The defending NBA champion Boston Celtics face what nay be their most difficult, and definitely most intriguing, matchup on Sunday when they face the team that has its sights set on becoming the next NBA champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Paced by leading MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his 31.2 points per game, the Thunder enter the showdown at Paycom Center looking for their 15th straight victory.
The Thunder winning streak was unofficially interrupted on December 17 when they lost 97-81 to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Cup championship game, but the Cup final does not count toward a team’s regular season record. Oklahoma City has not lost an official regular season game since December 1 when they were edged by the Houston Rockets 119-116 in Houston.
As the season nears its halfway point, the Thunder are essentially lapping the field in the NBA’s Western Conference, with a 29-5 record that puts them seven full games ahead of current No. 2 seed Houston.
Celtics Return to Form Despite Brown Injury
The Celtics come into the Sunday matinee clash — being seen around the NBA as a potential “Finals preview” — on a three-game winning streak after a troubled month of December that saw them lose six of the 14 games they played. But Boston finished the month with a 54-point blowout of the Toronto Raptors, the second-largest margin of victory in the 79-year history of the NBA’s most successful franchise. It was also the largest margin of defeat in the 30-year history of the Raptors.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, they got some bad news after that game when All-Star forward Jaylen Brown was diagnosed with a right shoulder strain.
Brown has not played since, and the bad news on his injury continued into Sunday. Brown — who is averaging 24.4 points, six rebounds and 4.6 assists per game — is still listed as “questionable” on the Celtics injury report released late Saturday. Brown was also listed as “questionable” prior to Boston’s previous two games as they embarked on a difficult, four-game road trip against elite Western Conference teams.
The 28-year-old, nine-year veteran did not play in either of those games.
Brown’s absence did not seem to make a difference for the Celtics, at least not so far on the road trip. After their shaky December, the NBA champions regained their form. First, they opened 2025 on January 2 by sneaking past the Minnesota Timberwolves 118-115 behind 33 points from Jayson Tatum who also compiled nine assists and eight rebounds.
The very next night they played in Houston against the second-best rated defensive team in the NBA, the Rockets at a defensive rating of 106.2. But the Celtics hung 109 on them while holding Houston to just 86.
OKC Missing Star Center Chet Holmgren
Oklahoma City, however, is the top-rated defensive team in the NBA at 102.9, and the seventh-rated offensive team at 115. The Celtics are the league’s second best team in terms of offensive rating — meaning points scored per 100 possessions — at 120.4.
The Oklahoma City injury report is not perfect either. Center Chet Holmgren — the second overall pick in the NBA’s 2022 draft, out of Gonzaga — remains out as he recovers from a hip fracture suffered in a November 10 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
But the Thunder do not seem to be missing Holmgren too badly. Since the injury, even including their NBA Cup loss to the Bucks, the team has put together a record of 21 wins and just four losses.
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Boston Celtics Get Bad News Ahead of ‘Finals Preview’ Clash Vs. Oklahoma City