Jaylen Brown looks to fight past Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren (left) during his difficult 5-for-15 shooting night in the Thunder's victory Wednesday at TD Garden.
Jaylen Brown looks to fight past Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren (left) during his difficult 5-for-15 shooting night in the Thunder's victory Wednesday at TD Garden.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
The hope for the Celtics is they take this information from their rather disappointing and frustrating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and become better equipped for the physicality and offensive prowess of elite teams in the future.
Boston finished this seven-game homestand 5-2 with losses to Cleveland and Oklahoma City sandwiched in between five solid wins. Yet, they walked away from the 118-112 loss on Wednesday knowing full well they are not the best team in the NBA, and they’ll need a healthy Kristaps Porzingis to be that team.
The Thunder were without second-leading scorer and All-Star Jalen Williams, and then morphed into another version and led most of the way. The Celtics never had a grasp on this game, regardless of how many open 3-pointers they attempted.
They were unnerved by Oklahoma City’s physicality, especially Isaiah Hartenstein, and then fouled too often with the Thunder in the bonus. If the officials allowed the visitors to be the more handsy team, then the Celtics have to accept that reality and counter.
The Thunder want what the Celtics have, so do the Cavaliers. And while Joe Mazzulla seemingly tried to prepare his team for the chore of facing the Thunder, they got hit in the mouth in the opening minutes and spent the entire night chasing.
The loss doesn’t mean the Celtics can’t repeat, but that road will be much more difficult. In the Jan. 5 loss, the Celtics bench got completely outplayed by their Oklahoma City counterparts, and the same occurred again this time.
The Thunder received 34 points and 13 rebounds from their reserves, and some extra grabs and shoves from Hartenstein, who gives OKC a toughness it lacked last season. The Celtics bench combined for 20 points and 7 rebounds, but their job is to make threes — and they didn’t. The duo of Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard were a combined 3 for 13 from beyond the arc.
Add to that a combined 1 for 12 from Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown, and the Celtics’ central means of thriving offensively was stymied. So, missing 43 3-pointers made their jobs even more arduous on defense, and the Celtics were guilty of fouling too much and perhaps the victims of a quick whistle.
But this was hardly about the officiating, despite the Thunder attempting 35 free throws to the Celtics’ 12. The Thunder attacked the paint, attacked the boards, and were given the benefit of their physicality. Yes, the Celtics could have gotten more calls, but they also could have been more aggressive, hit more 3-pointers, and been more disciplined defensively.
“I give credit to OKC; the tougher team sets the rules,” Brown said. “They had a good level of physicality. I could be more physical. I could use my body more. I didn’t meet the level of physicality.
“I got no free throw attempts. That’s unusual. I didn’t meet the level of physicality tonight.”
The Celtics weren’t going to blame the officiating. They were going to blame themselves for not playing intelligently against a team that is well coached and disciplined. The Thunder have been prepping for years to build this type of team with this depth and cohesiveness to make a championship run, and they played like they wanted to send a message.
That message should be heeded by the defending champions. The Celtics are the hunted. They are vulnerable to physicality and that is well known around the league. They have to counter that by being tougher themselves.
“They were physical, and I didn’t meet the level of physicality like I can,” Brown repeated. “I couldn’t get anything going on either side of the ball tonight. Give credit to OKC. They’ve been playing good basketball. They were physical. They’ve been physical all season long. They outplayed us.”
When asked how to combat that physicality, Brown said: “You gotta meet that level, be more physical. That’s something I take pride in. I didn’t win those matchups tonight. I’m not even going to blame the officiating. Definitely OKC was the tougher team for a large stretch.”
Hopefully you’re seeing a coherent theme. “The Celtics lost because of the refs, man” is a lazy narrative. They never had control or even a grasp on this game, even when they took their brief leads. OKC always had a counter, always had a comeback. The Celtics, when it counted, were fresh out of responses.
Mazzulla called out the physicality, but also pointed out the mistakes.
“You have to match the level of physicality,” he said, “but we fouled a 3-point shooter at the end of the (third) quarter. We jump on a pump fake, don’t show our hands on a drive. You also have to do your best to defend without fouling.
“All of those things get magnified when you have two good teams playing against each other, and they took advantage of those things.”
Perhaps it’s better that the Celtics lost this game in March so they won’t lose it again in June. They fully realize they are the third-best team in the NBA, and the answer is not just adding a healthy Porzingis. It’s being more disciplined, more intentional and playing with more force.
The Thunder were the aggressors from opening tip and were rewarded for it. The Celtics could take a few pointers from this experience.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.