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Philippines, 15 May 2025 |
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OKC Routs Denver; 149-106, Ties Series; Semis Series in East Remain Topsy-turvy as Boston Goes Down 0-2 With 91-90 Loss to NY By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Thu, 08 May 2025  The Oklahoma City Thunder restored a semblance of order in the Western Conference Semifinal series, tying the score with the Denver Nuggets following a decisive 149-106 rout today. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference Semifinals remained topsy-turvy as the #2 seed and defending champion Boston Celtics fell again to the #3 New York Knicks, 91-90, falling into a 2-0 hole in the process. Top seed Cleveland Cavaliers had earlier gone down by the same series deficit against the #4 Indiana Pacers, losing by a point on a Tyrese Haliburton three-pointer after leading for most of their second game. The Pacers took the opener by ten points, almost the same margin posted by New York against Boston in their first game. The coincidences do not end there. All four teams were also semifinalists last season, only with different opponents. After respectively disposing of Cleveland and Indiana, Boston went on to face New York in the Eastern Conference Finals and won. Which may not be the case this time. Not wanting to suffer the fate of their Eastern counterparts, the Thunder opened the second game like a house on fire, immediately posting huge early leads. The Nuggets won Game One on a last-second three-pointer by Aaron Gordon. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander immediately went to work in combination with Jalen Williams and Lu Dort. Big men Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Jaylin Williams imposed themselves in the painted area, harassing and limiting the Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr. This resulted in a huge 45-21 lead in the first quarter that translated to a record 87-56 halftime advantage. The margin even went up to nearly 50 points at the end of the third period, 124-76, as Alexander continued to pour it on with scoring support from Williams, Dort, Holmgren, and even Hartenstein. On the other side, only Russell Westbrook was able to score with more consistency as Jokic, Gordon, Porter, and Jamal Murray were all stymied by the Thunder defense and overwhelmed by Oklahoma's blitzkrieg offense. Alexander topped all scorers with 34 points as he led seven other Thunder players in double figures, scoring from 10 to 17 points. Westbrook led the scoring for the losers with 19 points. Jokic was limited to only 17, and Murray had just 14. The Knicks outscored Boston 30-17 in the last quarter for the come-from-behind victory as the Celtics' outside shooting deserted them in the face of New York's resolute zone defense. 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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