Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander impressed by ‘playoff feel’ in loss to Celtics
"I think it's one of the premier organizations in the league to play against."
While it wasn’t nationally televised, the Celtics‘ win against the Thunder Wednesday night had all the makings of a big game.
It was a matchup of the two most recent NBA champions, both near full-strength in a potential NBA Finals preview.
It should be no surprise, then, that TD Garden was rocking. Reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spoke about how that atmosphere felt to play in.
“Every time you play the Boston Celtics, you get a playoff feel no matter what day it is, who is out there,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They’re super well-coached, they have really good players.”
“I think it’s one of the premier organizations in the league to play against. They bring it every night. They have a culture. They check all the boxes and that’s why they’ve been successful over the past few years. It’s a game that you see where you are and they test you. We had a test [Wednesday] and we didn’t pass it.”
Advertisement:
The Celtics and Knicks both entered the day five games back of the top-seeded Pistons in the Eastern Conference standings. The win against Oklahoma City put the Celtics a half game ahead of the Knicks for second place in the East.
With just a few weeks left in the regular season teams are still jockeying for playoff seeding. The top two seeds get to play against the teams that advance from the play-in tournament, which features seeds 7-10 in each conference. The No. 3 seed would play the No. 6 seed.
A win against the defending champs can also provide an emotional lift, showing that the Celtics can compete with one of the best teams in the league.
Advertisement:
“I really wanted that win,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “That was well-needed. We know we can play with anybody. But you get a win on your home floor against the team that has the best record in the league, feels good, especially after dropping a game I feel like we should have won against Minnesota. So, very encouraging.”
The Celtics split the regular-season series with the Thunder 1-1. The Thunder beat the Celtics by two on March 12th in OKC while the Celtics were without Jayson Tatum. The Celtics pulled away late and won by 10 Wednesday night at TD Garden.
With the regular-season series against OKC wrapped up, there’s only one way left for these two teams to meet again this season.
It would require a trip to the NBA Finals.
Be civil. Be kind.
Read our full community guidelines.To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address