The OKC Thunder carry on their quest to the playoffs as they face the Boston Celtics and look to end their current run. Gameday breaks down the match.
When Chris Paul was asked about his thoughts as the curtain closed on the 2020 NBA trade deadline, he said he thought to himself “If we’re gonna make a run at this thing, we’ve got our group.” Thus echoing that the OKC Thunder have got everything they need, which showed when they opted to stay put and roll with the same squad for the rest of the season.
It’s a great decision by the organization with the team riding a four-game win steak (and winners of nine of their last 10 games) which is the longest in the Western Conference.
A similar sentiment was expressed by Boston Celtics guard Kemba Walker for his team as their belief in each other and their goals are at an all-time high. They travel to OKC while thriving in their own right and are on a six-match win streak.
Boston is a legitimate contender and will be fighting to make it out of the East which poses huge threats in the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat.
The Celtics are 36-15 and are in the top 5 in the league for offensive rating (fifth/112.6), defensive rating (third/105.3) and net rating (second/7.3).
This will prove to be a tough task for OKC with Boston being dominant on both ends of the floor. However, despite the men in green boasting the better numbers, the Thunder can modify their game depending on the situation at hand.
OKC has shown weaknesses in their pace and in scoring fast break points where the Celtics rank sixth. They make up for this by honing in on defense and limiting opponents to just 10.5 fast break points per game.
In their last encounter which was against the Detroit Pistons, they made only five out of 23 triples and when facing a team like Boston who is a good shooting team, they will need to resolve this.
With that being said here are the keys to the game.