The Boston Celtics are still the defending NBA champions. But it’s hard to call them the favorites to win it all again this year after what transpired Sunday in Oklahoma City.

Boston, at full strength for the first time all season, crumbled in the second half of a potential NBA Finals preview, losing 105-92 to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Western Conference-leading Thunder.

The Celtics led by 10 at halftime but scored just 27 points over the final two quarters against an OKC squad that boasts the NBA’s top-ranked defense (and, now, a 15-game win streak). It was Boston’s first loss by double digits since Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

“The first half was ours,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis told reporters at the Paycom Center. “The second half was theirs by a wide margin.”

Gilgeous-Alexander, the odds-on favorite for NBA MVP, was superb for the Thunder, finishing with 33 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks.

Jayson Tatum tallied 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Celtics, who shot a season-worst 19.6% from 3-point range in the loss (9 for 46) and 20.0% on all field-goal attempts in the second half (8 for 40). All 21 of Jaylen Brown’s points came in the first half.

Boston’s guard trio of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard, who came in shooting a collective 54.8% from 3 over the previous three games, all were held scoreless after halftime. Pritchard finished without a point for just the second time this season.

“When you score 27 points in a half, it puts a ton of pressure on your defense,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame.

The loss dropped the Celtics to 26-10 on the season and 2-1 on their current Western Conference road trip, which began with impressive wins over Minnesota and Houston on back-to-back nights. They’ll close out that trip Tuesday night in Denver.

The big names on both sides delivered early on Sunday, with Tatum, Brown and Gilgeous-Alexander scoring nine, 10 and 11 points in the first quarter, respectively.

Gilgeous-Alexander attacked the basket effectively with successful layups on his first three drives. That’s his bread and butter offensively; the Thunder star is averaging nearly three more points per game on drives than any other NBA player this season.

Driving also was an effective strategy for Brown, who looked spry after sitting out the previous two games with a shoulder injury, and Tatum. They went a combined 7 for 7 from the foul line in the first, with each drawing one foul by Gilgeous-Alexander.

With Brown returning, the Celtics had all of their players active for just the second time all season (excluding those on G League assignments). It was the first time their entire rotation was available for a full game and their seventh time fielding their preferred starting five.

OKC was down three contributors in Alex Caruso, Chet Holmgren and Ajay Mitchell, who missed the game with injuries.

The Celtics got a second-chance 3-pointer from Al Horford and a transition 3 from Sam Hauser late in the first quarter, then controlled play for most of the second, stretching their lead to 13 points.

Brown maintained his aggressive offensive mindset, pouring in 21 first-half points while attempting just three shots outside the paint. As a team, Boston outscored Oklahoma City 24-4 in the paint in the second quarter, going 6 for 7 on shots in the restricted area while the Thunder went 1 for 5.

As time wound down in the first half, Tatum connected with Porzingis on a fast-break alley-oop, then slammed home a putback dunk on the next possession to put the Celtics up 13. They led by 10 at the half, 65-55, the second-largest halftime deficit of the season for OKC.

That momentum didn’t last.

The third quarter was a low-scoring, physical slugfest, with the Thunder outscoring the Celtics 21-15. Boston made just five field goals in the quarter, including a contested midrange jumper by Porzingis as time expired after OKC had cut its lead to one.

Porzingis had 19 points and nine rebounds in his second game back from an ankle injury, but he was 1 for 6 from 3 and a game-worst minus-17 across his 29 minutes.

The third quarter also featured a scary moment involving Tatum, who was slow to get up after falling headlong into the first row of seats while battling Luguentz Dort for a loose ball. Members of the Celtics training staff checked on Tatum, but he remained in the game.

But that didn’t help the Celtics during a disastrous fourth quarter, during which the Thunder turned a playoff-esque nailbiter into a comfortable win.

The pivotal stretch began when Dort stole a Holiday pass with 6:31 remaining and scored at the other end to put OKC up 89-85. Gilgeous-Alexander hit a 3 on the next Thunder possession; Porzingis was whistled for an offensive foul, his fifth; Gilgeous-Alexander blocked a fast-break Tatum layup; and Isaiah Hartenstein threw down a seismic dunk over White to cap a 9-0 run for the West front-runners.

A 3 by Tatum got the Celtics back to within six, but subsequent triples by Dort, nestled around a Gilgeous-Alexander steal, shut the door on Boston’s comeback bid. Dort, an elite defender, also helped erase Brown after OKC switched him onto the Celtics star. Brown did not make a shot in the final 27 minutes of game time, missing his final eight attempts.

The Thunder, who lead the NBA in steals, swiped 11 in the game, tied for the third-most by a Boston opponent this season. Every Celtics starter turned the ball over at least twice.

The Celtics have allowed more than 10 steals in four games this season and lost all four.

“They had 17 points off turnovers in the second half,” Mazzulla told reporters. “So that’s a product of poor spacing, poor physicality on the ball and then just poor screening. They’re a team that fights for matchups. I thought we did a great job of that in the first half, and those 17 points off turnovers I think were the difference-maker down the stretch.”

The Celtics will conclude their road trip Tuesday against another MVP candidate: three-time winner Nikola Jokic, whose Nuggets beat Boston twice last season. Jokic is arguably the NBA’s most dangerous offensive player, and he’s put up staggering numbers of late, averaging 36.5 points, 16.5 rebounds, 11.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game over his last four contests.

____

©2025 The Boston Herald. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.