Thunder Turns Celtics’ Attack into Whale Soup…
In a twist only basketball could deliver, the Boston Celtics took the stage Thursday night, only to face a surprise plot twist: the Oklahoma City Thunder morphing into a full defensive juggernaut. The Celtics, boasting a killer whale style under coach Joe Mazzulla, aimed for a seal of victory but ended up floundering against the Thunder’s shark-tight defense. With a 118-112 win, Oklahoma City completed a clean sweep of the season, threatening to rain on Boston’s ‘sea-laden’ parade.
Coach Mazzulla might have likened his team’s tactics to killer whales hunting seals, but the Thunder wasn’t playing the role of flippered fodder. Nope! Their team defense would have made a SWAT team blush in envy. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort at the helm of their defensive phalanx, the Thunder turned Celtics’ go-to shooters into indecisive piranhas caught in a tuna net, resulting in an impressive display of strategic interference and ball-chasing prowess.
The Celtics swam up a waterfall trying to find their rhythm among the Thunder’s tight-knit defense. A symbolic moment: Jrue Holiday, minutes before taking a shot, spotted Chet Holmgren and went for an escape route instead. Offensive tactics that typically fed on weak links found none in sight. The Celtics now know — against the Thunder, it’s either up your game or flounder like a fish out of water.
