The Boston Celtics knew what to expect from the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
Still, the Celtics almost appeared caught off-guard at times. Free-throw merchant Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took 11 shots at the charity stripe, 7-foot, 249-pound Isaiah Hartenstein hunted mismatches and the Thunder never took their foot off the gas. That was enough for Oklahoma City to leave Boston with a 118-112 victory at TD Garden and bragging rights with a 2-0 regular-season series sweep.
Boston, from start to finish, stuck by its traditional offensive philosophy: outshooting opponents from 3-point range. It wasn’t successful enough to keep the team’s five-game winning streak intact to conclude its seven-game homestand, but that isn’t discouraging anyone in the Celtics locker room.
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it, with us taking those kind of shots with the shooters that we have, and I feel like the vast majority of them were good looks,” Al Horford told reporters postgame, per The Boston Herald’s Zack Cox. “We got what we wanted. Our guys drove in the paint, kicked it out, we got the looks. … There’s different ways we can go about it, and if we make a few more of those, it’s probably a different story. That wasn’t the case, but I’m OK with that.”
Horford embraced the 3-point-hunting strategy tremendously, challenging Father Time throughout arguably the biggest regular-season game of the year. The 38-year-old notched a double-double — his fourth this season — giving the Celtics 18 points and 10 rebounds of production. Horford started in place of Kristaps Porzingis (illness) and shot 6-of-12 from the field, knocking down half a dozen 3-pointers, tied with Derrick White for the most threes made in the contest.
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It was encouraging to see that even without a fully healthy unit, the Celtics could still contend with the best the league has to offer. However, there’s zero room for moral victories for anyone in the contender’s circle this season, much less for the reigning champions on the hunt for a repeat. So, while there were a few silver linings to choose from, the Celtics understand the Thunder also exploited them in a few departments, too.
Most notably, Oklahoma City playground bullied Boston all night long, and it worked. It was more effective than anything the Celtics executed in response.
“You have to match the level of physicality, so you have to do that,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters, per CLNS Media. “We fouled a 3-point shooter at the end of the (first) quarter, we jump on a pump fake. You know, don’t show our hands on a tendency drive. There’s a level of physicality that you have to play with. You also have to do your best to defend without fouling, so it’s just a small balance there but definitely ones that we can take away.”
The Celtics outmatched the Thunder in the 3-point department, shooting 20-of-63 to Oklahoma City’s 13-of-37. But that was it. The Thunder scored 44 points in the paint to Boston’s 36, attempted 35 free throws to Boston’s 12 and built a lead as large as 12 points — Boston’s largest lead was two points. So while Mazzulla-ball worked enough to outshoot Oklahoma City from beyond the arc, the Celtics were still defeated in several other margins that mattered and worked against them.
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Gilgeous-Alexander, the frontrunner for league MVP, and the Thunder snagged a huge confidence boost and punched their playoff ticket with 16 games left.
“It’s huge,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, per CLNS Media. “Because they’ve done what we’re trying to do, the games against them are always gonna be heightened. They’re always going to be more exciting. They’ve — like I said — achieved what we’re trying to accomplish and there’s no better test in the NBA. You play for late-June, and they’re the team that won late-June, so playing against them is fun, it’s always a big challenge. It’s something that we always get to test ourselves against, and I guess we’ve passed two tests so far.”
Boston will take its latest learning lesson to South Beach, FL., when the Celtics get their first chance at redemption against the ninth-seed Miami Heat on Friday night.