Celtics second half struggles leads to Thunder comeback, Boston loses 105-92

After blowing out the Houston Rockets, the Celtics traveled to the Sooner state for a Sunday matinee matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In what could be a potential NBA Finals matchup, Boston struggled as their hosts won their 15th game in a row and defeated the Celtics 105-92.

Jayson Tatum led the way for Boston with 26 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to take down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 33 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. The Celtics couldn’t hit anything from beyond the arc as they shot 9-46 (19.6%), their worst perimeter performance of the season. Boston scored 65 points in the first half and only scored 27 in the second half as the Thunder defense shut down the Celtics offense.

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The game started with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jaylen Brown trading buckets as both teams set an aggressive tone on offense early. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were the primary defenders on SGA to start and committed to denying him the ball as much as possible. SGA was still able to get hot despite the Celtics best efforts, scoring 11 points on 3-6 shooting in the first quarter, but Brown matched him with 10 points of his own.

Both teams got off to an electric start, but Boston had a 35-32 lead after the first quarter of play. The Celtics were aggressive when it came to getting to the free throw line, going to the charity strip 11 times in the quarter. On the flip side, the Thunder shot 52% from the field to keep OKC in it.

With SGA on the bench, the second quarter started with the Celtics picking apart the Thunder’s paint defense. Every possession it was Kristaps Porzingis or Jaylen Brown blowing by the Thunder on the perimeter for a shot at the rim.

OKC’s plan on defense looked to not allow Boston to get hot from three and make them score in the paint. This would work great for Boston as the Celtics went on an 11-3 to open up a double-digit lead on the Thunder midway through the second quarter.

The Celtics defensive plan looked to be forcing one player on the Thunder to beat them from three whether it be Lu Dort or Kenrich Williams, and it seemed to work as Boston took a 65-55 into the half.

Jaylen Brown continued his dominant performance finishing with 21 points on 8-12 shooting at the half as nobody on OKC could guard him. The Celtics finished with four players with double digits in the first half and shot 51% from the field. Boston only shot 27% from three in the first half but their 34 points in the paint made up for it. The Celtics were able to out rebound the Thunder in the first half 27-19 which led to a ton of fast breaks and easy baskets.

Boston started the second half cold on offense as SGA started to heat up. He scored 7 quick points to begin the third quarter as he was able to attack Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. The Celtics got lucky that no one else on the Thunder capitalized off of their slow start as they shot 2-12 from the field and 1-8 from three to begin the quarter.

The Celtics had a hard time generating points, but Jayson Tatum was able to keep their lead intact including a tough bucket at the rim after driving on SGA and a nice fadeaway jumper.

Outside of Tatum’s contributions, the Celtics offense was anemic as the Thunder’s defense forced Boston in tough shots. Even with a Porzingis buzzer beater, the Celtics lead was cut to 4 as the Thunder clawed back to make it an 80-76 game going into the fourth quarter. Boston shot an abysmal 5-22 from the field and 1-13 from three in the third quarter, scoring only 15 points.

The Celtics continued to miss threes as the Thunder took the lead for the first time since the first quarter. After missing 16 straight threes, Al Horford finally broke the streak but the Thunder’s swarming defense continued to be a problem for Boston. A big mistake the Celtics made was going away from Brown and Tatum as the primary defender on SGA. Jrue Holiday continued to get hunted on defense and the Celtics didn’t make an adjustment.

The Thunder continued to go off against the Celtics as Lu Dort would steal an offensive rebound from Derrick White for an easy dunk and SGA hit a big three to make it a 7-point game with six minutes to go. More turmoil for the Celtics after they forced a stop, SGA blocked Tatum on a fast break and found Isaiah Hartenstein for an alley-oop poster dunk on Derrick White.

Jayson Tatum finally scored for the Celtics but no calls at the rim and offensive fouls killed any chance at Boston gaining momentum. The game was really over after Lu Dort hit back-to-back threes to make it a 12-point Thunder lead with two minutes to go. The Celtics only scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, their lowest scoring quarter of the season.