Thunder extend winning streak to 15 with dominant win over Celtics as showdown with Cavaliers looms

For most teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory over the New York Knicks on Friday would be the signature victory of their season. Without star center Chet Holmgren and key defender Alex Caruso, the Thunder held off the Knicks, the NBA Third offense, with only 41 points in the second half to overcome a 14-point deficit and win 117-107. Again, for a normal team, this would be a season-defining victory, the kind that players and coaches cite in the playoffs as a turning point in their season. But for the Thunder? Apparently it was just an appetizer.

On Sunday, they ordered the main course and took a step up in the offensive rankings by facing the No. 2-ranked Boston Celtics, who are also the defending NBA champions. Like the Knicks, the Celtics had a double-digit lead, theirs by 13 points, and like the Knicks, they played the game with a healthy starting lineup while the Thunder still didn’t have Holmgren or Caruso. But once again, the Thunder overcame the deficit, and this time they did so in even more convincing fashion. The big, bad Celtics, who had the most efficient offense in NBA history a season ago en route to a historically dominant 64-win season, scored just 27 total points in the second half as the Thunder came back to take the win .

The game featured all the typical Thunder flourishes. They forced 16 turnovers on a Celtics team that turns the ball over less than any team besides the Thunder themselves. Mark Daigneault changed the game with a key adjustment in the second half, putting Lu Dort on Jaylen Brown, who scored 21 points in the first half and none in the second. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added to his burgeoning MVP candidacy with 33 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks. They even had a standout reserve who outshone the entire opposing bench: Aaron Wiggins scored 15 points, surpassing Boston’s bench total of 13 on his own. It is the second consecutive game in which he has done so, as he also arrived on the New York bench on Friday.

The win was Oklahoma City’s 15th in a row, assuming it doesn’t count the NBA Cup Final against the Milwaukee Bucks like the league doesn’t, an appropriate number based on what comes next. The Thunder eliminated the NBA’s third-ranked offense on Friday. They beat No. 2 on Sunday. On Wednesday, they face the NBA’s No. 1 offensive and overall team by record, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before the Thunder’s win on Sunday, the Cavaliers had the longest winning streak this season at 15. Now the two are tied.

But given how well both have played this season, Wednesday’s matchup has a lot more meaning in terms of the standings themselves. Cleveland is 30-4 as of this writing, giving the Cavaliers a half-game lead over the Thunder (30-5) for the NBA’s best record. Whoever wins on Wednesday takes a major step toward home-field advantage in a potential NBA Finals matchup, and while the Cavaliers may not have a streak as long as the Thunder’s, one could argue that the one they have Today it is just as impressive. . Cleveland has nine straight wins as of this writing, but all nine have been by double digits. The Thunder have four single-digit wins in this streak, which isn’t a mark against them, but it shows how well Cleveland has played during this Thunder streak.

By all indications, these are not just two championship-caliber teams, but two historically dominant teams in the regular season. Last year’s Celtics had the fourth-best net rating in league history at the time at +11.6. According StatMuseboth the Cavaliers (plus-11.8) and Thunder (plus-12.1) are ahead of them right now. Friday was a possible preview of the Finals. Sunday, according to Vegas, was the most likely. But Wednesday will give us our first look at how the two best statistical teams of the 2024-25 season so far go head-to-head. If they continue to play as well as they are now, there’s a reasonable chance we’ll see them fight again in June.