Wednesday night, TD Garden hosted a potential NBA Finals preview between the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The two biggest stars on the parquet shined. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 33 points, a game-high eight assists, and eight rebounds. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander paced all participants with 34 points. He also dished out a team-best seven assists and grabbed five rebounds.
"That boy is good. Big fan of his game. Shifty. Crafty around the basket. [He] knows how to use his body well," said Jaylen Brown after the Thunder's 118-112 win in Boston." [He is] definitely a guy that you watch, and you study to be better if we end up playing them down the line."
Another player who had a crucial role in the visitors clinching a 2-0 sweep of their regular-season series against the NBA's reigning champions was Cason Wallace.
The 10th overall selection in the 2023 NBA Draft is the youngest active player on Oklahoma City's roster. Yet the 21-year-old guard looked like a seasoned vet against the Celtics.
With Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso inactive, the Thunder needed more from Wallace against a title team eager to avenge its loss in Oklahoma City in January.
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The former Kentucky Wildcat responded with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and one block in 30 minutes of floor time. It was the type of two-way performance to capture why Wallace has played his way into head coach Mark Daigneault's starting lineup and retained that spot in 37 of the 57 games he has played this season.
The second-year guard was finishing at the basket against Boston's bigs; he blocked Brown on a face-up jump shot and helped seal the win, burying a three from the left wing off a feed from Gilgeous-Alexander. That put the Thunder ahead 111-102 with 2:21 left.
Wallace followed that up by attacking downhill, euro-stepping his way from left to right upon arriving in the paint, going past Payton Pritchard, and laying the ball in off the glass with his right hand. A minute later, he tacked on a free throw, giving him six of the winning team's final ten points.
Wallace also eclipsed 1,000 career points in Wednesday's victory. He's averaging 7.9 points per game in the current campaign. He's also producing 3.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and an impressive 1.7 steals per contest.
It’s a reflection of his increasing contributions and the Thunder hitting on another draft pick, as Wallace continues to signal that he'll be ready to step up in what they hope is a playoff run that ends with lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.