Celtics (26-6) at Thunder (22-9) Game #33 1/2/24

[satch]

Derrick White logged the fewest minutes of any of the starters tonight. Why?

[jpotter33]

On one hand, we lost by four to a hot team at home who shot over their head all night long, particularly from three. It happens.

On the other hand, we came out again flat in the third, didn't adjust at all, and it ultimately cost us. Also, JB and Jrue were awful all night long.

Not too upset with the loss, as OKC is a legit contender in the West and we almost beat them even with half of our top 6 playing garbage ball. We're not going to win every game, especially on the road to a hot team on a winning streak.

Oh, and for all the praise of SGA and comparisons to Tatum tonight, Tatum countered him tonight with 30, 13, 8, and 1 compared to SGA's 36, 7, and 7.

[bello_man09]

feels strange loosing. oh well on to the next, i enjoyed the near come back.

[CelticSooner]

Different team this year folks. Championship mentality, never throwing in the towel.

I don’t recall last years team ever throwing in the towel, in fact they almost pulled the biggest comeback in playoff series history.
A terrible 3rd quarter performance just caused them to lose to a legit contender though

This same okc - it's best player blew their doors off.

This team is different by miles.

Id like to think this years Celtics are better too, I just happen to think they’re slightly overrated and still have a long way to go before we can definitely say they’re better than last years team.

I thought I was hard to please? lol

[SCeltic34]

Derrick White logged the fewest minutes of any of the starters tonight. Why?

He left the game early because he bumped heads with SGA which caused a laceration above his eye that needed stitches.

[Atzar]

Derrick White logged the fewest minutes of any of the starters tonight. Why?

He missed a chunk of the first quarter getting stitches for a cut on his head. That's it, really.

[RodyTur10]

From our starters Brown had the most shots missed, the worst shooting efficiency, the worst assist/turnover-ratio and the least rebounds per minute. For a guy who's main quality is scoring he can't go 4/18 from the floor.

[jpotter33]

Tough schedule ahead.

No crap. We've already played the most difficult schedule to date, yet January looks to be nearly as tough as December. Feels like our second half of the season has to be a cakewalk in terms of opponents compared to the first half.

[bello_man09]

Interesting that PP led the team with a +11.

Pritchard was great, and credit to Mazzulla for going with him over Holliday down the stretch. That turned the game around. Holliday and Horford were hurting us tonight.

This is a game for PP- OKC was applying a lot of pressure on jrue he probably even asked to sit this one out lol. PP matched their scrappiness.

[PAOBoston]

Tough schedule ahead.

No crap. We've already played the most difficult schedule to date, yet January looks to be nearly as tough as December. Feels like our second half of the season has to be a cakewalk in terms of opponents compared to the first half.

I honestly don’t know if that is good or bad for this team at times.

[SparzWizard]

Kevin Durant was watching this game and was thinking to himself... 

[radiohead]

Why in the hell would you go to Brown there, Joe? Not like we were going to win this anyways, but he's 4-18 and 0-8 from three tonight? Just one of several idiotic decisions by Joe tonight, along with the insistence on the double big lineup that wasn't working.

He probably wasn’t the first option on that play i think.

[SCeltic34]

Tough schedule ahead.

No crap. We've already played the most difficult schedule to date, yet January looks to be nearly as tough as December. Feels like our second half of the season has to be a cakewalk in terms of opponents compared to the first half.

I have some profane words for the NBA schedulers that gave us Milwaukee on the road on a second night of a back to back after playing Minnesota at home on a night game.  So we play in Boston and have to fly out to the midwest and play the next night.  Thanks, jerks.

[bello_man09]

Joe has to find a way to get Brisett and Stevens some minutes. the key to this game we could not get stopped and then tried to play defense with 5 minutes left. We know, we have the talent to do that but we need some real defenders to help get stops. 

[jpotter33]

It will be interesting to see what OKC ends up doing in the next couple of years, because they got some guys who are going to get paid and they won't be able to keep all of them, especially with their ownership. Giddey, Chet, Williams, and then SGA are all going to be wanting major contracts within a year or two of each other. They have a few years to figure it out, but they certainly won't be able/willing to keep all of them at that money.