Data story · NBA Playoffs

The biggest NBA playoff blowouts since 2011.

The biggest lead at any minute mark in sixteen postseasons was 61 points, three minutes into the second half of a first-round game. On a strip, a blowout like that is one colour getting darker and staying there.

Every strip on this page is a real NBA Playoffs strip from the Huezle app, drawn by the app’s own code. More about NBA Playoffs.

How to read the strips

Each strip is one playoff game, tip-off on the left and the final buzzer on the right, one band per minute. A band shows the score at the end of that minute: purple when the away team was leading, gold when the home team was leading, pale when it was close. Colour reaches full depth at an 18-point lead, so in a real blowout most of the strip is solid.

That cap means a 25-point win and a 55-point win can look alike. What separates blowouts on a strip is how early the colour arrives, so this page measures them two ways: the final margin, and how many minutes one team spent 20 or more points ahead.

The biggest margins start early

2026 First Round, Game 6: Knicks at HawksThe biggest lead at any minute mark in the data: 61 points. New York were 25 up after one quarter and 47 up at halftime, and won by 51.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading
2025 First Round, Game 4: Cavaliers at HeatThe biggest final margin in the data: 138–83, 55 points. Miami led at the end of the first minute; Cleveland were 26 up after one quarter and led by 20 or more from the ninth minute to the end.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

Both are first-round road wins, and that is typical. Four of the six biggest final margins in the data came in the first round, where the gap between two playoff teams is widest, and four were won by the away team. In both strips the colour is near full depth before the first quarter is over, and the second half is a single block of it.

Twenty up for forty minutes

Only four games in the data had one team 20 or more points ahead at 40 of the 48 minute marks. Cleveland in Miami is one. The most surprising is a game that does not appear anywhere near the top by final score.

2017 First Round, Game 4: Warriors at Trail BlazersGolden State were 20 up after six minutes and stayed 20 or more ahead at 40 minute marks. The lead never went past 33, so they won by only 25, 128–103.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

The opposite shape exists too: a game that was only moderately one-sided at halftime and then fell apart.

2024 West semifinals, Game 6: Nuggets at TimberwolvesThe slowest to darken. Minnesota were 19 up at halftime and 49 up with five minutes left, and won 115–70.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

In the Finals

2024 NBA Finals, Game 4: Celtics at MavericksThe biggest Finals margin in the data: Dallas won 122–84, and led by 45 at a minute mark. Boston won the series in the next game.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

Finals blowouts are rarer and smaller: only three of the 91 Finals games in the data were won by more than 32 points. Golden State’s Finals runs, blowouts included, are in the Warriors dynasty in the Finals.

How often a playoff game is a blowout. Of 1,339 games from 2011 to 2026, the typical final margin was 10 points. 257 games, about one in five, ended 20 or more apart, and 81 ended 30 or more apart. Home teams won 182 of the 257, 71%, against 60% of all playoff games.

Blowouts tell you less about a series than they seem to. The 2025 Thunder won one first-round game by 51 and a second-round game by 43, then lost a West finals game in Minnesota by 42. They still won that series, and the Finals. For the games that stayed tight to the end, see the closest playoff games.

Huezle hides the names and shows you a strip like these. A solid strip is the easy kind: try naming who it was.

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Questions

What is the biggest blowout in NBA playoff history?

This page covers 2011 to 2026 only and does not claim all-time records. In those years the biggest final margin was Cleveland’s 138–83 win at Miami in Game 4 of the 2025 first round, 55 points.

What is the biggest blowout in NBA Finals history since 2011?

Dallas beat Boston 122–84 in Game 4 of the 2024 Finals, a 38-point margin.

What was the biggest lead in an NBA playoff game since 2011?

At the end of a minute, 61 points: New York led Atlanta by that much early in the second half of Game 6 of the 2026 first round, and won 140–89. A lead that peaked inside a minute is not recorded in this data.

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