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Celtics Wrap: Boston Beats Thunder In High-Flying, Defenseless Affair[b][/b]

NESN by Dakota Randall on Sun, Feb 3, 2019 at 4:26PM

The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder both looked in a rush to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Alas, the squads had a basketball game to play, and it was the Celtics who emerged with a 134-29 victory at TD Garden.

Kyrie Irving (30 points) led the way for Boston, with Marcus Morris (19 points), Al Horford (17 points) and Marcus Smart (18 points) also having strong games. The win gave Boston its fourth straight win, while Oklahoma City snapped its seven-game winning streak with the loss.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Al Horford

C’S TAKE ENTERTAINING FIRST
Boston outplayed Oklahoma City for much of the first frame, but only managed a 31-29 advantage

Irving led the way for the Celtics, scoring nine points while playing all 12 minutes. The star guard’s sick handles were on display throughout the quarter.

The Celtics, who shot 54 percent from the field, got strong contributions from their starting five, with only Jayson Tatum going scoreless in the frame. Jaylen Brown poured in five points off the bench.

The Thunder were paced by Paul George, who scored 11 points including a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining. Russell Westbrook did a little bit of everything, scoring one point while puling down three rebounds and dishing out six assists.

BOSTON EXTENDS LEAD
The Celtics briefly surrendered their lead midway through the quarter, but finished strong to hold a 66-58 lead at halftime.

Irving had another big quarter, scoring 11 points to finish with 20 points in the first half. Brown also played well, finishing the half with 12 points while going 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.

As for the Thunder, George once again was the star, finishing with 17 first-half points. Steven Adams (11 points) and Dennis Schröder (10 points) also played well for OKC.

Perhaps it was everyone being in a rush to watch the Super Bowl, but neither team seemed particularly interested in playing defense in the first half. Boston shot 59.2 percent from the field, while the Thunder shot 47.8 percent.

BACK-AND-FORTH THIRD
Defense remained optional in the third quarter.

George scored nine points in the first 2:32 of the frame, and a Jerami Grant 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 74-73 lead just three minutes in. But thanks to a 14-0 run, including three 3-pointers from Smart, the Celtics took a 90-78 lead with just under five minutes to go.

The teams traded baskets the rest of the way, and Boston took a 99-93 lead into the fourth.

George scored 12 points in the frame, giving him 29 through three quarters.

C’S CLOSE DOOR
The Celtics got big bench minutes from Terry Rozier and Daniel Theis, whose fourth-quarter play helped Boston hold off the Thunder in the middle part of the frame.

Theis, who got extra minutes because of the injury to Aron Baynes, scored seven points in the quarter before Brad Stevens reinserted Al Horford. Rozier also scored seven poitns before giving way to Irving.

The Thunder narrowed Boston’s lead to 121-119 with under three minutes to play, largely thanks to the one-two punch of George and Westbrook. George finished with a game-high 37 points, while Westbrook finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists — yet another triple double.

It was Irving who led Boston to the finish line.

Westbrook had a chance to tie the game in the final 20 seconds after Tatum missed the second of two free throws, but he turned the ball over while driving to the basket to cement OKC’s fate.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Morris showed off some impressive moves in the first quarter.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will hit the road to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday. Tip off at Quicken Loans Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

112288

ONE DOWN ONE TO GO!

GO PATS!

112288

Another super Super Bowl Sunday win for the Celts when the Pats are in the BIG Game. What are we now? 7-0?

Very interesting game. Yeah, no defense. Just a couple of boneheaded mistakes by OKC, biggest was the shopping mall built at their free throw line, tech by George.

Again, the free throw discrepancy. The more I watch these games, given we jack up more threes typically than our opponent, I think I may have figured it out.

When we do drive to the basket, we have a tendency to not put ourselves into a position to be fouled. Other teams drive to the basket hoping to get fouled. In other words, we are looking to score and get out of the way. If a team is dumb enough to try to foul us on a dunk or banked lay up, go right ahead. The advantage is, it is almost a guaranteed 2 points, vs. having to go to the line to earn two or hope for an And 1.

As usual, I have nothing to prove this. I just go by what I think I see. We do drive to the hole. A very good number of times. Brad must see something in the numbers where there is a slight edge of just driving to the hole ala JB, Horford or Tatum but only if you think you can dunk it or lay it up uncontested.

OKC drove to the whole a lot when George wasn't filling it up from downtown. But they were getting hacked by our guys early and often.

There is a new ratio I'd like to throw out here. Opposing Team Free Throws Attempted/Infracting Team Total Fouls. The max this ratio can ever get is 2.0, meaning every time there is a foul, it was in the act of shooting. The minimum this ratio would be assumes your first 4 fouls of each quarter were non-shooting fouls and for every foul over 4 you calculate it the same way as the max.

In today's game, OKC was fouled 22 times and went to the line 34 times. The Celtics were fouled 18 times and went to the line 17 times. So the OKC ratio is 34/22 which is approx. 1.5. BOS ratio is 18/17 which is approx 1. Clearly, OKC was getting fouled in the act considerably more than we were. Of each of the potentially 4 "free" pre-bonus fouls each quarter, they were getting hacked in the act by us at least 2 of those times, maybe more.

We were just not getting fouled in the act as much as OKC was. That's a huge, glaring discrepancy. It is so glaring, it has to be by design or something Brad and Danny see in the numbers. This also meshes with us putting up the three ball more (not getting fouled as much there vs. driving to the hole). It just appears to me that Brad is saying don't drive to the hole unless you are JB. If you are not JB, you only go to the hoop if you think you can dunk it off an assist or make a layup. If you get fouled so be it.

I don't know. Fire at Will. Dumb idea.

db

beat

Hello, 3rd Place!

db

Isaiah Thomas used to drive to the basket a lot...and with the intention of drawing fouls. Not so Kyrie. He just wants to slip by defenders and score. Same too with Jaylen. Intention - score. We are not set up as a foul getting team

We are now 34-19. The last 22 games I think we are 17-5. We started the year off 17-14. I'd say we've turned one very big corner.

Great team win by Boston. I think they may have figured this out.

dboss wrote:Great team win by Boston.   I think they may have figured this out.

I don’t think so, sometimes wins mask other problems that are very obvious....

OKC is the #3 team in the stronger Western Conference, with an 18-14 record vs other WC teams and a 14-5 record against EC teams.  They had a better W-L record than us coming into yesterday's game.  They were healthy, we were without Baynes.  Damn shame that, I was looking forward to the Game of Thrones battle between the two Down Unders...

Both coaches went with shortened, playoff lineups of only 9 players.  They both knew this was a good measuring stick for them both and they wanted to see where they are at right now.

Do we stand around too much and watch Kyrie be Kyrie?  Yes.  Does Kyrie stand around and watch everybody else?  N.O.  He moves, constantly, without the ball.  With all the talk/rumor of Kyrie leaving I cannot understand why he would want to leave Al Horford.  Al finds Kyrie when he moves without the ball.  11 assists for Kyrie.  He is at the top of his game in every category.  Even defensively, he is very active.  He got his hand on a game-saving steal.  Westbrook was driving, Kyrie got some fingers on it and it ended up in Al's hands, but that doesn't happen without Kyrie.  He is unstoppable.  He is the guy who "figures it out" for us.  He's our Tom Brady.  Danny has to make sure he re-signs him.

Paul George was unconscious.  He was coming off screens for catch-and-shoot 3s and there was never a question if they were going in.  Not just catch-and-shoot, but moving off a screen and squaring right up into the shot after the ball reached him.  That is HARD.  What's odd is that those are the ones that went in, the hard ones.  He was 5-16 overall.

Morris with a good game.  He shot an awful 2-8 from 3 but was 8-14 overall.  So, 6-6 from 2.  If our inside game was the weak part of our offense earlier in the season it seems to be getting much better now.  We outscored them in the paint 58-56 despite being down Baynes.  It's not all about bigs, it's about mismatches and Morris was working his.

We shot 59% for the game.  I don't know if that's our season high, but it's pretty freaking good, especially against OKC.  We heard ABC say many times how OKC has the #3 defense in the NBA.  Where did that stat come from?  As far as points allowed goes they are 12th, giving up 109.8ppg.  WE, on the other hand, are 4th at 105.9.  Did anybody mention that yesterday?  We're also 2nd in lowest fg% by opponents.  And yet, they just kept driveling on-and-on about how good the OKC defense is.

Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
yesterday
Marcus Smart on the Celtics’ 134-point outpouring against the Thunder: "It says we can compete with anybody. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the league, and we dropped 134 on them."

"They're one of the best defensive teams in the league"?  Cite your source, please.  I'm not just talking about you, Marcus, but Hubie Brown and everybody else who was giving them props while giving us none.

134 points in a regulation game is pretty damn impressive, though.  Our offense is now up to 10th at 112.8ppg.  So, for the record, we have the 10th best offense in terms of points scored and the 4th best defense in terms of points allowed.  Our Margin of Victory (MOV) is 3rd at +6.9, just .2 behind GSW.  OKC's MOV is +5.0, a comfortable 1.9 back.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Hubie.  I like Hubie Brown's color commentary for the most part, he's forgotten more about basketball than the sum total of what most people know, but he has gotten more and more into talking about statistics and less and less about breaking down plays and why they worked or didn't.

Smart was 4-9 from 3. He is now the 69th best 3pt shooter in the NBA. The NBA, where amazing happens...

Once again, we won, so this isn't sour grapes but the refs just don't show us any love.  They got twice as many fritos as us.  This is despite all our points in the paint.  We were going inside, we were going into the NBA mosh pit and we still weren't getting whistles.  I think Tatum might get more if he sold the fouls more when they happen and raised his arms and complained after the fact and it's too late for the ref to blow the whistle for anything other than a T on Tatum for complaining afterwards.  Harden is averaging 36.3ppg, is taking 11.9ftas/game and sells every single one of them.  I'm not suggesting Tatum  should become a whistle whore like Harden but maybe make sure that contact is recognized is ok.  Complaining afterwards?  Definitely do less.

28 points from their bench, 39 for us.  Theis with a very good game.  14 points and 2-2 from 3.  In fact, the only bench player who didn't have a great game was Wayward Hayward.  In fact Hayward was the only Celtic who did not score in double-digits.  Rozier and Brown with good games.  I suppose I should be glad when 8 out of 9 Celtics have good games and not focus so much on the sore thumb, huh?

36 assists on 54fgm.  That's very nice.  91 fga.  Fabulous.  No complaints about any of these.

Steven Adams is a '80s throwback.  I like watching him as much or more than I do watching Westbrook and George.  He sets phenomenal screens.  Trying to box him out is like putting your back into a truck with no brakes engaged that is trying to roll downhill.

Welcome to 3rd place.  When we woke up on November 21st our record was 10-10 and we were all boo-hooing and stressed.  Since then we've gone 24-9 (.727).  The world is neither flat nor ending after all.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071461





bob



.

Sore thumb is Jaylen going 4-5 in first half, getting almost no minutes in 3rd and only getting one more shot attempt in 2nd half...??? After he was rolling, I thought minutes were earned? Team has fast athletic players, but can’t run a decent fastbreak to save their life. Rozier is terrible, he’s not a PG, did anyone see that break with Jaylen flying down the left lane and Rozier couldn’t even make the simple pass for the dunk that would have made the crowd go ballistic...???? They can’t even do basics 101 half the time.

Let’s freeze out a guy right when he’s hot.

This team plays too slow, we have young fast studs and depth, how come we never run? That should be a strength/advantage, am I wrong or blind here?

cowens/oldschool wrote:This team plays too slow, we have young fast studs and depth, how come we never run? That should be a strength/advantage, am I wrong or blind here?

Cow,

We should run more, no argument from me, but yesterday we took 91fgas, shot 59% and scored 134 points in a regulation game in which we took half as many fritos as the other team.  Regardless of how we did it I'm not sure I see much room for improvement in those numbers.


bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:This team plays too slow, we have young fast studs and depth, how come we never run? That should be a strength/advantage, am I wrong or blind here?

Cow,

We should run more, no argument from me, but yesterday we took 91fgas, shot 59% and scored 134 points in a regulation game in which we took half as many fritos as the other team.  Regardless of how we did it I'm not sure I see much room for improvement in those numbers.


bob


.

Good point

Adimit it bob, you said something like FUCK!!! when Rozier threw that ball away....

Does anyone besides me experience the following: When Jaylen has a low scoring game like he did yesterday (i.e. not in the 20's), it seems like he has scored way more points.
This has happened to me 2-3 times so far in the last month or so. Maybe I'm just seeing (or not seeing) things!

db

Bob, OKC is third in the NBA on D when appearing in ABC broadcasted games. That's all I could figure out.

Cow, Jaylen was hot and ready to scorch OKC, but Psychologist and faith healer Brad was committed to giving Wayward Hayward a chance to play well for 3 games in a row. Did not happen, but it cost Jaylen his minutes. I have never liked how Brad has managed Jaylen these past three years.

worcester wrote:Bob, OKC is third in the NBA on D when appearing in ABC broadcasted games. That's all I could figure out.

Cow, Jaylen was hot and ready to scorch OKC, but Psychologist and faith healer Brad was committed to giving Wayward Hayward a chance to play well for 3 games in a row. Did not happen, but it cost Jaylen his minutes. I have never liked how Brad has managed Jaylen these past three years.

Okay so I’n not nuts!!!! others are seeing this too....

While were at it when is Timelord gonna get playing time? Hey Brad I have a great idea, could you give him 12 minutes a game against the shitty teams?

A couple comments here.

Regarding the fast break. I said this before and i will say it again. The Celtics do not know how to run a consistently effective fast break attack because they dribble the damn ball too much. This is clearly a coaching issue. It takes practice to run a fast break. Brad perception is that he has a lot of guys that can take the ball off the glass and head the other way off the dribble. That is not fast break basketball. The perfect fast break involves passing the ball ahead. When the ball does not touch the floor than you have achieved absolute perfection.

The most under utilized player on this team is Jaylen Brown.

GH played well against NY and poorly against OKC. The pattern has pretty much been the same all year long. As soon as we see signs of life we have to call the coroner's office. But this is a dangerous game to play. If GH is essentially playing at the same inconsistent level come playoff times and you have locked him and Jaylen into splitting minutes, we are going to be in trouble. On the other hand, with 29 games remaining the window remains open for GH to get better.

In either case Jaylen Brown has been the main casualty in terms of playing time. If the Celtics part ways with both Morris and Rozier, Jaylen will return to being a 30 MPG players even if he is a non starter.

Patience

Thank you Sean for that sugar in my tea.

Fans, David Griffin said this a.m. on NBA Radio that Kyrie is def staying a Celt, and all rumors to the contrary are misinformed.

Dboss, yes, the Celts under Brad do not run fast break O. Period. As an 8 year old my b ball coach was Andy Laska, a teammate of the Cooz at Holy Cross when the Crusaders won the NCCA title. He always told us that on O, no one can dribble the ball upcourt faster than one can pass it. I have yet to see the exception to that rule. And now I am 71.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Adimit it bob, you said something like FUCK!!! when Rozier threw that ball away....

Cow,

I just went back and re-read the Game On! thread.  As I suspected, I did NOT say anything of the sort when Rozier threw that ball away.

I did think it, which means you're a mind-reader.  You should play poker more, my friend, you'd be an assassin.


bob


.

Kleen

Those are certainly lofty numbers but I wonder how much those numbers have been skewed by the level of competition.

If you look at those 24 wins, at least 17 came against teams with below .500 records.

The Celtics have feasted on scrub teams all year going 22-7.  Against the better teams they are 12-12.

There is however a very positive trend.  The Celtics have posted an 8-5 record against teams playing ,500 and above during this stretch of games from Nov 21st.  That tells us that the Celtics are playing .615 against quality competition right now which is a favorable trend over their 12-12 record this year.

The road ahead will tell us even more.  With 29 games remaining, 19 will be against teams with .500 and above records and 10 will be against teams below .500.  16 of the remaining 29 games are on the road where Boston is still below ,500 at 12-13.  11 out of those 19 games are against quality opponents will be on the road.