OKC, Boston Overwhelm Semis Foes
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 08 May 2024
Top seeds Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder got off to a good start in their semis openers at home by overwhelming their respective foes, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Dallas Mavericks by more than twenty points.
The Celtics defeated the Cavaliers, 120-95 which was quite expected as Cleveland had sort of a reputation of losing at their opponents' homecourt in their first round series versus Orlando. Which is welcome news to Boston that has lost only once at the TD Garden against Miami.
In what was expected as a dogfight, OKC demonstrated the potency of its deeper bench in thrashing the visiting Dallas Mavericks at its Paycom Center home arena, 117-95 with its emerging superstar Shai Gilgeous Alexander more than holding his own against his veteran counterpart Kyrie Irving.
Boston simply did better in all departments in establishing a 1-0 series lead over the Cavaliers.
The Celts shoot 45 of 92 from the floor including 18 of 46 from the three point land as against the Cavs 37 of 90 and 11 of 44. The Celts also outclassed Cleveland on the boards with 55 rebounds against 38. Boston likewise had 22 assists to Cleveland's 18.
All Celtics starters except center Al Horford who only had 7 points, scored in double figures. Jaylen Brown led with 32 points followed by Derrick White with 25 points. Jason Tatum finished only with 18 points but topped the team in rebounds with 11. Defensive guard Jrue Holiday even scored 14 points while Payton Pritchard came off the bench and poured 16 points.
Dennis Mitchell as expected led the Cavaliers with 33 points followed by center Eric Mobley with 17. Isaiah Okoro had 14 and point guard Darius Garland was good for 11 points.
Luca Doncic and Kyrie Irving came to do battle but Doncic was still hobbled by injury and could not perform as superbly as he used to.
OKC's outstanding center Chet Holmgren and a battery of big men including Lue Dorf, Jalen Willams, Andrew Wiggins and Jaylin Williams were even there to make life hard for him.
Only Irving managed to deliver the numbers he was expected to but Alexander not only kept up with him but did better, even at times helping bottle up Doncic.
The dog fight between the two teams only ensued in the first quarter which ended at 23-all. But OKC outscored the Mavs 39-30 leading to a 62-53 advantage for the Thunder. OKC never let go the initiative from then.
For OKC, Alexander nearly had a triple double with 29 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. Holmgren had 19 points, and a couple of blocks, Jaylen Williams poured in 18, reserves Wiggins contributed 16 and Jaylin Williams chipped in 11 points and 9 boards.
Irving led the Mavs with 20 points. Doncic managed 19 points and 9 assists. Center Daniel Galford had 16 points and 11 rebounds. PJ Washington finished with 10 while Josh Green came off the bench for 11 points.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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