Tim MacMahon, ESPN Staff Writer January 3, 2024, 1:24 a.m. ET
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- Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009
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OKLAHOMA CITY – Add another contender to the Oklahoma City Thunder's list of truly impressive recent conquests.
The Thunder built a big lead over Boston and held off a late comeback to claim a 127-123 victory over the Celtics, owners of the NBA's best record, on Tuesday night.
Oklahoma City has won eight of its last nine games and is in second place in the Western Conference with a record of 23-9. During that span, there were several victories over elite competition, including wins over the top-ranked teams in both conferences (Minnesota Timberwolves and Celtics) and two road wins over the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
“This is a talented young team, and I don't think this was a fluke game for them,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis said after his 34-point, 10-rebound performance wasn't enough to keep Boston's six-game winning streak snapped becomes. “They played really well. You're at the forefront of the West, aren't you? So it’s a really good team to compete against and a really good experience for us.”
The Thunder's five-game winning streak included a 23-point home win over the Timberwolves and a 26-point road win over the Nuggets. Oklahoma City appeared to be on the verge of another lopsided win over the Celtics, going up by 18 with 8:25 left in the fourth quarter.
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Oklahoma City, which has the second-youngest roster in the NBA, is preparing to be considered a contender after posting a 14-win improvement to 40-42 last season. The Thunder have the fourth-best record in the league and rank third in net rating (plus-8.5), fourth in defensive rating (110.7) and fifth in offensive rating (119.2).
However, the Thunder have no interest in the conversation about whether they already belong in the conversation with contenders.
“It shows that we really play together and put winning above everything else,” Rookie of the Year front-runner Chet Holmgren said of the Thunder's strong run after contributing 14 points, seven assists and four blocks in Tuesday's win. “But in the long run it doesn’t really prove anything, I guess you could say, or it somehow doesn’t satisfy anyone.”
“We know we still have a long way to go. We're 32 games into the season, so we still have 50 games left. We have a lot of lessons to learn, a lot of lessons that we've already learned from this.” “We have to kind of keep that in mind.”
Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's third-leading scorer, had another spectacular performance with 36 points on 14 of 22 shooting. However, his only points in the fourth quarter came on a pair of free throws as the Celtics lost their lead to just one possession in the final minute.
Gilgeous-Alexander's biggest plays down the stretch were feeding rookie center Chet Holmgren for a 3-pointer with 2:06 seconds left and setting a screen to forward Jalen Williams for a driving floater with 26 seconds left to free.
“He's learned how to impact the game in different ways and that's why he's a really good player,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander, who also had six rebounds and seven assists. “He’s not just a hired scorer.”
Daigneault called the game's final minutes “sloppy” for the Thunder, a description echoed by some Oklahoma City players. They also expressed the belief that the battle to defeat the Celtics represented some of the lessons Holmgren pointed to.
“I think we’re all staying in the moment and I think that’s why we’ve been able to get better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We just stay in the moment, attack the day, attack the program in front of us. Then we all have the right intentions and want to win at the end of the day.”