There are 30 NBA teams, but according to Colin Cowherd, only three of them have legitimate championship hopes this year.
And two of them played each other on Wednesday.
According to Cowherd, those teams are the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.
"Let's be totally honest. There's three teams that can win the championship. The Celtics and Thunder, you watched two of them last night. The other is the Spurs," Cowherd said on Thursday's episode of "The Herd."
That makes sense, as the Thunder and Spurs have the two best records in basketball, while the Celtics just got Jayson Tatum back and are favored to win the East.
"Let's be totally honest. There's three teams that can win the championship. The Celtics & Thunder, you watched two of them last night."@colincowherd thinks last night's game felt like a Finals preview pic.twitter.com/BI3n9ILt7S
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) March 26, 2026
Cowherd explained the problems with the other contenders before going on to praise Boston.
"The Celtics had six guys in double figures... They've got the bench, they don't turn the ball over. Joe Mazzulla's ended up being an unbelievable head coach... Players totally respond to him," Cowherd continued. "They're now 7-2 with Tatum. Their bigs are young... This is a real team. They're top five in everything this year, and most of that is without Jayson Tatum."
That's also true. Despite having Tatum for only nine of their 72 games, the Celtics rank fourth in net rating, second in offensive rating and fourth in defensive rating.
"The Celtics, on their best nights, are excellent. They take a lot of threes and they hit a lot and they can defend, and they're well-coached, and they don't turn it over, and that was a playoff game last night," Cowherd added. "I look at Boston: defense, two stars, well-coached, star off the bench... You could argue that was the Finals last night."
The Finals are still two and a half months away, so time will tell. But on Wednesday, the Celtics and Thunder both proved why they are two of the best teams in basketball.
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