmgren said. "Trusted me in calling a play for me to bomb one at the half after the s--- storm I put up in the first half. Credit to him for that. Once I saw one go in, I felt good."
As Daigneault put it, the Thunder "reconnected to who we are" in the second half, especially when it came to cranking up the defensive pressure on the Grizzlies. The Thunder scored 15 points off Grizzlies turnovers in the third quarter.
Oklahoma City held Memphis to 31 points on 9-of-36 shooting (3-of-20 3s) in the second half. The Grizzlies had more turnovers (13) than buckets after halftime.
"Our defense is our superpower," said Thunder reserve guard Alex Caruso, who had all four of his steals in the second half. "When we're locked in on that side of the ball, we're an unstoppable force. From there, momentum was on our side. That's a dangerous thing in the playoffs."