Do People Believe Yet? The Celtics Turn In Another Great Performance, This Time Taking Down The Thunder In OKC
There’s a good change you missed this Celts game. Due to the Patriots late game heroics you probably blacked out. That’s OK. That’s why I’m here.
The good times just keep on rolling. Yes, the Thunder were without Kevin Durant, but what has two thumbs, a raging Celtics boner and doesn’t give a fuck? This guy! What else do people need to see before they start taking the Celtics seriously? Who else do they have to beat? Sure, we may only be 9 games into the season but if you don’t think this win has any significance then you just have a giant dump in your pants. Even without Durant, OKC was coming off a 24 and 17 point win, clearly still have a very talented team, and were at home. Brad Stevens had never won in OKC, and last time the Celts were in town they were unable to pull off a huge fourth quarter comeback losing 122-118. This time around they wouldn’t need a huge fourth to pull out a win, and all of the sudden the Celts have won 4 of their last 5 and are above .500 for the first time since opening night. A huge win to cap off a great weekend in NE, let’s relive the glory as a way to ignore the fact that Julian Edelman is out for the rest of the regular season.
The Good
– We begin with Marcus Smart. Returning to his old stomping grounds, he continued to show how much he loves this building. Last year he had a great debut: 7-12 25 pts 9 reb 5 asts 2 stl 2 blks 2 to. Going head to head with Russell Westbrook is no easy task, the guy is a top 5 player in the league, but last night Smart showed he belonged: 9-14 26 pts (career high) 8 reb 3 asts 1 stl 1 blk 1 to. Smart carried the Celtics early, and we got to see a wide range of offensive success. Being a young player in this situation you aren’t always sure how they will respond. Will he be hesistant? Will he try and over compensate when Westbrook does Westbrook things? Well we got some answers and they were beautiful. Remember he struggled shooting the ball against ATL (2-10), but what we saw early last night was basically the exact opposite. Textbook confident shooting.
Fortunately for us, this trend would continue in the second half, basically when the Celts started to make their run. Smart’s second half showed what it looks like when your lottery pick is taking the next step. These are the type of threes I have no problem with Smart taking. His feet are set, it comes within the flow of the offense, and he shot it with confidence.
– Coming into this game I don’t think anyone was confident about how the Celts would shoot the ball. As a team the have a true shooting percentage of just 51% (23rd). They just missed like 60 shots the other night against a team that whose defensive rating is 103. Despite their struggles, the Celtics shot 47% for the GAME, which was their best shooting performance to date. Of those 39 baskets, a total of 25 were assisted. You guys see the correlation right? A 64% assist percentage for the second straight game and look how much better the offense has looked. When the Celtics move the ball and play with confidence, they can compete with anybody. Anytime your best players can shoot the ball well on the road in the West, you are going to put yourself in great position. Thankfully, the Celts took advantage.
– Unlike the offense, the Celtics defensive effort was no surprise. Another game, another victim. Let’s look at the numbers. OKC is currently 2nd in offensive rating at 109.4, they average 110.5 points per game and shoot 47% from the field. Pretty fucking good considering the conference in which they play. And yet, the Celtics were up to the challenge. First, the overall numbers: 85 points on 36% shooting and 18 turnovers. #Boom.
In case you happen to miss it, Brad Stevens showed his willingness to basically try absolutely anything to get a win. You see, for about 75% of the game, the Celtics played man. What we saw with that strategy was Russell Westbrook live at the line, so to solve this issue, Brad jumped in a time machine and went back to college. At 4:30 left in the third, he went zone.
And it worked! It was just the sort of hail mary that you need to work if you want a win like this on the road, and Boy Wonder got it.
– Biggest surprise for me was the rebounding, again. Led by Sullinger’s 15, the Celts won the battle 47-34 with 12 offensive rebounds. In case you aren’t aware of why that’s impressive, OKC is the best rebounding team in the entire NBA. If the Celtics are going to play this sort of defense, and rebound the basketball this well, how can you not be excited? As a young team trying to figure themselves out, seeing their dedication to rebounding is just what I want to see.
– Please join me in a giant sigh of relief for Avery Bradley’s health. After a short absence, it was clear from the start how much the Celts missed him. Hate him or love him, Avery allows them to get back to normal. While streaky, he is by far our best midrange shooter (45%), and when he’s in the lineup, things just look better.
Avery would put in a solid 26 minutes (team high +19), a nice number to see since calf injuries can be tricky. With a back to back coming up tonight, maybe we end up seeing a little more RJ Hunter in Houston.
– Isaiah did Isaiah things. Enjoy.
The Bad
– Far too many turnovers. 18 is just not going to be a recipe for success moving forward. Unfortunately it was pretty much everyone, so by the time the Celts land in Houston they better have talked through these mental errors. I can live with hustle turnovers, I can’t live with just dumb mistakes.
– I also didn’t love that Serge Ibaka seemed to get as many open jumpers as he pleased. I’m sure that wasn’t the plan going in, since his midrange game is strong, and the Celts are lucky things didn’t get too out of hand. I would have loved to see him be forced to put the ball on the floor and if you foul him at the rim, so be it. It felt that they were taking the risk of letting him beat you, and he made them pay. In addition, they really struggled with Westbrook off the pick and roll, something they are about to get a heavy dose of with Harden/Dwight.
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– Finally, while small, I hated this tech from Marcus. A simple lack of awareness where he let his emotions get the best of him. You could say Marcus overreacted, and you’d be correct
The Ugly
– RJ Hunter got a DNP. Look, I’m already swimming in paperwork for the #FREEJAMESYOUNG movement, but if I have to protest in order to get RJ Hunter minutes I will.
It feels like I’ve said this a lot recently, but this was the biggest win of the year. It’s not my fault the Celts keep beating these teams that they have no business beating. If they win on a back to back in Houston, then THAT will be the biggest win of the year. Anyway you want to slice this up, the Celtics are playing great. Their defense is elite, they are playing the right away, and finally things are starting to pay off. Yes, there hasn’t even been 10 games yet. But if you look at 80% of their wins, they are against quality opponents, three of which were a playoff team, the other is OKC. I understand it will be hard for people to realize that maybe this team is better than they thought, because it’s easy to just say “Celtics suck/they are in limbo/they don’t have a superstar etc”. Grow up.
Tonight presents its own set of challenges, mainly, how my poor heart deals with it. As a fellow Sun Devil I will forever be Team Harden. Especially since that time I got to rush the court and celebrate with him right after we beat UCLA at home. Great times. I have no idea how the Celts are going to stop him. You saw the trouble they had keeping Westbrook off the line, well Harden is even better at getting to it. He’s making Steph Curry’s point totals look low. This win covers that IND loss, so to steal this road game too would be huge for this stretch. Houston is in the midst of a little slide, losing three straight, including one to BROOKLYN, so this may be the time to pounce.
5 down 42 to go.
P.S
Lil B curse for the win
