BOSTON — The Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics are the betting favorites to meet in the 2026 NBA Finals.

If that comes to fruition, the league is in for one heck of a series.

Two weeks after its dramatic two-point loss in Oklahoma City, Boston took down the defending champions in another thriller Wednesday night, winning 119-109 at TD Garden behind a standout performance from Jaylen Brown.

Brown racked up 31 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in the win, with much of his damage coming at the foul line (12 for 14). He helped the Celtics survive a near-flawless offensive outing from last season’s NBA MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 10 for 12 from the field and 10 for 12 from the line to finish with 33 points.

Five other Celtics scored in double figures, including Jayson Tatum, who bounced back from his “frustrating” game in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota with 19 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one block. His 35 minutes were the most he’s played in a game since he returned from Achilles surgery earlier this month.

Unlike the teams’ first meeting on March 12, when the Celtics were missing Tatum and Derrick White and the Thunder were down Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein, both sides were near full strength Wednesday night.

The only rotation player not in uniform was backup Celtics center Nikola Vucevic, who has been out since fracturing his ring finger on March 6. (Head coach Joe Mazzulla said Vucevic is “making progress” in his recovery, and the veteran big man hopes to be back before the playoffs.)

Six of Boston’s first 10 shot attempts came not from Brown or Tatum, but from Sam Hauser, who saw a steady diet of wide-open looks against OKC’s defense. Hauser rarely is that involved in the Celtics’ early-game offense — he’d attempted six first-quarter field goals just twice before in his career — and he couldn’t make the Thunder pay for ignoring him.

The veteran sharpshooter made his first 3-pointer but missed his next four in a 1 for 6 start, during which the Thunder built an 11-3 lead. Hauser, whose consistency from beyond the arc has wavered this season, came in shooting 25% from deep over his previous five games.

The Celtics later got 3-pointers from Hugo Gonzalez and Luka Garza to narrow the gap, with Gonzalez also making an early impact as a defender and offensive rebounder. But Boston struggled to solve the Thunder’s interior defense, going 3 for 11 on 2-pointers while scoring just 20 first-quarter points.

Brown missed his first six shots, and Tatum had more turnovers (two on back-to-back possessions) than made field goals (one) during a sluggish opening period.

The second quarter was much stronger for both Celtics stars. After his consecutive giveaways late in the first, Tatum hit his next three shots — two of them 3-pointers — and dished out three second-quarter assists, including a slick cross-court feed to Brown for an open 3. Tatum also notched two steals and soared in to reject a baseline layup by Luguentz Dort — his first blocked shot of the season.

Back-to-back White 3-pointers — one assisted by Brown, the other by Tatum — cut the Thunder’s 13-point lead to two, 46-44. Two minutes later, Brown drove for a hard-charging layup that left Chet Holmgren sprawled on the parquet beneath the basket. Then he missed a midrange jumper, collected his own rebound and fed Payton Pritchard for a 3 that put Boston ahead 49-46.

The Thunder closed the first half on a 7-0 run, including a goaltending call on Neemias Queta that Boston unsuccessfully challenged, to take a 56-49 lead into the locker room.

Boston pulled back in front midway through the third quarter. Tatum drained a corner 3 and slipped a pass to Queta for a powerful driving dunk over Holmgren. After Holmgren baited Hauser into a foul — deja vu from the final seconds of C’s-Thunder Round 1 — Baylor Scheierman replaced him and buried two quick triples, the second putting the Celtics up 74-73.

After Scheierman forced a Gilgeous-Alexander turnover, Brown isolated against Isaiah Joe and drew a foul, then spun past standout defender Alex Caruso and put Jaylin Williams on a poster with an emphatic one-handed slam.

Brown played the entire third quarter and scored 14 points, receiving “MVP” chants from the Garden crowd during several of his nine trips to the foul line. He and Gilgeous-Alexander combined for 15 free-throw attempts in the third after neither attempted any before halftime.

The reigning MVP benefited from some borderline calls — including two on Luka Garza that drew loud jeers from the Celtics faithful — but Boston held an 88-83 lead entering the fourth, then stretched it to double digits.

A Scheierman putback dunk made it 100-92, at which point Brown reentered and began attacking Gilgeous-Alexander. He drew three fouls on the Thunder star in one 90-second span to push OKC into the bonus with 6:09 remaining. Brown’s 11th free throw of the night gave Boston its largest lead, 107-94.

Boston’s shooting went cold down the stretch, and the Thunder got to within six, but a Brown layup with 47 seconds remaining snuffed out their comeback bid.

The Celtics will see just one more perceived championship contender over the final 2 1/2 weeks of the regular season — an April 9 date with the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden — but their next three games are against two of the NBA’s hottest teams: home against Atlanta on Friday, at Charlotte on Sunday and at Atlanta next Monday.

The Hawks beat first-place Detroit in overtime Wednesday night to improve to 14-1 in their last 15 games. The Hornets are 22-6 in their last 28, including a 118-89 beatdown at TD Garden on March 4. Both are possible first-round playoff foes for the Celtics, who hold a one-game lead over New York for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference with 10 games remaining.

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