For nearly all of the opening month of the season, the one factor the Celtics as soon as relied on wasn’t there. Defense was their calling card of their run to final season’s NBA Finals, however their robust begin this season was fueled by their league-leading offense.
For three quarters on Monday evening, the theme continued. But after they wanted it most, the Celtics reached again and located it.
On an evening when their exterior capturing was uncharacteristically poor, after enjoying one in all their worst halves of the season and regardless of enjoying wretched, uninspiring basketball for a lot of the evening, the Celtics rallied, utilizing robust protection to fully flip the sport within the fourth to earn their seventh consecutive victory, a 126-122 win over the Thunder.
As the Celtics trailed by as many as 15 within the third quarter, they had been in determined want of a spark. Their pictures weren’t falling from 3, and the Thunder had been persevering with to carve them up.
“We were on the bench there and we all kind of looked at each other like, ‘We have to change the energy of the game,’ ” Derrick White mentioned.
They did simply that, and it began with Payton Pritchard, the Celtics’ fourth-string guard who has been compelled into extra motion over the past week within the wake of Malcolm Brogdon’s harm.
The Celtics trailed by 12 inside the ultimate minute of the third when Pritchard modified the complexion of the sport. He hit a deep 31-foot 3-pointer to make it a single-digit sport. Then, within the waning seconds of the interval, he picked up Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander full-court, picked his pocket and dribbled in for a buzzer-beating breakaway layup.
Suddenly trailing by simply seven coming into the fourth, the Celtics rode the momentum that Pritchard created. On the opening play of the fourth, White and Pritchard picked up protection full-court, White stole the ball from Josh Giddey after which was fouled for 2 free throws.
The Thunder, regardless of enjoying on the second evening of a again to again, appeared just like the workforce with extra power for a lot of the evening. But the Celtics adopted Pritchard and White’s result in flip the sport round, forcing Oklahoma City into eight turnovers within the fourth as their on-ball protection improved drastically.
“They gave us the jolt we needed,” Marcus Smart mentioned.
White had three of his 5 steals within the fourth and the Celtics had 15 as a workforce, and it lastly began translating into offense. They tied the sport on a Jayson Tatum dunk halfway via the fourth quarter, and took their first lead since 8-6 when Smart made a free throw to place them up 108-107.
After some backwards and forwards, the sport was tied with lower than two minutes to play when Smart completed off the comeback win. He drilled a triple for a 118-115 lead, then discovered White for 3 to place them up six. After the Thunder lower it again to a few, Smart was there once more, spinning on Gilgeous-Alexander and guiding in a layup together with his left hand to seal it.
“We all know when I go to my left hand, it’s a bucket,” Smart mentioned.
Celtics interim coach Joe Mazzulla credited his gamers for turning the sport round with protection within the fourth.
“That was the guys,” Mazzulla mentioned. “They came up with that, just having the pickup points higher, the ball pressure being higher and then having the late help once they get below the free-throw line. The guys came up with that and executed it well.”
Other takeaways from the win:
– The Celtics had been sufferer to some tough officiating calls within the first half. The most egregious was a technical foul referred to as on Tatum early within the second quarter. Tatum had simply missed a layup to start out the sport 1-for-8 from the sector, and on the Thunder’s ensuing possession, he was whistled for a foul. Tatum then clapped his palms in frustration and appeared to mutter one thing to himself, however was rapidly assessed a technical.
Grant Williams was additionally given a technical early within the first quarter, and Jaylen Brown was referred to as for a questionable transferring display screen that drew boos from the gang.
– The Celtics began the sport 5-for-25 from 3 earlier than ending 10-for-37, a 27 % mark that was their second-worst of the season. Tatum was solely 1-for-9 from 3 in one in all his worst capturing performances of the season, however the Celtics began discovering extra success late by going inside and attacking the basket earlier than some clutch late triples.
– The C’s had one in all their worst halves of the younger season within the opening 24 minutes Monday evening as they gave up 69 factors. They had dedicated lazy fouls, the Thunder, who had been enjoying the second sport of a again to again, had been enjoying with far more power, and so they had been reducing up a gentle Celtics protection with ease.
Source: www.bostonherald.com