The Boston Celtics stayed in the middle of the country for their third game of a four-game road trip on Sunday afternoon, and this may have been their biggest game of the season so far. They took on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had won 14 games in a row heading into the game.
Boston steadily crept ahead in the second quarter after a high-scoring, tightly-contested first. But when the end of the third rolled around, Oklahoma City made a run (as they were always destined to). But in the end, a late-game surge and Boston's cold shooting led to a 105-92 Thunder win.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics' loss to the Thunder on Sunday afternoon.
Stud - Jayson Tatum
A fairly muted first half was matched by a much better second half for Jayson Tatum. It wasn't quite the monster game that fans may have been hoping for, but Tatum gave the Celtics some much-needed boosts throughout the game.
He constantly attacked the glass, and his mid-range shot was going down, too. On a night where nobody had any sort of offensive consistentcy, Tatum still managed to piece together a relatively efficient afternoon.
Dud - Perimeter defense
There’s a reason the Thunder are as good as they are. Their drive game is one of the best in the league, and they have some of the best one-on-one scorers in the NBA.
As the game went on, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and others consistently got by Boston’s first line of defense, opening up a ton of opportunities for the Thunder.
They were finishing at the rim and kicking out to open three-point shooters, and it all stemmed from the Celtics’ inability to keep guys in front of them off the dribble.
The issue reached its head at the end of the third quarter. Not only were the Thunder getting great looks off penetration, but Boston slipped in transition, too. Oklahoma City climbed back into the contest and made this one interesting.
Stud - Size
Oklahoma City made it a point to prevent the Celtics from taking their normal volume of threes. Boston still got up plenty, but it was clear that the Thunder were trying to take it away.
In response, Boston played a little bit of bully ball. Or, they at least used their size very effectively. Kristaps Porzingis was a monster inside, and Luke Kornet even got in on the action a little bit.
With Chet Holmgren out, the Thunder were smaller than they usually are. And even when he’s healthy, they often run one big man.
That leave room for the Celtics to use their size advantage, and they did just that.
Dud - Optics of defensive game plan
It always looks weird when the Celtics are leaving guys open from beyond the arc, and that’s what they did for long stretches of Sunday’s game against the Thunder.
Time after time, they abandoned guys at the three-point line in favor of guarding the paint, and some players made them pay. Guys like Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins made some open threes that probably had fans scratching their heads.
However…
For as awkward as the Celtics’ defensive game plan looked, it worked out relatively well for them. The Thunder aren’t a heavy three-point shooting team, and Joe Mazzulla knows that.
Rather than letting them get to their comfortable spots—into the paint—the Celtics let them take a few more threes than usual. And in the aggregate, the Celtics came out on top for most of the game.
Stud - Derrick White and Jrue Holiday
This was a huge night for the Celtics’ backcourt, and they both contributed in very different ways.
Jrue Holiday played a beautiful all-around game. He wasn’t doing a great job scoring the ball, but Holiday was impactful in almost every other category.
The veteran was snagging rebounds, dishing out assists as an offensive hub, and providing the Celtics with some versatile defense.
As for Derrick White, he once again proved that he’s the best shot-blocking guard in the NBA right now, and perhaps ever. His impact on the Celtics defense was nothing short of incredible on Sunday.
And even though he wasn’t super efficient, he still made some big shots for Boston (as he usually does).
Dud - Three-point shooting
Boston went toe-to-toe with the hottest team in basketball on Sunday, but it wasn’t because of their three-point shooting. In fact, they were cold from beyond the arc.
Instead, they had to get creative and find other ways of generating offense. Those ways included Brown’s individual success and the Celtics’ size in the paint. However, it wasn’t always easy, as the third quarter saw them fumble offensively.
But the Thunder did a great job of making threes hard for the Celtics, taking away the main way they are usually able to get ahead.
The Celtics are going to struggle to win when they shoot as bad as they did on Sunday afternoon, so the fact that they were in the game at all was a testament to how well they played in other areas of the contest. But the threes needed to go in.