Kristaps Porzingis had 27 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots to help the Boston Celtics clinch the No. 1 overall seed and secure home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 135-100 at home on Wednesday night.
Porzingis, who was 11 of 14 from the field, has scored at least 17 points in each of his past 13 games.
Jayson Tatum added 24 points and Jaylen Brown added 23 for Boston (60-16).
The Celtics led by 10 points entering the fourth quarter, but were up 118-90 after Jrue Holiday capped a 13-0 run by making a layup with 6:06 to play. The Celtics outscored the Thunder 42-17 in the fourth.
Josh Giddey scored a team-high 17 points for the Thunder. Luguentz Dort was next with 15, Cason Wallace added 12 and Chet Holmgren finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Oklahoma City (52-24) played without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (quad contusion) and Jalen Williams (ankle sprain), the team’s top two scorers. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging a team-high 30.3 points per game, and Williams is averaging 19.5 points per contest.
The Thunder had a 21-19 lead late in the first quarter, but Boston used an 11-0 run to go up by nine. The Celtics led 30-23 after 12 minutes.
Boston outscored Oklahoma City 31-24 in the second quarter and had a 61-47 halftime lead. Porzingis had 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in the first half, when the Thunder shot 2 of 15 from 3-point range.
Oklahoma City trailed by five points after two free throws by Isaiah Joe made it 77-72 with 4:41 remaining in the third, but the Celtics regained a double-digit advantage and led 93-83 entering the fourth.
Oklahoma was 5-of-24 from 3-point territory in the loss while the Celtics shot 17 of 40 from beyond the arc.
–Field Level Media
