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Celtics Wrap: Boston Survives Track Meet Vs. Scrappy Thunder
The Celtics have won seven in a row

NESN by Keagan Stiefel

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It was far from easy, but the Boston Celtics brought their winning streak to seven games after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 126-122, at TD Garden on Monday night.

The Celtics move to 11-3 on the year, while the Thunder dropped to 6-8.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics entered Monday’s matchup as winners of their previous six games and one of the favorites to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy at the end of the season. The Thunder entered as an organization actively looking to drop games in hopes of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2023.

You wouldn’t know any of that by watching them face off with each other. This game had the look and feel of a playoff matchup.

The officials called a tight game throughout, seemingly stalling any momentum each team could build in the first three quarters. Sloppy fundamentals led to traveling violations, attempts to take charges that were not called and blown assignments that led to easy backdoor layups. Knowing the refs weren’t going to let anything slide, Boston still struggled to slow the pace on a young Oklahoma City squad.

Less than 24 hours after putting up 144 points in regulation against the New York Knicks, the Thunder put up 96 through the first three quarters on the Celtics and turned the game into a track meet. Despite that, Boston trailed by only seven points entering the fourth quarter.

Once the fourth quarter rolled around, the Celtics stopped fooling around and put things away. Boston tied the game by the time the clock ticked down to five minutes, forcing six OKC turnovers in the first six minutes of the stanza. The Thunder kept things interesting down the stretch, until Marcus Smart and Derrick White combined for three 3-pointers in the final two minutes to seal the deal for the Celtics.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is approaching superstar status in 2022. He had 37 points, eight assists, four rebounds, two steals and a block against Boston, just one day after dropping 37 at Madison Square Garden.

— Smart took over on the offensive end in the fourth quarter, going 4-for-4 from the field and scoring seven of the Celtics’ final 13 points. He finished with 22 points, five rebounds and seven assists.

— White was the best player on the floor for Boston, matching Oklahoma City’s tempo and forcing his teammates to get out and run. He finished with 16 points, four steals and a plus-22 rating.

WAGER WATCH
DraftKings Sportsbook closed Jaylen Brown’s Points-Rebounds-Assists prop at 36.5. The All-NBA star finished with a total of 38. A $100 bet on the Over (+100) would have paid out $200.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will hit the road for a week-long road trip, starting with a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Celts move into 1st place as Hawks beat Bucks on the road.

Wow I can certainly see why SGA is averaging over 30 points a game. I thought Chris Paul made this kid look good, this kid is the real deal, have never seen any wing score on Jaylen so easily. I mean this kid shocked me, added some weight over the recent years; deserves to be in the conversation with any great 2 in the L. If they can develop or acquire another star to play with him, this young team could be scary good and that young baby team has so much upside.

Key Points from this game, IMHBAO.

1)  This was a very good game actually.  Celtics had to dig themselves out of a 3 1/2 quarter hole and did so against a pretty good team.  

2)  Many stars in this game.  Marcus leading the charge.  Damn!  This dude's unreal.  This is the best groove I've ever seen him in.  Derrick White had several plays go against him where he would have been justified in stopping his play and bitching to the refs but instead  immediately on the very next offensive possession he makes a lay-up or hits a three.  That's ridiculous, Gus!!  That's the little things that make champions.  Add to that a +21 leading the team.  That explains a lot.  P-Sqaured is earning his job back and making an excellent case for first off the bench just looking at these last 3 games.  Comes across like Dave Cowens ala whatever it takes.

3)  Usually in a game when both teams score over 120 each, I call that a no defense game or the defense left the building game.  Games like this will be a lot easier and the margin a lot wider with RWIII back.  But we had 15 steals to their 4. Wow!!  There's your selective defense.  

4)  We won this game at the free throw line again.  Keep driving JT.  Rack 'em up!  No mystery there.  

5)  JT and JB with their usual.  We couldn't throw 3-balls in the ocean pretty much all night long.  In the randomness that the NBA schedule creates for you over the season, there will be a game or two where we are all off from 3-Ville.  Last night was one of those nights but we found a way to win.  That's the difference though.  Last year's team at this time would not have won that game given the 15-point hole they dug.

6)  OKC didn't help themselves much at the end of the game.  We also turned up the defense and created havoc for them physically and mentally.  OKC had reached their maturity breaking point.  

7)  Al with a nice DD.  Again, not a memorable game for him either but just doing work as Kobe used to say.  

 Bench just needs more scoring from everyone when they are out there.  Doogie has something bothering him.  But I'll take those 6 points via two 3's at his worst any day.  That was 2-5.  Just needs to shoot more or get the ball in his hands more. 40% will work all day. Just looked like he missed more than normal with everyone building a shopping mall last night.  

We're very dangerous and very fun to watch.  Big test tomorrow in ATL.  Need to shut them up and keep ourselves in 1st place.  Looks like the honeymoon's over in MIL.  When does Chris Middleton come back?!

db

Hi,
It was a good practice of "how to win a game after falling behind". Thankfully, it was OKC with only SGA to tame.
I'm glad that Celtics found some energy and desire to win.
The refs made things even tougher. Speaking of refs, or technicals, to be precise.
Everybody complains about JT going nuts about no-calls and not getting on defense on time. Solution: get him a T in the first couple of minutes, he'd stop complaining and, get on defense much faster.
I have to admit that the T he got last night was total BS. But after that he behaved like a poster boy: no flailing arms in the air, no complaining.

The 27% from 3pt didn't help, too. Tomorrow, in ATL, I hope JT and JB will get out their shooting slump.

AK

dbrown4 wrote:Key Points from this game, IMHBAO.

1)  This was a very good game actually.  Celtics had to dig themselves out of a 3 1/2 quarter hole and did so against a pretty good team.  

2)  Many stars in this game.  Marcus leading the charge.  Damn!  This dude's unreal.  This is the best groove I've ever seen him in.  Derrick White had several plays go against him where he would have been justified in stopping his play and bitching to the refs but instead  immediately on the very next offensive possession he makes a lay-up or hits a three.  That's ridiculous, Gus!!  That's the little things that make champions.  Add to that a +21 leading the team.  That explains a lot.  P-Sqaured is earning his job back and making an excellent case for first off the bench just looking at these last 3 games.  Comes across like Dave Cowens ala whatever it takes.

3)  Usually in a game when both teams score over 120 each, I call that a no defense game or the defense left the building game.  Games like this will be a lot easier and the margin a lot wider with RWIII back.  But we had 15 steals to their 4. Wow!!  There's your selective defense.  

4)  We won this game at the free throw line again.  Keep driving JT.  Rack 'em up!  No mystery there.  

5)  JT and JB with their usual.  We couldn't throw 3-balls in the ocean pretty much all night long.  In the randomness that the NBA schedule creates for you over the season, there will be a game or two where we are all off from 3-Ville.  Last night was one of those nights but we found a way to win.  That's the difference though.  Last year's team at this time would not have won that game given the 15-point hole they dug.

6)  OKC didn't help themselves much at the end of the game.  We also turned up the defense and created havoc for them physically and mentally.  OKC had reached their maturity breaking point.  

7)  Al with a nice DD.  Again, not a memorable game for him either but just doing work as Kobe used to say.  

 Bench just needs more scoring from everyone when they are out there.  Doogie has something bothering him.  But I'll take those 6 points via two 3's at his worst any day.  That was 2-5.  Just needs to shoot more or get the ball in his hands more.  40% will work all day.  Just looked like he missed more than normal with everyone building a shopping mall last night.  

We're very dangerous and very fun to watch.  Big test tomorrow in ATL.  Need to shut them up and keep ourselves in 1st place.  Looks like the honeymoon's over in MIL.  When does Chris Middleton come back?!

db

J’s didn’t have their 3 point game at all. Tatum 1-9, Jaylen 0-5, no way do we win this game last year….true Smart was great, love him in the post scoring with bully ball.

I'm always gratified to see the Celtics win when our 3s aren't dropping.  Live by the 3, die by the 3?  Not necessarily.

Our starters were a combined 4-24 from 3.  Man, now that's ugly, but our bench was 6-13 from there.  Hauser was 2-5.  Since when is 40% from 3 bad?  When our expectations have been set absurdly high from early season success.  DWhite and Pritchard were 4-8 from 3.  White is settling well into a bench role and Pritchard is making the most of his spotty opportunities.

Boston Celtics @celtics
yesterday
Marcus Smart on what shifted the energy for us tonight: “Payton Pritchard and Derrick White … They gave us the jolt we needed.”


Jay King
Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Marcus Smart said Payton Pritchard has delivered every time he's been given a chance this season. Said that says a lot about Pritchard's professionalism.



Jared Weiss
Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Marcus Smart on Pritchard and White's defense: "Everything, it gives you the energy you need. You see those guys, you’re happy for them, it gives you that adrenaline…The mud starts to loosen a bit and then you get one foot out the mud."




We got more possessions than usual too.  14 turnovers vs 19 for them but, more impactfully, 15 steals vs 4 for them.  Steals are live turnovers that are more easily converted into points because the losing team is set up for offense and isn't retreating on defense.  6 of those steals came from White and Pritchard.

We got 23 points off of their turnovers vs giving up only 16 off of ours.  


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468356


Bob

.

We were flat tonite for basically 42 minutes. Got to give Prit, Derrick White and of course Marcus credit for turning a loss into a W. We needed a shot of energy and these guys provided the boost.

Smart just continues to make big plays. I know sometimes he takes too many threes, but he's not afraid to take a big shot. His three at 115-115 was huge and then D. White hits another 3 the next time down. D White is another guy that just keeps hustling and is not afraid to take a big shot.

Jaylen was basically keeping us in the game till we finally got going in the fourth quarter. I thought he covered SGA about as well as you could. SGA is really some player. Marcus had problems with him too. These young guards like SGA and Garland really make things interesting. There really are no easy games anymore, every team has talent and can win on any given night. Tatum couldn't buy a three, but hit some huge shots when we needed them. He has improved so much to get to this MVP level, but if he wants to truly get there he has to stop whining when he doesn't get a call. He has to play through it, and alot of times he's whining he doesn't get back on defense.

Btw, our Boston Celtics have the #1 record in the NBA as of this morning. The Bucks are right on our tail @ 10-3 and behind them are the Portland Trailblazers and Denver Nuggets (whom we just beat decisively) @ 9-4. In the EC Atlanta is 2 games behind us @ 9-5.

Our next game is in Atlanta, who just beat (an undermanned) Milwaukee team. Milwaukee will be hosting the much improved Cleveland Cavaliers, who beat us twice in a matter of weeks.


Bob


.

Bobh,

Twice BARELY! Both in OT's. RWIII present? We're 12-1 at least and would have won those games by a comfortable margin. If we played CLE right now we'd smoke them sans RWIII. I can't even remember who else we lost to, TOR maybe or was that the preseason?

Not going to feel sorry for other teams with injuries. My uncle always used to say an opinion is like an a$$hole. Everybody's got one. Same with injuries. We've got plenty. I'm not complaining.

db

[quote="dbrown4"]Bobh,

Twice BARELY!  Both in OT's.  RWIII present? We're 12-1 at least and would have won those games by a comfortable margin.  If we played CLE right now we'd smoke them sans RWIII.  I can't even remember who else we lost to, TOR maybe or was that the preseason?

Not going to feel sorry for other teams with injuries.  My uncle always used to say an opinion is like an a$$hole.  Everybody's got one.  Same with injuries.  We've got plenty.  I'm not complaining.  

db    [/quote

Db, Barely losing is still losing. Next time we should take care of business vs the Cadavers. Chicago was our other loss.

According to Gary Washburn the league office is rescinding the T on Tatum.


Bob


.

Winning in the NBA is not easy.

That makes last night's win all the more gratifying. Experience and depth made a big difference. We missed a lot of makeable shots last night but in the end our defense tightened things up and that was the difference in winning.