Celtics vs. Thunder: Who would win a Finals matchup?

[ad_1]

With a month to go in the regular season, the Boston Celtics will host the Oklahoma City Thunder in a marquee matchup on Wednesday between the league’s top two title favorites. While neither team will be at full strength (OKC’s Jalen Williams is out with a hip strain, Boston’s Kristaps Porziņģis is doubtful with an illness), this could be a preview of the NBA Finals.

How do the heavyweights match up? What obstacles stand in their way? And who would win if they met on the NBA’s biggest stage? Our writers weigh in.

What intrigues you about a potential Celtics-Thunder Finals?

Vincent Goodwill: Styles make fights, and although they have similar personnel, these teams don’t play the same way. Would Jaylen Brown guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and hound him the way he did Luka Dončić? Would Lu Dort be all over Jayson Tatum? Chet Holmgren and Kristaps Porziņģis in a battle of skinny vs. formerly skinny? The league has become a battle of wings and usually whoever wins the Finals takes the mantle of the supreme style and build for everyone else to follow.

Tom Haberstroh: Experience. The Celtics have eight players who have played in multiple NBA Finals; the Thunder have zero. Inexperienced teams have won titles before (see the ‘23 Denver Nuggets), but these Thunder are greener than the Celtics’ away jerseys. The only Thunder player to have ever played in an NBA Finals is Alex Caruso, who will be making his first postseason appearance with the Thunder, so he’s not exactly a tenured elder statesman. I don’t think experience would entirely determine the fate of this matchup, but it’s going to be on my mind anytime either team hits a spell of adversity.

Dan Devine: Broadly: Whether Oklahoma City’s remix of the Boston build — the ability to toggle between 5-out/drive-and-kick and double-big looks that still have plenty of offensive juice, great positional size across the perimeter, two All-Star-level big wing creators, ace defenders at damn near every position — is good enough to beat the genuine article.

More specifically: How will the Celtics guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and how will OKC react to it? We…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/celtics-vs-thunder-who-would-win-a-finals-matchup-161848354.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-12 16:18:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.