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4 days ago

(Video) Rajon Rondo Continues To Dominate In Postgame Interview

Rajon Rondo is a tremendous player, but he tends to have a little bit of an issue scoring the ball late in games. I won’t go as far as saying he is scared, but he does pass up shots and defer to teammates in crunch-time….well a lot. Last night though may have been his coming [...]

2
4 days ago

Video: Full Kevin Garnett Reaction After Game 1

Garnett followed up his season-best effort against Atlanta in Game 6 with a new season-high in points and another sensational double-double, as well 60 percent shooting (12-of-20) from the field. Over his past two contests, Garnett is averaging 28.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, two steals and four blocks a game. After the game, KG was candid [...]

2
4 days ago

The Enemies List: Philadelphia, Part II

Before every playoff series this season, we’re doing some rundowns on the opposing roster for each team. Now that the Hawks have been dispensed with, we’re onto the Sixers. Here’s Part II. Players are listed in alphabetical order. Andre Iguodala: There are five guys in the league who have a claim on the title of [...]

4
4 days ago

NBA: Hawks Should Have Had Free Throw on Last-Second Foul

Mike Fratello had it right: the NBA announced today that Al Horford should have been given a free throw on Marquis Daniels’s off-ball foul at the end of Thursday’s game. At the time, ref Eric Lewis ruled that Daniels’s foul had occurred after the throw-in, making him probably the only person in the arena who [...]

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8 days ago

Game 6 Time Set For Thursday Night

Boston will face off with the Hawks on Thursday night at 8pm at TD Garden. The broadcast can be seen on TNT or CSN locally. There was a risk that it would be a 6pm tip for Boston-Atlanta, if the Nuggets failed to extend the series last night against the Lakers. That would have created [...]

3
9 days ago

Atlanta Shakes Up Starting Five For Game 5

Desperate times call for desperate measures and after a blowout in Game 4, Atlanta’s head coach Larry Drew is going to shake things up a bit and add some bulk to his starting five at each position. Kirk Hinrich and Jason Collins will head to the bench, while Marvin Williams will be inserted at small [...]

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Rapid Reaction: Thunder 97, Celtics 88

Posted by on Jan 16, 2012 15 comments

Oklahoma City Thunder 97 FinalRecap | Box Score 88 Boston Celtics
Kevin Garnett, PF 31 MIN | 5-19 FG | 2-2 FT | 12 REB | 5 AST | 12 PTS | -4
Garnett entered this game extremely pumped up, but ultimately his body didn’t live up to his intensity. Things started to get ugly in the second half when he hit the wall: he had no legs on his jumper and no touch at the basket. The twelve rebounds tie a season high for him, but they’re mostly the result of OKC going small.
Paul Pierce, SF 39 MIN | 8-15 FG | 6-6 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 24 PTS | -12
Durant-Pierce was a scary matchup before the game, but Pierce ultimately was the one who exposed Durant. He was given a free pass to the basket on several occasions, and got free for some big shots to bring the C’s within two in the fourth. Durant, meanwhile, was going to get his numbers no matter who was on him. Good to see some life from Pierce.
Jermaine O’Neal, C 26 MIN | 5-11 FG | 2-3 FT | 11 REB | 0 AST | 12 PTS | -3
Jermaine looks like he’s trying to rebound his way back into our broken hearts. 11 tonight, 12 against Indiana…he actually looks like he might be getting in the air. Shocking trivia: this was Jermaine’s second double-double as a Celtic. He gets a B+, but consider that a B+ is probably his ceiling.
Ray Allen, SG 39 MIN | 2-7 FG | 1-1 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 6 PTS | +2
Ray’s worst outing of the season, supplanting his last game in Indiana. He and Thabo Sefolosha must have switched bodies before the game. Just having him stand around must have made a difference, though, because he was a +2 in 39 minutes.
Rajon Rondo, PG 40 MIN | 6-14 FG | 0-0 FT | 9 REB | 9 AST | 12 PTS | -6
He was a rebound and an assist away from a triple-double, but Rondo never looked like he was in control of the offense. All the crazy lineups out there probably didn’t help. Shooting-wise, he was in last season’s form, he made his first jumper, then missed the rest. But it wasn’t his fault that Westbrook made all those threes; Westbrook taking them in the first place is a victory for the defense.
Marquis Daniels, SG 12 MIN | 2-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 4 PTS | 0
Typical Marquis Daniels game, in that I’m not sure I remember him playing in it at all. Nice six rebounds, though.
Mickael Pietrus, SF 21 MIN | 5-9 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 14 PTS | -10
Pietrus is an unapologetic gunner. If somebody gets him the ball, he assumes his directive is to shoot. That strategy worked out pretty well tonight: he got hot from outside and gave the Celtics some late life. Still, not of much use
Brandon Bass, PF 22 MIN | 1-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 4 PTS | -5
Bass did not have it tonight. “It” is his jumper, rebounding ability, or defensive intensity. The team needed a huge game from him and even tested him at center in their small lineup, but Bass gave them a whole bushel of nothing.
Greg Stiemsma, C 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -4
Thanks for getting dressed, Greg!
E’Twaun Moore, G 8 MIN | 0-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -3
His last outing has given him a little undeserved confidence. Good! I hope he keeps it, but applies it to finding good looks for other players instead of getting his shot.

Five Things We Saw

  1. The Thunder winning a decisive battle in the ongoing NBA Age War. The Celtics put up a heroic front trying to keep pace with a visibly younger, faster, more athletic team. Even Rondo, potentially aging by proxy with all these geezers around him, looked at times too slow to check Russell Westbrook. Is old contagious?
  2. It may be too much to ask all of the Celtics stars to play well at the same time. Just as we saw a resurgence from Paul Pierce, KG and Ray scuttled right off a cliff. Still, it’s very encouraging to see that Pierce is still capable of shooting above 50 percent. If KG and Ray had been even average tonight, Boston would have beaten its first good team.
  3. Doc playing with some very unconventional lineups, not all of them successful. The “small lineup” of Pierce at PF and Bass/Garnett at center had its moments in transition, but looked totally helpless on defense. Doc went small just after the Celtics tied the score in the third, and things went south from there. He also subbed out Rondo when the Celtics should have been trying to stifle an OKC run to end the third. Accordingly, Boston turned the ball over on three possessions in a row.
  4. Points off turnovers. 24 for OKC, 2 for the Celtics–the difference in the game, and then some. When the other team is faster than you (which, if you’re Boston, every team is), you can’t afford to give up fast-break opportunities with sloppy passing. On the flip side, the Celtics don’t really have the speed to do anything with the turnovers that come to them.
  5. Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha combining for 12 points from long distance on the last four shots of the game. Westbrook: 27% from three, career. Sefolosha: 31%. Odds of them making four threes in a row: 0.7%. Luck is weird!

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