On Sunday afternoon the Thunder step out of Western Conference play to take on one of the best teams in the East, the Boston Celtics.
The Celts have won nine of their last 10 and come into Sunday riding a six-game winning streak.
Much like the Thunder, Boston chose not to make any moves at the trade deadline, with former OKC center, Enes Kanter telling ESPN, “I feel like we’ve got everything we need to just win a championship. And we’ve just got to go out there and prove it.”
With two of the hottest teams in the league tipping off inside Chesapeake Energy Arena at 2:30 p.m. CT, we caught up with Justin Quinn, the editor of our sister site Celtics Wire to see what’s been going on in Boston so far this year.
1 – What should Oklahoma City Thunder fans know about the Boston Celtics’ season so far?
First and foremost, this team runs on chemistry and each other’s energy. While it hasn’t been as much of an issue lately, Boston has had a tendency to try and get a feel for which of their four primary scoring threats has the hot hand, especially against lesser opponents in terms of wins and losses.
Those four threats are mostly on the wing — All-Star point guard Kemba Walker the sole exception — and create chaos in passing lanes on defense while creating something of a Sophie’s choice on offense. Once they get that action going, it’s really hard to stop, as their defense creates possessions that make it hard for opponents to get their defenses set, and only a handful of teams have the perimeter defense able to slow down Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward as well as Walker.
However, when opponents can hit the Celtics hard and early, those emotional drivers have the opposite effect and have seen more than a few teams steal a win they shouldn’t have by capitalizing on that tendency.
2 – What will it take for each team to win?
The Oklahoma City Thunder are a much better team than almost any they have faced in January, save the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and perhaps Philadelphia 76ers. But they’ve also won six in a row since that month rolled into February, where the schedule gets both more relaxed in terms of frequency but tougher in terms of opponents, starting with OKC.
It’s hard to say whether their recent success will galvanize them against the murderer’s row of opponents they have to start the month, or if it will lull them into a false sense of security the Thunder can use to their advantage similar to how I described above. If they can, Oklahoma City should be able to win the meeting, especially considering center Robert Williams III (hip) will be out, and both center Daniel Theis and wing Jaylen Brown (right ankle sprain for each) are questionable.
Boston should win if they can field at least one of Theis or Brown and continue their more recent habit of Brown, Hayward, and Walker being aggressive early while the team as a whole executes down the stretch. Slow starts and third quarter lulls have not been the Celtics’ friend this season, so they’ll have to be diligent to avoid them against an opponent of the caliber the Thunder are.
3 – What else should we know about the Celtics?
Like OKC, they were mostly written off as in a retooling season if not a rebuild, and have surprised many analysts and opponents around the league. But they have long ago shed the plucky label and have been recognized as some of the better two teams in the NBA this season, and probably won’t sneak up on one another as a result.
We might be in for an epic battle as each tries to maintain their recent positive momentum with Boston on a six-game winning streak and the Thunder victors of their last four contests.