Celtics Deemed Second-Biggest Threat To ‘Dethrone’ Thunder, Win NBA Finals originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes believes the Boston Celtics are the second-biggest threat to dethrone the Oklahoma City Thunder as NBA champions. Hughes asserted that only the San Antonio Spurs pose a bigger threat to OKC than Boston.
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“Jayson Tatum’s return injects some wild-card energy into a potential Finals meeting between the Boston Celtics and the Thunder,” Hughes wrote on Sunday.
“Tatum isn’t exactly an unknown commodity. He won a ring in 2024 and made the All-NBA First Team in the four seasons prior to this one. His late-season reintroduction to a Celtics team that seemed to be wildly overachieving without him and was already getting fringe-MVP contributions from Jaylen Brown makes Boston a threat to absolutely everyone.”
“A Mar. 12 meeting in OKC didn’t illuminate much, as neither Tatum nor Derrick White suited up for the Celtics,” Hughes continued. “On the other side, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jalen Williams sat out with injuries. Take what you will from a two-point Thunder win in that one. We know that nearly half of the relevant playoff starters didn’t participate.”
“In theory, Boston’s championship experience and glut of defenders who’d be at least viable against SGA give it a couple of real selling points,” Hughes added. “It’s asking a lot of young players like Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Baylor Scheierman to play well against a team as overwhelming as the Thunder, but Boston has seen all three perform during the regular season. If Boston has an exploitable weakness, it’s probably a big man rotation that gets pretty iffy after Neemias Queta.”
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Contrary to Hughes’ final assessment here, Luka Garza has been balling out for the Celtics lately, scoring 22 points the other night against the Memphis Grizzlies.
On the whole, though, Hughes’ grading of the Celts as the second-most worrisome threat for OKC makes plenty of sense.
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