Boston – this was one that the defending champions wanted. The Oklahoma City Thunder clamped the visiting Boston Celtics late in January, and in his title defense, Boston had not yet lost a season series against another candidate.

Apart from OKC, it did again on Wednesday and used an 8-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter to create a separation in what was a great game between two great teams up to this point. The Thunder won the price war 118-112 with a maturity that contradicted her youth, exactly the mistletoe you need to win a championship.

But the coach of Oklahoma City, Mark Daigneult, did not want his team to come ahead.

“It’s March,” he said, “not June.”

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The Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP favorite of the NBA, who collected his usual 34 points, seven templates and five rebounds, was a little more ready to maintain this as an explanatory victory.

“Because they have done what we try to do, the games against them will always become a little stronger and more exciting,” he said. “You have achieved what we want to achieve and there is no better test in the NBA. We play for the end of June and you are the team that won, so it is something we have to test against, and I think we have passed the two tests so far.”

Oklahoma City was without the second all-star, Jalen Williams when he maintained a hip load, but Chet Holmgren, who missed three months himself for injury, joined this secondary role. His 23 points, 15 rebounds and incessant marginal protection were triggered in Kristaps Porzingi’s chaos in the absence of Boston.

Boston was also without co-star, Jaylen Brown, even though he played. Brown scored 10 points with 15 shots and falsified in 38 minutes. He refused to accuse the problem of the right knee that has cost him four games in the past few weeks, and well as those who deserve it: Cason Wallace and OKC’s relentless defense.

“Harder team sets the rules,” said Brown. “I have not reached your level of physicality.”

The Celtics as a whole did not meet the level of the physicality of thunder. They did not make a 2-point shot in the first quarter, when 20 of their 22 attempts of 35 threesome came in the first half, were a record, and they ended 20 out of 63 (32%) from afar. These were the shots they could find. Even if their creators could handle Wallace and LU there, Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein waited in the middle.

This is a problem for the Celtics if these two teams meet in June. Not many opponents can claim to be a Matchup problem for Boston, but Oklahoma City can be found in both sessions after the fourth quarter.

The Celtics drove largely to the championship last season without Porzingis, which has missed the last six games of this season for an unidentified viral infection. You will need him to defend your championship against the Cleveland Cavaliers before you have the chance to meet OKC again – and Boston knows.

“We will feel much better if we all have,” said Jayson Tatum, whose 33 points, eight rebounds and eight templates Boston played in the game. “I look forward to having our full team for this last route with full strength. We will turn off some things well and prepare for the funny part of all of this.”

That would be the playoffs if the Celtics stay the champions until someone closes them. You have already won it, so you think you can do it again. The thunder cannot say the same thing.

But they said everything they needed on Wednesday. When asked what the Celtics separated from the pack last season, Gilgeous-Alexander also spoke about the mentality of his own team in Boston.

“They do not decorate or don’t stir,” he said. “If you play against you, you are confident and know what you want to achieve at both ends of the soil, and you do it at a high level. I think that does it so well. Whether the ball is in or out of you does not last as you play.”

In fact, Tatum said the same thing.

“They play the right way,” he said. “You know what you want to do at both ends. This was a high level.”

The only knock against the western conference, which is now thunder, is the fact that as a team you have not reached a conference final. In the second round you lost to the Dallas Mavericks last season.

“We got better than last year,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, whose thunder (54-12) won a playoff place on Wednesday.

“I think we have a few new guys who made our team much better,” added Holmgren, “but I also think that everyone who has returned worked up their tail this summer and came back even better.”

Scary thought. When attitude and maturity are the only criticism that hurled down to the thunder, it was as if Daignult knew and wanted us to know, this game showed that his team had both.

“It was a 48-minute effort,” said 40-year-old Massachusetts. “This was a difficult game to win. The (Celtics) continue. They shoot three so that they can quickly lead to the line. There were many lead changes, and I just thought that the attitude and discipline and competitiveness of our team were seen this evening.”

And when it comes back in June, Brown countered: “We will be ready.”

“We will see when we will arrive there,” added Tatum.

The defending champions have to do work. The thunder made it clear.