Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from too close for comfort win over OKC
By Mark Nilon
On the second night of their back-to-back, the Boston Celtics shockingly saw a more valiant effort put forth by the tanking Thunder than they did by their previous foe, the Denver Nuggets.
Despite seeing a double-digit lead heading into halftime and a 20+ point advantage well into the second half, OKC’s “nothing to lose” brand of basketball wound up giving the C’s a run for their money late in the game, as they managed to cut their deficit to as low as seven points at about the one minute mark in the fourth quarter.
Ultimately, however, the result of their Monday night outing wound up being the same as it was on Sunday, as the shamrocks held on to beat Oklahoma City 132-123. As a result, they are 4-0 throughout their west coast trip thus far, 20-3 over their last 23 games, and have now advanced to 44-28 now on the season.
Not too shabby!
As it always should be, leading the way once again were Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown who, together, made up for 46 percent of their team’s point total.
Brown put up his fourth-straight game of scoring at least 25 points; Tatum recorded his seventh 30+ point performance in 10 games while also registering seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, and a block.
Despite not having the likes of Robert Williams (rest) and Marcus Smart (sinus) in the lineup, Ime Udoka still managed to utilize an eight-man rotation in Monday’s win over the Thunder and, of the bunch, we at HH see 1 stud and 1 dud from the exhibition: