Celtics lose to Durant-less Thunder



Rondo grabs a rebound, and slams it home in the C's
loss to the Thunder on Friday Night

On Friday night, the Celtics got handed their first home loss of the season, thanks to Russel Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Despite all the rest in the last few days, including the game against the Wizards, where the starters got to rest the entire fourth quarter, the Celtics couldn't come up with the win Friday night. The Durant-less Thunder, led by Russel Wesbrook's 31 points, beat the Celtics by a score of 89-84, most of the damage coming in the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Celtics by 5 points, 28-23. The third quarter has definetly been the Celtics' achillis heel this season so far. The Celtics definetly could have one this game for many reasons. First, and the most obvious, the Thunder's and the league's leading scorer was out, Kevin Durant. Not to mention their starting PF was out, in Jeff Green. Both players are nursing sprianed ankles. Another reason was that OKC missed their last 12 shots of the game. 12 shots, and the Celtics couldn't steal this one. You can't blame it on Glen Davis, even though he clanked three of four free throws near the end of the game. Had he made all four free throws, the game would have been tied and we may now be discussing how the Celtics pulled out a gritty win on a night when they simply didn’t have their best stuff. Instead, those misses, combined with two free throws from Delonte West for the C’s and two from Westbrook for the Thunder, forced Boston to try a game-tying 3-pointer on their final possession of the game.

With 13.4 seconds remaining, Doc Rivers whistled for a timeout and drew up a pick-and-roll play with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. That action didn’t leave either of the sharpshooters open, but West wound up slipping away from his defender and Pierce found him wide open in the right corner with 5.9 seconds remaining.

On a normal night, West would be watching this all take place from the sideline. Tonight, however, he was forced to be on the court during crunch time because Rajon Rondo was on the bench nursing an injury he suffered earlier in the fourth. So in just his second game of the season after a 10-game suspension, West had a tie-or-go-home shot in his hands. He rose up for the possible game-tying 3-pointer but it missed off the rim to the left, sealing Oklahoma City’s shocking win in the Garden while missing two of its top three players.

Russel Westbrook was the game's leading scorer. It was a tale of three quarters for Russell Westbrook tonight, but those three good ones certainly outshined the poor one. On a night when Rajon Rondo just wasn’t on his game, and eventually left with a strained hamstring, Westbrook showed that without his co-star (Kevin Durant) on the court, he could be the shining star – at least for 36 minutes. Over the first three quarters of the game, Westbrook tallied 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting. His dominance ranged from driving to the basket to pull up 3-pointers, and just about everything he threw up seemed as if it was going to fall through the net. In the fourth quarter, however, he played about as poorly as he could have. He scored only six points and all of them came at the free-throw line. But those first three quarters outshine the final stanza because he almost single handedly gave the Thunder the lead that they never relinquished. Yes, he folded in the fourth, but without him Oklahoma City stood no chance tonight.

Game Notes

Ray Allen (3-for-9) was the only Celtic to shoot worse than 50 percent from the field, but none of those five players scored more than 16 points.

Kevin Garnett's 16 points were a team high. He shot 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Four of Oklahoma City's five starters played between 36 and 37 minutes.

Not a single Celtic grabbed more than six rebounds.

The Thunder made as many free throws (27) as the Celtics attempted.

Russell Westbrook scored a game-high 31 points and shot 11-of-13 from the line.

Oklahoma City missed its final 12 field goal attempts of the game.

Rajon Rondo recorded only seven assists.

The Thunder committed 20 turnovers.

Shaquille O'Neal shot 5-of-5 from the floor and scored 10 of his 11 points in the first half.

Delonte West made Boston's only 3-pointer of the game, as it finished shooting just 1-of-8 from downtown

The Celtics recorded 23 points in the first three quarters

Box Score

Team---1---2---3---4-----TOT

OKC----25--24--28--12----89

BOS----23--23--23--15----84

Picture and Source- celtics.com