Thunder Make Statement in Comeback Win Over Celtics

Oklahoma City is off to its best start ever and on a 15-game victory streak in clear sight of a deep postseason run.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace, left, and forward Jalen Williams celebrate after a play against the Boston Celtics. / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

That’s it. I’m sold. Start looking at spring flights into Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport. Book some rooms at the Courtyard alongside the Paycom Center in June. Stock up on Bud Light and High Noon for me, Bricktown. The Thunder are headed back to the NBA Finals.

Can’t make a statement in January? Bull-bleep. The Thunder just did. It was Oklahoma City 105, Boston Celtics 92 on Sunday. The Celtics flew into Oklahoma winners of three straight with no one on the injured list. The Thunder, down Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell, beat them by double digits. This mouthwatering midseason matchup—inexplicably exiled to NBA TV—lived up to expectations. 

What a game. Ten ties. Six lead changes. Boston led by 10 points at halftime. Oklahoma City finished up 13. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racked up 33 points. Aaron Wiggins popped off the bench and chipped in 15. Lu Dort missed all six of his shots in the first half. He made four threes in the second. The Celtics entered the game second in the league in offensive rating. In the second half, the Thunder limited them to 27 points. 

“More pressure, more grit, more intensity,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We’ve got a level we can play at that can really be good on that end of the floor.”

At 30–5, Oklahoma City is off to its best start ever. Its 15-game winning streak—no, the NBA Cup finals loss does not count on the official ledger—is just the second streak that long in the last five years. The expected-to-be ultra-competitive Western Conference? It is—just not at the top. The Thunder lead the second-place Houston Rockets by more games (7½) than the Rockets lead the 12th-place Phoenix Suns (6½). 

Seriously, hand the Thunder all the midseason hardware. Call the Czar of the Straw Poll, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. Gimme Gilgeous-Alexander for MVP. It’s hard to describe the SGA experience. A game is rolling along, into the third quarter and you look up and the guy has 30. Boston has three of the best defensive guards in the NBA in Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. Gilgeous-Alexander cooked all of them. He had 16 points in the second half, collecting six rebounds and three assists with them. 

Gilgeous-Alexander moves the ball around Holiday during the fourth quarter. / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Gimme Dort for Defensive Player of the Year. Dort’s threes got a lot of postgame attention. His defense won the game. Brown had 21 points in the first half. With Dort switched on him in the second half, he went scoreless. Dort bottled up Brown on the perimeter and stayed on his hip when he went to the rim. 

“I felt like they were too comfortable in the first half, which he was a big part of it,” Dort said. “Just had to amp up the physicality a little bit.”

Gimme Jalen Williams for All-Star. Or at least All-Star consideration. Williams’s numbers on Sunday were modest: 10 points, six rebounds, five assists. But he held Tatum to 4-of-11 shooting in the second half and played all 12 minutes in the fourth quarter … when the Celtics scored just 12 points. 

Gimme Daigneault for Coach of the Year … again. O.K., fine—gimme the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kenny Atkinson. But Daigneault is earning another look. He is masterfully managing a roster that when healthy goes 11 to 12 deep. He has put in place a physical, switching defensive system that has made the Thunder ruthlessly efficient. Most of Oklahoma City’s talent is homegrown. For the last five years, Daigneault has been responsible for developing them. 

Gimme Sam Presti for Executive of the Year. To the but he hasn’t won anything crowd—go to bed. This roster is the envy of the NBA. In two decades at the helm of the Thunder, Presti has assembled two would-be dynasties. The first fizzled after just one Finals appearance. This next iteration could go further. Most of Oklahoma City’s rotation is 26 or younger. All are under team control through at least 2027. 

With the potential to do anything. The Thunder could have four first-round picks in June’s draft, widely regarded as one of the most talent-rich in recent memory. They could have as many as 11 firsts over the next four years. Whatever happens with Jimmy Butler, the biggest winner could be Oklahoma City. The Thunder have the Miami Heat’s lottery protected pick this year. It’s unprotected in 2026. 

Unsurprisingly, the Thunder didn’t sound overly excited about Sunday’s win. “One of 82,” Daigneault deadpanned. Nor do they think a win in January guarantees them anything in June. Oklahoma City has had some brilliant comebacks recently. In their last two games, the Thunder outscored the New York Knicks and Celtics, 66–31, in the fourth quarter. But those games were at home. They know they will need to be sharper early on the road. 

“We played through some adversity, which is always good, always learned from it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s going to be hard on the road to get off to the slow starts that we’ve been getting off to lately. So we have to kind of fix that. We got to throw the first punch, especially on the road against good teams with their environment, their crowd behind them.”

And Boston? Don’t put the Thunder on that level, Gilgeous-Alexander says. Not yet anyway.

“They’ve done things that we’ve dreamt about doing,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And there’s no way to get there without playing teams and competing against teams like that. And that’s what I wake up for. That’s what I play the game for and that’s what tonight was about.”

Fine. Whatever. We’ll revisit this again in June.