Oklahoma City's playoff run got off to a record-setting start.
The Thunder beat the Memphis Grizzlies 131-80 in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series on Sunday, the fifth-biggest victory margin in NBA postseason history and the largest in a Game 1.
Click to Gallery
Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, left, and forward Jalen Williams (8) react after a dunk by Williams during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzles, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts after a dunk during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, signs autographs for fans before Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzles, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot between Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane (22) and center Zach Edey (14) during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
“We were amped up,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Give the guys a lot of credit for the week of practice that we had. It's a sneaky tough week because it's a lot of days without games and it gets you out of rhythm of games.”
The 51-point margin capped a stat-filled Sunday in OKC. Some highlights:
For a while, it seemed like the Thunder had a chance at the biggest playoff win ever.
There have been two 58-point playoff margins: Denver beating New Orleans 121-63 on April 27, 2009, and the Minneapolis Lakers beating the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 on March 19, 1956.
The Los Angeles Lakers beat Golden State by 56 (126-70) on April 21, 1973 and the Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks by 54 (120-66) on April 30, 2015.
The Thunder led by as many as 56 points, the biggest lead in a playoff game since Denver led New Orleans by 58 points in that 2009 game.
OKC held leads of 127-71 and 129-73. The Grizzlies scored seven of the game's final nine points, which kept Memphis from enduring the biggest playoff loss ever.
The week off for the Thunder didn't slow down the NBA's best team this season — one that won 68 games and set a league record for point differential at 12.9 per game.
The Thunder opened a 35-point lead in the first half. That was the biggest first-half lead of any playoff Game 1 in the league's digital play-by-play era that goes back to 1996-97.
Oklahoma City had 35-point leads twice — 61-26 and 63-28. The Thunder settled for a 68-36 lead at halftime, the biggest halftime lead of any playoff game in franchise history, as well as the biggest halftime deficit ever for the Grizzlies in a playoff game.
Since 1997, there have been only two NBA playoff games where one team led by more than 35 points.
Both were done by the Cleveland Cavaliers when LeBron James played there.
The Cavs led at Boston by 41 points twice (70-29 and 72-31) in the first half of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on May 19, 2017. And the Cavs led Atlanta by 38 points (74-36) in Game 2 of the East semifinals on May 4, 2016.
Go figure: The Thunder won by 51 points on a day where their MVP favorite, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was “held” to only 15 points.
“I was impressed with how the guys came out and played,” Daigneault said.
This wasn't the most one-sided game in Thunder-Grizzlies history. Not even close.
Memphis beat Oklahoma City 152-79 on Dec. 2, 2021 — the 73-point margin there being the biggest in NBA history.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, left, and forward Jalen Williams (8) react after a dunk by Williams during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzles, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts after a dunk during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, signs autographs for fans before Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzles, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot between Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane (22) and center Zach Edey (14) during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a lightning military strike, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spirited them out of the country to face justice in the United States.
Now President Donald Trump says the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can take place, but it's not clear what that will mean on the ground in the South American country.
The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Much is still unknown about how the U.S. ouster of Maduro will ricochet across the country and the region.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.
Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández said Maduro and Flores were captured at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas.
Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.
The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Late last month, the CIA carried out a drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.
Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind him, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”
Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, although across Venezuela's capital there were no signs that the U.S. had taken control of the government or military forces.
Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.
“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.
Rodriquez made no mention of talking to Rubio or being sworn in during a televised address after Trump's news conference.
Instead, she demanded the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader. Rodriquez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters.
“Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations,” she said, referring to the Trump administration. “It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).”
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Trump offered no details on what U.S. leadership in Venezuela would mean or specify whether it would involve more military involvement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about how the U.S. would run Venezuela, what authority it would use to administer it or whether it would involve any American personnel — either civilian or military — on the ground in Caracas or other areas of Venezuela.
Trump mentioned the country's oil infrastructure repeatedly during the news conference. He suggested there would be a substantial U.S. role in Venezuela's oil industry, saying that U.S. oil companies would go in and fix the broken infrastructure.
And Trump said the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.
“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.
According to an indictment made public Saturday, Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Authorities allege powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.
It was not immediately clear when Maduro and his wife would make their first court appearance in New York or where they would be detained once in the U.S.
Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends," and he and Caine went into more depth during the news conference.
Trump said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.
He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and he tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.
Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.
Caine said the mission had been “meticulously planned” for months, relying on work by the U.S. intelligence community to find Maduro and detail how he moved, lived, ate and what he wore.
The mission involved more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere, Caine said. Helicopters came under fire as they approached “the target area,” he said, and responded with “overwhelming force.”
The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.
The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.
Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
But some Democrats were more critical.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado had intended to run against Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. She went into hiding and wasn't seen for nearly a year.
Trump said Saturday that he hadn't been in touch with Machado and said it would be “very tough” for her to lead Venezuela.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” Trump said.
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.
President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
