THUNDER - Pressed against Derrick White, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander slithered his way to his spot despite Jrue Holiday tagging along. He swished in a short mid-range jumper to silence the road crowd and let them deal with the reality of the impending result.

The Oklahoma City Thunder shocked the Boston Celtics with a 118112 win. Entering as a rare underdog, they went into a hostile environment and beat the reigning NBA champions without their second All-Star player.

“Our ability to just kinda stick with it and not overreact. Not trying to get jumpy. That’s when you really get in trouble against them because you end up giving up a higher quality three when you’re running by them since they’re so good at passing the ball,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “I just thought our maturity and discipline to the gameplan through the ups and downs of a tough 48-minute game was really positive tonight.”

The Thunder showed early on that they wouldn’t succumb to a scheduled loss. They scored the first nine points as Chet Holmgren returned to his natural starting center spot and Isaiah Hartenstein was on the bench. They left the first quarter with a 33-30 lead. Gilgeous-Alexander had it going early. The Thunder dominated with him on the floor. We know they do that already. He’s the ultimate ceiling-raiser. But the real test would be how they’d look with him off the floor. Relying on the Holmgren-Hartenstein duo for their bench lineup, the results were promising to start the second quarter.

The Thunder held their own as both teams scored 30 points apiece in the frame. Gilgeous-Alexander made a circus mid-range jumper between two Boston defenders in the final seconds that could’ve been an and-one. They entered halftime with a slight 63-60 lead.

Coming out of the break, the Thunder pushed their lead to double-digit points. An 11-0 run was capped off when Gilgeous-Alexander scored on a stepback 3-pointer. Suddenly, they were up 80-68 with a little over seven minutes left in the third quarter.

The lead only lived for a bit as the Celtics went on an 18-6 run in the final six minutes of the frame. Jayson Tatum’s and-one bucket tied it up at 88 points apiece after three quarters. With the game on ESPN, the national audience got what they sought in this elite matchup. A thrilling finish would ensue.

Both teams went back and forth to start the fourth quarter. Tied at 95 points with a little under nine minutes left, Gilgeous-Alexander checked back in a little earlier than usual. This was a prime opportunity to show off on a national stage and help his MVP case. A Superman carry effort is a basketball fan’s average fantasy.

It didn’t take long for Gigeous-Alexander to do that. Sinking a turnaround jumper against Payton Pritchard, he pushed OKC’s lead to 106-98 with less than five minutes left. As the Celtics’ outside shooting went cold against the league’s best defense, the MVP candidate dissected them to grow an eight-point advantage.

It didn’t take much longer for the Thunder to go up by double-digit points again. Cason Wallace’s back-toback buckets from the outside and a wide-open lane to the basket suddenly created a 113-102 lead with under two minutes left.

The Celtics prettied the final score in the final minutes, but this game was already decided. A stunned Boston crowd couldn’t believe a short-handed Thunder without Jalen Williams came into their building and shut them down.

The Thunder shot 49% from the field and went 13-of-37 (35.1%) from 3. They shot 23-of-35 on free throws. They had 19 assists on 40 baskets. Seven Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 34 points and seven assists. Holmgren stepped up with 23 points and 15 rebounds. As starters, Wallace scored 14 points and Lu Dort had 13 points. Off the bench, Hartenstein had 11 points and six rebounds. Isaiah Joe had 11 points and Kenrich Williams had 10 points.

Meanwhile, the Celtics shot 44% from the field and went 20-of-63 (31.7%) from 3. They shot 10-of-12 on free throws. They had 25 assists on 41 baskets. Four Celtics players scored double-digit points.

Tatum finished with 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting, eight assists and eight rebounds. White scored 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists. Al Horford had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Jaylen Brown struggled with 10 points on 5-of-15 shooting before he fouled out.

This game is surely up there in a season filled with impressive wins. The Thunder and Celtics are twothirds of an elite three-team tier this season — along with the Cleveland Cavaliers. To go into Boston and beat them in a potential NBA Finals preview without your second-best player flexes what type of season they’ve had.

It was inevitable, but this was a fashionable way for the Thunder to finally clinch a playoff spot. They became the first team in the West to do so. After the game, Gilgeous-Alexander’s Converse logo was projected around Boston as the ultimate flex move. You can tell this one meant a little bit more than most.

“The biggest thing against them is you got to just understand they’re going to make some tough shots, they’re going to make some tough plays, they’re going to make threes,” Daigneault said. “White in the first quarter, thought we got a lot of nice contests on those shots and he was just banging them shots. You just can’t overreact. Stick to the plan. It takes maturity. Guys want to win and there’s a tendency sometimes to want to do more but sometimes that’s not the best thing when it comes to slowing down.”

What was known before the season even started was finally written on paper. The Oklahoma City Thunder clinched their playoff spot with a 118-112 win over the Boston Celtics.

At 54-12, it shouldn’t be a shocker to see the Thunder be the first team in the West to clinch a playoff spot. They sit in first place with a 12-game lead. That’s been the case for the entire season. They join the Cleveland Cavaliers as the only teams to clinch a playoff spot in early March.

Unlike last season, the Thunder won’t need any last-day dramatics to determine their seed. But like last season, the Thunder will need to wait until the play-in tournament is concluded to see who captures the eighth seed.

They’ve participated in it 12 times since 2010, the second-most in the NBA in that span. The Thunder should enter the playoffs as a title favorite with championship aspirations.

X