Mar 12, 2025, 11:00 PM ET
The Oklahoma Town Thunder defeated the Boston Celtics 118-112 in a blockbuster matchup between two NBA Finals favorites Wednesday.
In the back of Chet Holmgren’s double-double (23 issues, 15 rebounds) and MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 34 issues, the Western Convention-leading Thunder have defeated Boston two times this season and progressed their checklist in opposition to Jap Convention groups to 22-1.
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Boston’s Jayson Tatum had 33 issues, however in the long run the Celtics faltered overdue in spite of the workforce tying the NBA checklist for 3-point makes an attempt (63) in a non-overtime recreation. The Thunder used a 20-14 run to complete the sport because the Celtics cooled from past the arc, taking pictures 1-9 on 3-pointers within the ultimate 8 mins.
Wednesday’s recreation at TD Lawn showcased what makes each those groups elite: tricky protection by way of the Thunder, a barrage of 3-point taking pictures by way of the Celtics and each groups’ stars making giant performs. NBA insiders Tim Bontemps, Zach Kram and Brian Windhorst spoil down OKC’s win, what it way for all sides and what to anticipate from those two juggernauts right through the playoffs and past.
Greatest takeaway from this night’s recreation?
Tim Bontemps: That Oklahoma Town must be considered as the most important risk to take down Boston and change into NBA champions.
There may be been a variety of makes an attempt from all corners of the league to take a look at to pour chilly water at the Thunder’s possibilities. However OKC has now swept the season collection with the Celtics, pulling away in the second one part of each video games, in spite of Holmgren lacking the primary assembly in Oklahoma Town in January and Jalen Williams sitting out Wednesday evening in Boston.
The Thunder are a deep, flexible bunch that may win in a lot of tactics. Gilgeous-Alexander confirmed why he’s an MVP candidate along with his efficiency. Holmgren had 23 issues and 15 rebounds, and his play with Isaiah Hartenstein paid dividends all through the competition, in particular within the mins when Gilgeous-Alexander sat out at the beginning of the second one and fourth quarters — mins the Thunder received on this recreation.
Those are the 2 maximum flexible groups within the league. Either one of the video games had been fabulously entertaining. However there is no one else who has confronted the Celtics this season and made them glance extra prone than this Thunder workforce has.
Sure, this OKC squad below trainer Mark Daigneault is the youngest workforce within the league. Sure, questions stay about how Williams, specifically, will deal with a secondary advent position within the postseason, after suffering in that place final season.
However the thought any individual else must be preferred to win the West is silly. The Thunder confirmed that once more Wednesday evening.
Brian Windhorst: OK, so the Thunder can remove such a lot of issues from this recreation. Holmgren’s talent to deal with a large position below power. The good fortune of each their small and massive lineups. The may in their bench intensity. Even racking up a ton of unfastened throws, one thing they infrequently do as they’re twenty seventh within the league in makes an attempt.
Having mentioned that, the Celtics have been 5-of-27 on 3-pointers in the second one part. This isn’t to mention all of it comes right down to 3-point taking pictures, but if the Celtics are not making their 3s they change into prone. This Celtics workforce is improbable and prone. This season has taught us this and this recreation strengthened it.
The Oklahoma Town Thunder sweep the regular-season collection in opposition to the Boston Celtics. (Picture by way of Brian Fluharty/Getty Pictures)
Zach Kram: The Thunder don’t seem to be terrified of the Celtics’ 3-point assault. Boston tried a record-tying 63 3-pointers, making 20 of them; on the finish of the primary quarter, a whopping 22 of Boston’s 24 shot makes an attempt had come from past the arc.
The Celtics began sizzling however cooled with a 5-for-27 mark on 3s in the second one part — paying homage to their 9-for-46 appearing of their loss in Oklahoma Town in January. On maximum nights, the Celtics will make extra in their jumpers. However in spite of Boston’s eagerness to shoot 3s, the Thunder did not compromise their defensive rules. They introduced competitive assist on Boston’s drives, pressured kickout passes to the fringe and invited the Celtics to fireside clear of deep. That technique labored in each conferences this season.
The Celtics could be similarly glad to have taken such a lot of 3s, given trainer Joe Mazzulla’s offensive imaginative and prescient. However they have been missing a backup plan Wednesday — which could be solved in a long run matchup if Kristaps Porzingis is wholesome and ready to weaponize his potent post-up recreation.
Boston additionally neglected Porzingis’s presence on protection. The Thunder tried 22 pictures on the rim and produced issues on 19 of them (14 made pictures and 5 taking pictures fouls drawn). Al Horford is an ageless marvel who tallied 18 issues, 10 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a scouse borrow in Wednesday’s bout, however he isn’t an elite rim protector. Warring parties have transformed 65% in their makes an attempt on the rim in opposition to Horford this season, as opposed to simply 52% in opposition to Porzingis.
What’s going to decide the period of every workforce’s playoff run?
Bontemps: For Boston, most commonly well being — and to a lesser extent center of attention. When Boston is absolutely wholesome, it is arduous to peer a workforce beating it 4 instances out of 7. The Celtics are battle-tested, extremely flexible and will dial it up on offense and protection to a degree that barely any workforce can fit.
Now we have noticed Boston time and again open huge leads over the last two weeks in opposition to elite groups right through this seven-game homestand — even whilst lacking no less than one, and steadily more than one, key avid gamers.
However the Celtics have time and again let the ones leads slip away — a constant downside. Boston’s 3-point heavy offensive assault, specifically, is susceptible to variance just right and unhealthy. But when the Celtics are wholesome, I may not be choosing in opposition to them in a seven-game collection.
Windhorst: OKC is a defensive juggernaut with the entirety you want within the fashionable recreation: intensity, period, top, wing stoppers, a switchable giant, on-ball menaces and rim protectors. Offensively, it’s not as whole. Gilgeous-Alexander carries a heavy load — he has greater than 100 extra isolation baskets than any participant within the league. That highlights the Thunder’s paradox: They’ve a top-five offense, however a bottom-five help charge. OKC additionally does not have a rotation participant who shoots over 40% on 3s. Its offensive resilience is its weak spot, and if a workforce sells out on slowing SGA, there could be some power on the remainder of that offense. How the Thunder deal with this is the place the rubber meets the street.
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Kram: For the reason that Jap Convention is so top-heavy, the Celtics must coast to the convention finals. They are assured to stand an overmatched opponent within the first spherical, as each and every East squad in a play-in spot has a shedding checklist, and Boston has beaten the third-seeded New York Knicks in each and every assembly this season. However the Cleveland Cavaliers are probably the most 3 very best groups within the league, at the side of the Celtics and Thunder, this means that Boston must triumph over a prime hurdle to achieve the Finals.
Conversely, in a deeper Western Convention box, the Thunder may face 3 difficult warring parties on their possible Finals trail — although now not somebody workforce is as unhealthy as Cleveland. In line with ESPN’s Basketball Energy Index (BPI), after the highest trio of the Thunder, Cavaliers and Celtics, seven of the following 8 very best groups are within the West. And a few of them have performed Oklahoma Town smartly this season. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets each break up 4 conferences with the Thunder, and the Warriors beat them in two out of 3 even prior to they added Jimmy Butler III. A Los Angeles Lakers workforce with LeBron James and Luka Doncic would not be a very simple out, both.
Which workforce has the easier five-year outlook?
Bontemps: There’s no workforce with a greater five-year outlook than Oklahoma Town, between its number of younger avid gamers and draft selections. The a lot more fascinating query is which workforce has the easier two- or three-year outlook?
Crucial factor for Boston is that Tatum is below contract all through his top, giving the Celtics probably the most very best avid gamers within the league at its maximum desired positional archetype — an elite two-way wing — to construct round. However with a $500 million payroll and comfort tax invoice looming subsequent season, plus the workforce these days being up on the market, there are a large number of questions on the place this franchise is headed.
What degree of profitable will it take for the Celtics to run it again? The expectancy has been that turning into the primary workforce to protect a identify for the reason that 2018 Golden State Warriors — and having a possibility to change into the primary to move for 3 in a row since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers of the early 2000s — will probably be an excessive amount of of a possibility to cross. However all of that will probably be decided by way of the workforce’s new house owners, who may well be in position once this spring. For the Thunder, no such questions will probably be preventing them anytime quickly.
Regardless of 33 issues and 8 assists from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics fell to the Thunder of their final regular-season matchup. (AP Picture/Charles Krupa)
Windhorst: This week, Sportico printed the Celtics financials as a spherical of bids got here in for the sale of the franchise. Ultimate season, together with the huge inflow their run to the identify intended for his or her final analysis, the Celtics earnings was once projected at lower than $500 million. They’re an overly wholesome and successful workforce, however they are able to’t continue to exist spending more cash on payroll than they soak up. It is a primary explanation why the workforce is on the market, without reference to what could be offered publicly. Is there a strategy to minimize payroll and stay the workforce as a championship contender? Completely, and the Celtics are more than likely running on a plan. However to mention Boston has a greater five-year outlook at this level can be disingenuous.
Kram: Over the following 5 years, I’d take Oklahoma Town forward of each and every workforce within the NBA. The Thunder have already got the league’s very best younger core, and they are able to stay replenishing with gifted children because of their hoard of draft selections — or business the ones selections for win-now upgrades. Barring damage, the one impediment that may get in Oklahoma Town’s means of repeated 60-win campaigns is that if the workforce’s possession staff does not wish to pay to stay Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren in combination on massive extensions.
However that monetary complication is already affecting the Celtics, who’re above the second one apron this season and set to be smartly above that threshold subsequent yr. As soon as the Celtics’ sale is resolved, will the franchise’s new house owners be relaxed paying masses of thousands and thousands of greenbacks in luxurious tax bills?
A Celtics-Thunder Finals matchup would be____?
Bontemps: A dream matchup for any basketball fan and one lets doubtlessly see over and over within the years yet to come. We defined above how Oklahoma Town is poised to be within the combine transferring ahead. Or even with the monetary unknowns placing over the Celtics, they nonetheless have such a lot firepower for a minimum of the following couple of seasons. Barring damage and so long as the core workforce stays intact, Boston goes to be preventing for Jap Convention supremacy.
However each groups are deep and feature coaches in Mazzulla and Daigneault who’re prepared to experiment in numerous tactics. All of that portends what can be a captivating matchup that any fan must revel in staring at.
Windhorst: Giant brother-little brother. The Celtics have been a workforce of promise for years, their younger core constructed throughout the draft and savvy trades opening a window they struggled to in spite of everything spoil thru. It would not be correct to mention the Thunder have been in-built Boston’s symbol, however their processes are comparable. The Celtics are a workforce of the instant, the Thunder are a workforce of the longer term. Boston needs that to stay the truth; OKC needs to development. It is a herbal matchup.
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SGA pulls ill transfer on Jaylen Brown for tricky end
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander crosses up Jaylen Brown and finishes robust on the rim vs. the Celtics.
Kram: A conflict of unstoppable forces and immovable gadgets. On one finish of the ground, the Celtics lead the league in made 3s, whilst the Thunder permit the bottom opponent 3-point proportion. At the different finish, the Thunder are led by way of the NBA’s very best scoring guard in Gilgeous-Alexander, whilst the Celtics have in all probability the most efficient defensive guard tandem. Each groups rank within the height 5 in offensive and defensive scores.
Trendy playoff basketball is all about matchup looking, however neither the Celtics or Thunder have any vulnerable hyperlinks or matchups to seek. The avid gamers of their rotations can all shoot, create and grasp their very own on protection.
We’ve not had an NBA Finals succeed in a Sport 7 since 2016, when the Cavaliers finished their 3-1 comeback in opposition to the Warriors. However Celtics-Thunder can be so completely matched that it could be destined to move the space.
