What is the biggest winning margin in NBA Playoff history?

An all-time NBA record came under serious pressure on Monday evening as the Cleveland Cavaliers ran riot against the Miami Heat. The Cavs enjoyed a stunning 138-83 win against the Heat, securing their first postseason sweep since 2018.

That 55-point margin of victory is one of the largest in the history of the NBA Playoffs and it reiterates the incredible potential of this Cleveland team.

It’s the biggest postseason win in a decade and the Cavs had five players finish with 14+ points. For the Heat, only Nikola Jovic reached that figure.

What is the biggest NBA Playoff margin?

There is a two-way tie for the biggest margin of victory in an NBA playoff game. The most recent came in 2009, during the Western Conference first round. The Denver Nuggets thrashed the New Orleans Hornets with a 58-point win, on the road!

Seven Nuggets players had double-digit scores that day, led by Carmelo Anthony with 26, as the game finished 121-63. The hapless Hornets scored 24 in their highest-scoring quarter and failed to score more than 15 points in the other three.

Before that matchup, you have to go all the way back to 1956 to find the only other 58-point playoff win. The Minneapolis Lakers took on the St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division semi-finals and ran out 133-75 winners. It was a real team effort for Minneapolis as all ten players who saw action in that game turned in double-digit scores.

Other notable postseason thrashings include the LA Lakers obliterating the Golden State Warriors 126-70 in 1973, a 56-point margin. Scoring machine Wilt Chamberlain only sank 12 points in their victory, but his contributions for the evening lay elsewhere and he ended the game with an incredible 25 rebounds.

More recently, in 2015 the Chicago Bulls thumped the Milwaukee Bucks with a 120-66 victory. All of the Bulls starters served up ten points or more in the 56-point victory, while none of the Bucks players hit the double-digits.

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