If The Basketball Gods Are Smart, They'll Give Us A Celtics/Thunder NBA Finals

Zach Beeker. Getty Images.

I can't lie to you, this game has my brain in a bit of a preztel. On one hand, when you are on the last game of a little mini 3 game road trip gauntlet of CLE/SA/OKC and you enter said game without Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Nikola Vucevic, to fall just short because of an OREB and foul call with 0.8 seconds can easily be viewed as a positive. The Hospital Celtics showed up in OKC and gave the Thunder (no JDub or iHart) absolutely everything they could handle. It was a true definition of a heavy weight fight, with both sides throwing haymaker after haymaker until the final buzzer. In terms of a basketball game, it absolutely rocked. Two of the best teams in the league playing extremely high level basketball will always be awesome.

On the other hand, I also believe that when you fancy yourself a title contender, something I consider the Celtics to be, it's kind of lame to be playing the moral victory card, ya know? It's not like you get 0.5 wins for a game like last night or the loss against the Spurs. I get that there should be context around what we see and obviously Jaylen getting tossed against the Spurs was impactful and being without White/Tatum last night was significant....but I would argue in both cases the Celtics had every opportunity to win those games in the 4th quarter and they ultimately fell short in both.

Maybe you're able to ignore that, but my brain can't just toss that aside. Not once it became clear that this was an actual season and not a gap year. If you told me in October this would happen, it wouldn't really bother me. But in the ensuing months the Celtics have played their way into title contention, so the expectations change. That's just how things work to my brain.

Basically, this is me

Giphy Images.

If you're someone who woke up today feeling more encouraged than anything else, I won't fight you. The way the young players showed out during this road trip is significant. How Tatum looked in both CLE and SA despite splitting those games is significant. There's something to be said about the compete level of this team, regardless of who is on the court or who they may be playing. To me, that's the sign of a true contender. 

I'm just saying at some point, it'd be nice to be on the other side of these matchups. Against the Pistons/Knicks/Thunder/Spurs, the Celts are now a combined 2-8. Now, 9 of those 10 came without Jayson Tatum, and the other came in a game Jaylen Brown got tossed after 8 minutes, but 2-8 is still 2-8. How you feel about that is up to you. On the surface, the record sucks. Does it change anything to you that one of the Pistons' losses was by 1 point, the Thunder loss was by 2, and one of the Spurs' losses was by 5? Those are coinflip games, and I imagine if things flipped, we'd all feel a little better right?

The whole thing has me in a bit of a pretzel. I get the moral victory part and actually agree with it given the context of the games we just saw. I also think needing to play the moral victory card because you feel short of an actual victory is often times pretty lame. 

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So I guess where I net out is that while I'm very encouraged by what we saw during this gauntlet road trip, I'm also annoyed as fuck that they couldn't make enough plays down the stretch to pull out the actual wins. 

With that said, let's dive in.

The Good

- When we got the injury report and learned that both Tatum/White were missing this game, that meant for the Celts to have a chance it would require Jaylen Brown to show up as a #1 option and backpack the responsibility of playing a complete game. That means scoring, rebounding, defending, etc. Given what took place against SA, this could not be a no show performance. He had to be THE GUY.

And just like he's done all season, Jaylen Brown rose to the occasion

Was Jaylen perfect? No. He did shoot 10-25 which kind of stinks, the 6 TOs were tough even though a few were questionable in terms of being an offensive foul and then a Lu Dort trip that was a no call which ended up a TO, I also didn't love some of his off ball defense, but on the whole? Jaylen Brown stepped up. Not only was he the focus of the best defense in the league, when it came time to deliver in high leverage situations, Jaylen delivered. Whether that was his 13-14 performance from the FT line including several high pressure FTs in the 4th quarter, or his beautiful turnaround to tie the game in the final moments

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This was the type of complete performance that you are looking for from your #1 when playing with a shorthanded roster. I saw a lot of "Jaylen is being selfish" takes last night from his usual anti-Jaylen haters, and I guess I just don't really see that angle

Yes, there were some possessions where he may have tried too hard to force the issue, but given the fact that the rest of the Celtics roster stopped making jumpshots in the entire 2nd half, the points had to come from somewhere in order to keep the Celts attached to the Thunder. Compare this Jaylen performance to what we saw last year where he basically couldn't even cross halfcourt against the Thunder's ball pressure, I'd say this was about a billion times better of a showing.

In a game that required Jaylen to match SGA blow for blow, I'd say he held his own in that matchup. Without the game we saw from Jaylen, the Celts get blown out, so while it may not have been a perfect outing, it was certainly good enough to put the Celtics in a position to win.

- He wasn't all that efficient (6-17), but Payton Pritchard was another player who I felt like did his part and stepped up his play against an elite defense. This is supposed to be a matchup that Payton struggles with, given the Thunder's size and physicality on the perimeter, yet I saw Payton get whatever he wanted pretty much all night

Then of course, there was the buzzer beater which ruled

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Pritchard finished with 14/4/4 which doesn't blow your dick off, but given who was out I felt like he was another guy that gave you enough to win. That stepback over SGA in the final 2 minutes? Nasty

If there's one thing we know about Payton it's that he's going to compete like hell and he is in no way afraid of the moment, regardless of who is on the other side. I love that about him. To be able to be this effective despite the difference in spacing given who was out was noticable, and defensively I also felt like Payton held his own. 

- For my money, one of the biggest storylines of the entire season is the fact that all the young unproven wings are not only hits, but they're also all having career seasons. From Jordan Walsh to Baylor Scheierman to Hugo Gonzalez, it's a bit insane how awesome each one of these players has turned out to be. You could also add Ron Harper Jr to the list as well given what we've seen from him lately, which is such an embarrassment of riches in a league where everyone is looking for wing help.

While they all had their moments in this game, I can't ignore how I felt watching rookie Hugo Gonzalez look like a 10 year vet in that environment

Sorry, this does NOT look like a 20 year old rookie. The fact that Joe trusts Hugo enough defensively to give him the SGA assignment, the fact that he held his own in that matchup as best as any rookie could, the way he rebounds, the fact that his corner 3 is becoming more and more legit with each passing game, this is easily the best rookie the Celtics have had since Jayson Tatum.

While the production was great, what stood out most to me was the fact that the moment didn't feel too big for Hugo. Playing in that building is tough, and it didn't seem to phase Hugo one bit. That, means something to me. To think this is what we're getting from Hugo at this point of the season is a bit crazy, mostly because heading into the year I think most of us thought it would be a win if he got spot minutes here and there as a rookie. In reality, he's playing a major role in a major matchup and being giving MVP assignments.

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This is why you never, ever, ever, ever question the basketball mind of Brad Stevens. He is smarter than you, he is smarter than me, and he is a man who has never missed on anything when it comes to building a basketball roster. He's the best there is and arguably the best there ever will be.

I'd also say Baylor was someone who did not seem to be impacted by the weight of this game. A solid 11/7/5 for him, as the 30th pick he too is showing to be playable in these big time matchups, something I'm not sure a ton of people expected after his rookie season. Add in some Jordan Walsh C&Ss and Ron Harper Jr doing pretty much everything in his minutes, and we are seeing the best collection of wing talent in the NBA from top to bottom. 

- 19-20 from the FT line. That's the good stuff.

- Again, holding OKC to just 104 points given you were without two of your best defenders is impressive as hell. Being in a position to win this game despite playing the Hospital Celtics is impressive as hell. They fell short, but you should hold your head up high. This team could have folded, and instead they fought. That's what champions do.

- Celts were great all night at controlling the possession battle and the shot margin, because they followed their normal formula. Crash the glass and take care of the basketball. They were great at limiting OKC from getting out on the break which is usually how they kill you, and it was clear that athletically the Celts had a decent advantage when it came to attacking the glass. Those were the margin areas they were going to have to dominate in order to be competitive in this game, and I thought they answered the call in both areas.

The Bad

- Horrendous night for Neemias Queta. I know he had 10 rebounds, but I hated how he played. Couldn't finish around the rim, his lack of shooting made him almost unplayable in this matchup because OKC just camped his guy in the paint to clog up the driving lanes, and given OKC didn't really have any size outside of Chet, I found that to be a little disappointing. Neemy usually feasts in matchups where the other team doesn't have a ton of size, but last night you basically couldn't even have him on the floor. 

This is where the Vuc injury really came into play. Luka Garza is having a great season, but what you needed in that game was a floor stretching 5. Garza finished 1-5 from deep, and I would like to think Vuc does a little better than that, given the quality of shooter he is. 

I would even argue that in this matchup it may make sense to play Tatum at the 5, and I was a little surprised we didn't get some Walsh at the 5 mintues down the stretch, just because it felt like when the Celts went small they had an advantage. Walsh is a good enough rebounder to hold his own in my opinion, so maybe we see that in the second meeting.

- At this point it has to be by design, because I cannot understand why Jaylen Brown continues to help from the strongside corner. The coaches must be telling him to do it, and even if that's the case, I hate it. He always tends to do it at the worst possible times in the 4th quarter, and last night was no different. I thought the play where he left the corner to help on SGA and left Ajay Mitchell open (who then made the 3PM) was a big momentum play. As good as he was offensively at times, the off ball defense in the 2nd half was abysmal and rather costly. 

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The most annoying part? That was Mitchell's only 3PM in the entire game.

- Tough night for Sam Hauser to throw up a 3-10 (2-8) in his 27 minutes. For the Celts to win a game like this, they needed their regular rotation players to all come through, and I can't say Hauser/Neemy lived up to their end of the bargain. This sort of felt like the second half against the Spurs where Hauser couldn't make a shot, and he made just 1 FGM in the entire second half last night.

The frustrating part was his looks were pretty good most of the night, he just couldn't make the big momentum make when the Celts needed it. Those 2 missed 3PA in the 4th come to mind, as both were great looks.

- Speaking of the second half, WOOF

I mean, Christ. Only two players made more than 1 FGM in an entire half. Not great! No other player outside of Jaylen with more than 4 points. Also not great! This is where the tired legs started to creep in, and it's really too bad given how well the Celts played in the first half. The bench production evaporated, the rotation players were all laying bricks, it was just a tough 24 minutes in pretty much every aspect other than FT shooting.

The Ugly

- Against the Spurs, the Celts were within 3 points with about 9 minutes left, and ultimately let go of the rope. Last night against OKC, the Celts were up 3 heading into the 4th quarter, where they just needed semi-consistent shotmaking to secure the win. Here's what they did instead

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One of their worst 4th quarter showings of the entire season. They started 1-12, and the only make was the Jaylen fastbreak dunk after blocking Chet's 3PA. This was beyond frustrating to watch in real time because the Celts were getting every shot they wanted. Plays at the rim, miss. Open 3s, miss. Open midrange/paint FGA, miss. The lack of execution and shotmaking ultimately did them in. I didn't exactly love how Jaylen started the 4th, and then of course there was the final play of the game

yet another loss this season because the Celts could not secure a defensive rebound in the final possession. If this feels familiar, it's because it's already happened a handful of times this season

Was that a weak call? Who knows. What I do know is it doesn't matter if you secure the rebound. Finally, the Celts doubled SGA, which meant everyone HAD to do their part to secure the glass after rotating. Sadly, Hauser didn't have great position and the rest is history. Another annoying one possession loss in a season filled with annoying one possession losses.

In the end, it was an incredible game between arguably the two best teams in each conference. What we learned is that should these teams meet in the Finals, it'll be one hell of a series. Both sides provide matchup problems for the other, even in their undermanned state. The Thunder were missing key starters as were the Celts, and yet they still gave us a thrilling game that went down to the final seconds. So while this ending is annoying, I do feel better despite the loss than I thought I would once we learned who was sitting. Now we just wait and see if both teams can make it through the playoffs so they can meet again in June for all the marbles.