{"id":7106,"date":"2025-05-03T04:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T04:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/7106\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T04:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T04:02:14","slug":"thunder-beat-celtics-to-clinch-nba-playoff-spot-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/7106\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder beat Celtics to clinch NBA playoff spot | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics on the road to cement their status as championship favourites.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder punched their ticket to the playoffs with an impressive 118-112 victory over the reigning champion Boston Celtics in a potential NBA Finals sneak preview.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander enhanced his credentials as favourite for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award with a superb performance to silence Boston\u2019s TD Garden home crowd in an absorbing duel settled by a burst of fourth-quarter Thunder scoring.<\/p>\n

The Canadian point guard shot 11-of-20 from the field to finish with five rebounds, seven assists and 34 points, including 10-of-11 from the free throw line.<\/p>\n

The victory lifted Western Conference leaders Oklahoma City to a 54-12 win-loss record for the season and guaranteed their place in next month\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s win over a vastly more experienced Boston lineup marked another mature display from a Thunder side that is the youngest in the league.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City effectively sealed victory late in the fourth, pulling away to open up a double-digit lead with just under two minutes remaining after Cason Wallace nailed a superb 24-foot three-pointer followed by a driving reverse layup.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander said the Thunder\u2019s defensive solidity amid a barrage of 63 attempted threes from Boston had provided the foundation for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to get stops, and that\u2019s been the trend for us recently,\u201d he told ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re coming down the stretch against a good basketball team with good players, you\u2019ve got to find a way, and we did so tonight and gave ourselves a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gilgeous-Alexander grabbed the scoring headlines, the towering Chet Holmgren caught the eye with a double-double of 23 points with 15 rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the player Chet Holmgren is,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said of his 22-year-old teammate. \u201cHe\u2019s a stud, and he\u2019s going to be a stud for a very long time. He\u2019ll continue to grow and continue to be special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s scoring was led by Jayson Tatum with 33 points, while Derrick White had 22.<\/p>\n

Despite missing Jaylin Williams from the lineup, the Thunder finished with seven players scoring in double figures against the Celtics.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City haven\u2019t won an NBA title since 1979, when the franchise was located in Washington state and they were called the Seattle SuperSonics.<\/p>\n

\"ChetOklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) scores against Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) in the second quarter at TD Garden on March 12, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts, US [David Butler II\/Imagn Images via Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics on the road to cement their status as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,11,67,275,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-7106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-playoffs","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114441915224896739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}