The Celtics scored their best win of the season on Wednesday night, taking it to the Thunder for a 119-109 win in TD Garden after getting down by 13 in the early going. The Boston stars outplayed the OKC stars, and the role players did the same, while the crowd was on fire for 48 minutes, but this felt like more than just a big regular-season game.
It sure felt like the Celtics came in with a very specific game plan and executed it to perfection. They decided early on that they were happy to guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander one-on-one, mostly faceguarding him and making him work hard for every basket, but not overreacting or sending much help, even on his drives.
Celtics dared anyone but SGA to beat them
They were content to live with SGA getting his, and daring everyone else to beat them, and the Thunder supporting cast, even at full strength, was not up to the challenge. Shai got his 33 points, but Boston mostly shut down the rest of the crew, with the only other player to record more than 10 points being Lu Dort with 14.
Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, and others all took turns guarding Shai, doing everything they could to deny him, and almost ignoring the actual ballhandler. The OKC dribble hand-off game was completely eliminated because the Celtics’ defenders didn’t even bother looking at Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, or whoever else was initiating the action.
Joe Mazzulla wanted to take away SGA as much as possible and trust the rest of his defense to win four-on-four.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, we saw almost the exact opposite scenario playing out. The OKC defense was determined not to let Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown beat them, crowding the driving lanes, sending help, and blitzing pick-and-rolls.Â
Boston broke the vaunted OKC defense
This played right into the Celtics’ hands, as the Jays were more than happy to spray it around and trust their teammates to beat the Thunder four-on-three. To make matters worse for the Thunder, they showed no fear of Dort and Alex Caruso, with Brown and Tatum going right at them, and beating them at their own game with relentless size and physicality.
The Celtics were making the Thunder work for every shot on one end, and getting whatever they wanted on the other, leaving Mark Daigneault grasping at straws. You could tell he was flummoxed when he basically punted on his defensive lineup, pulling Dort and Caruso in favor of shooting from Isaiah Joe and Ajay Mitchell.
For the final three quarters of this game, the Celtics completely dictated the terms and took the Thunder completely out of their comfort zone, making them look extremely beatable, putting up 70 points after halftime.
It’s pretty clear that this is the best way to beat OKC, but the problem is that not many teams have the coaching acumen and personnel that the Celtics do to pull it off. Many will try, and maybe none will succeed. But if somebody is able to knock them out, you can bet it will be following this blueprint laid out by the Celtics.