The China Mail - Celtics chase second straight NBA title in playoff field led by Thunder, Cavs

The Celtics, virtually unchanged from the team that lifted the franchise's record 18th title last season, completed the best regular-season by a defending champions since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, finishing second in the East with a 61-21 record -- third best in the league.

They led the NBA in three-pointers with nearly 18 per game and rolled into the playoffs winning 25 of their last 30 games.

But the Celtics say they'll be working from a clean slate when they open their post-season campaign against the Orlando Magic on Sunday.

"I've said it a lot: We're not defending the championship," star forward Jayson Tatum said. "We won last year. Can't nobody take it from us. But last year is last season. That's out the window. We're not worried about anything beside the Magic right now."

The Celtics are optimistic that last year's NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jaylen Brown will be ready to go against Orlando after receiving injections to treat a knee injury that sidelined him for the last three games of the regular-season.

"He actually looks good," said teammate Kristaps Porzingis, who echoed Tatum's view that the Celtics are starting from scratch as they try to become the first team since Golden State in 2017-18 to win back-to-back titles.

The regular season was dominated by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Thunder, already first in the Western Conference last year, compiled the best record in the league, amassing 68 victories compared to their 57 last season behind MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Coach Mark Daigneault's Thunder are the youngest team in NBA history to secure a number one seed.

Gilgeous-Alexander owns a league-best average of 32.7 points per game, OKC ranks fourth in total offense and third in defense and Gilgeous-Alexander believes they can respond to any opponent.

"We have a 'whatever it takes' mentality," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "The goal is to win. However you get it done, it's a step in the right direction."

The Cavaliers, beaten by the Celtics in last year's Eastern Conference semi-finals, roared back under new coach Kenny Atkinson -- seizing control of the conference with a 15-game winning streak to open the season.

"We're grittier than I thought in the beginning," Atkinson said of a team anchored by guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. "There's the rhetoric that we're skilled and move the ball and play good offense and that's good -- but we have a toughness about us."

As the Thunder and Cavaliers awaited the outcomes of Friday's final play-in games to learn their first-round opponents, the resurgent Los Angeles Lakers prepared to launch their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.

With first-year coach JJ Redick at the helm and Slovenian star Luka Doncic providing all the Lakers expected when they nabbed him in a stunning mid-season trade, 40-year-old Lakers superstar LeBron James is again a title contender.

- Going to war -

The Lakers won 50 games for the first time since they lifted the title in 2020. James, in the post-season for the 18th time, is chasing a fifth championship while Doncic seeks a first, a year after guiding the Dallas Mavericks to the Finals.

"We have guys who are willing to go to war," Doncic said. "Everybody is staying together. The chemistry is high. I think we for sure have a chance."

Should they make it to the second round, James and the Lakers could be up against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors -- if the veteran Warriors -- boosted by the acquisition of Jimmy Butler in February -- can make it past a young and hungry Houston Rockets team that finished second in the West.

The Los Angeles Clippers, with Kawhi Leonard and James Harden in good health, roared into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak to book a meeting with three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets -- the 2023 champions who shockingly sacked coach Michael Malone in the waning days of the regular season.

Elsewhere in the East, the third-seeded New York Knicks will be tested by the Detroit Pistons, who are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and seeking a first playoff series win since 2008.

The Milwaukee Bucks, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, take on the Indiana Pacers.

N.Lo--ThChM