Oklahoma City 89, Boston 84

The game was on ESPN, but for those of you who missed it, you missed perhaps the worst fourth quarter in NBA history.

[recap] [box score]

The statistics are almost too graphic to post: by my count, according to the ESPN.com play-by-play, the teams combined to miss their last 22 shots from the floor -- 13 for Oklahoma City, nine for Boston. No one on either side made a basket during the final 9:27. The Thunder spent the final 12 minutes watching Russell Westbrook pound the ball and launch contested, ill-conceived jump shots. Boston was hardly much better, taking turns clanging shots, missing free throws, and turning the ball over.

For what it's worth, I thought Boston's defense was good enough to win -- not just in the fourth quarter, but for the whole game. Sure, the Thunder shot 57 percent from the field, but many of those makes were exactly the kind of shots the Celtics were inviting them to take: lightly-contested jumpshots. With Kevin Durant a late scratch due to an ankle injury, Boston perhaps didn't need to pack it in quite as much as they did, but credit Oklahoma City for making shots they don't usually make. Boston forced some turnovers -- and, after all, conceded only 49 points in the half.

In the third quarter, the Thunder extended its lead -- but mainly due to over-aggressive defense, not necessarily bad defense. Oklahoma City was shooting the penalty with over eight minutes to go in the period, and made 12 of 16 free throws. Boston should have eased up on the pressure a bit once they started the quarter committing so many fouls, but they weren't taking a bunch of stupid fouls or getting beat off the dribble all the time. OKC's shooting started to cool down, though they did make all three three-pointers they took in the period: two by Westbrook with Rajon Rondo's hand right in his face (keep in mind that Westbrook was 2-for-14 behind the arc on the season heading into this game), and a late-in-shot-clock heave by Royal Ivey that went in off the glass after the ball squirted to him when Rondo picked Westbrook twice as Westbrook was trying to drive.

This one, in my view, was lost on offense, and there were a ton of things the Celtics could have done differently to win this game on that end. They started the game out of synch for no particular reason, and never seemed to find any sort of flow. Shaquille O'Neal was a perfect five-for-five when he left the floor with 1:07 remaining in the first; he didn't get another opportunity in the post until 5:18 of the fourth -- a span that included 15 minutes of court time for Shaq, and this despite the fact that no Celtic was having a great game offensively. Ray Allen never got involved, and Glen Davis was so bad that we would have been better off if he hadn't gotten involved. Davis missed three free throws late in the fourth quarter (he was 2-of-6 for the game) and was the major part of a bench unit that was 1-for-10 from the line before making its final three attempts).

Even with all that, Boston still had chances. Allen had a good look at the go-ahead bucket with 30 seconds to go, but it was just a hair short. Delonte West got a great look at the game-tying three from the right corner on Boston's final possession, but couldn't knock it down. It was just one of those nights.

That's what it was, actually: just one of those nights. No lessons to be learned. No shame in losing to a Durant-less Thunder team. Just one of those nights.

Accordingly, here are just some of those bullets with a few discussion points that may be of interest:

• The Thunder opened the game with Westbrook playing several feet off Rondo. This defense is designed to keep Rondo out of the lane and to make it harder for him to get the ball to guys like Allen coming off screens. I think it's silly, but we've seen it before. What we haven't seen before, and what is totally inexplicable in my view, is Westbrook switching off of Rondo when Boston ran its 1-3 pick-and-roll to post Paul Pierce at the free throw line. If you're so unconcerned with Rondo's jumper, then just go behind the screen, hold Pierce up for a count so his man can get back to him, and go back to just chilling out ten feet off of Rondo. This play resulted in at least one ridiculous sequence which culminated in a Rondo layup after James Harden left him completely alone under the basket (presumably to double team, though Harden was basically standing in the middle of the lane, equi-distant from Rondo at the rim and Pierce at the line), and could have resulted in several more baskets on a night that Pierce had it going (he hits that 15-foot jumper over opposing point guards with regularity).
• I think the days of team's leaving Rondo that wide open may be numbered, however. He's been looking for his jumper more this season, taking it with confidence, and making it at what seems like an acceptable rate. My favorite play of this game came late in the second quarter, after Westbrook had just hit a pull-up jumper on Rondo at the other end. Rondo came down and came off a Kevin Garnett screen on the right side of the floor. KG popped to the opposite elbow, which is where he always goes on this play, and Rondo almost always passes him the ball. KG was open, but Rondo stopped and drilled the J. (In real time, I could've sworn that Rondo came off the screen, turned his head and look at a wide-open KG, then turned back and nailed the jumper -- take that, Russell! After rewinding and watching it again, I wasn't so sure that Rondo actually demonstratively looked in KG's direction, but make no mistake -- Rondo knew KG was open. It's not often that I'll praise a point guard for taking a shot when a teammate has a good look, but I loved the moxie and Rondo does need to punish teams for leaving him open.)
• Boston had a few minor injuries. Garnett took an elbow to the head on Boston's first possession, stayed on the floor after a quick 20-second timeout, came out after about three minutes, and then returned to the floor with a cartoon-like lump on the back of his noggin. Pierce left the floor briefly in the third quarter with some sort of leg problem, and could be seen limping in the waning minutes. And Rondo sat out most of the final six minutes after suffering some sort of leg injury in a collision with Ivey. Hopefully, none of these injuries are serious and the affected players won't miss any time.
• Officiating question: In the second quarter, Nick Collison drove to the bucket, drew contact from Semih Erden as he was going up for a shot, then clearly discarded Kevin Garnett with his off arm while laying the ball in. Does anyone know if the refs can wave the basket off in that spot, awarding Collison two shots (since Erden got him in the act of shooting) but not giving him the bucket that he got by virtue of committing an offensive foul? I'm not saying Collison should have been called for a foul -- but you can't just do whatever you want after you've been fouled and still get the continuation, can you?
• Westbrook was more or less a one-man band tonight. As such, he'll get all the credit for the win. Maybe I'm being too hard on the kid given that he didn't have Durant tonight or Jeff Green in either game against the Celtics, but I'm glad he's not on my team -- at least right now. He's a great defender and terrific athlete, and he can score some, but all I've seen him do in two games is pound the ball, take terrible shots, and turn the ball over at a prolific rate. In the eyes of many observers, he's already made a big leap this year, but he won't be elite in my eyes until he learns he has limitations and plays within himself.
• Then again, his teammates (those who played tonight, anyway) should be ashamed of themselves for being the biggest bunch of shrinking violets I've ever seen in the fourth quarter Friday night. You guys are NBA players, for chrissakes. Do something.

The Next Lamb: The Oklahoma City Thunder

Game 12: Oklahoma City (7-4) at Boston (9-2)

Friday, November 19

7 p.m. Eastern

ESPN

Last meeting: Boston 92, @Oklahoma City 83 (11/7/2010)

The Thunder have started to rumble a bit since the Celtics last saw them. The loss to Boston on the 7th was their third defeat in the season's first six games; they're 4-1 since (including a win in Utah), their lone loss in that period coming at the hands of the 9-1 San Antonio Spurs.

It's not clear to me what, if anything, is substantively different about the Thunder now and the Thunder two weeks ago. Kevin Durant is still a magnificent scorer. Russell Westbrook is breaking out -- his stats compare favorably with LeBron James' thus far this season -- but he still settles for jumpers too often and turns the ball over too much. They still don't have Jeff Green back from an ankle injury, which means that Serge Ibaka's 22-point outing on Monday against the Jazz is the only time this season that someone (other than Durant and Westbrook) in uniform for the Thunder on Friday has broken the 20-point barrier.

Twenty is an arbitrary number, but I think that last item is key. Last time these two teams met, Boston was pretty comfortable letting Durant and especially Westbrook take a bunch of jumpers, confident they'd miss enough. They missed a bunch early as Boston took a big lead, made a bunch in the third quarter as they launched a third-quarter comeback, then ran out of gas against the Celtics' second string. The Thunder have a deep bench with a bunch of guys who can put the ball in the basket on occasion, but the lack of a true third scoring option hurts them.

Or at least it did against Boston. The Thunder are actually the seventh-highest scoring team in the league, having breached the century mark in all but three games thus far. So it's probably not fair to say that it unilaterally hurts them.

What's the explanation, then, for OKC's struggles in the last couple meetings with Boston? One possibility is sample size. If I must go beyond that, I'll say that every time I watch the Thunder -- which mostly comes against Boston, but also in person against the Clippers and a few other random times on TV -- they spend an awful lot of time standing around and throwing up jump shots. Durant and Westbrook will go one-on-one plenty, but that's the only way they get stuff going to the basket. And Boston has been particularly good at guarding this sort of thing, especially against teams without good three-point shooters. Oklahoma City is currently the worst in the league from behind the arc.

They're tops in the NBA in FT% at nearly 88 percent, far ahead of the Lakers, who are number two. Durant takes more than nine per game and hits them at 95%; Westbrook takes eight and makes 90%. If those guys are settling for jumpers, they aren't going to the line -- and the team's offense is therefore far less potent. Boston limited the Thunder to something like 17 free throw attempts in the first meeting, and they'll look to do something similar.

Boston 92, Oklahoma City 83

After giving up big advantages before eking out overtime wins in each of the last two games, it's good to win one without blowing a big lead -- without blowing all of a big lead, anyway.

[recap] [box score]

Everyone on the Celtics played pretty well, but the credit goes to the bench in this one. Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, and Semih Erden helped Boston out to a nine-point lead after the first possession of the second quarter, a working margin the starters were able to more or less maintain before staging a late second-quarter run put the halftime lead at 21.

That was crucial, because the Thunder made a big run in the latter stages of the third quarter, taking advantage of a Boston cold spell. They did it on the backs of their two studs, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who between the scored all 27 of OKC's points in the third period. James Harden broke that streak with a three-pointer to start the fourth, cutting the Boston advantage to six, but a couple of Glen Davis jumpers from the top of the key restored order, and the Celtics more or less cruised from there -- the Thunder never came within single digits again until their final possession of the game.

Simply put, Oklahoma City ran out of gas. In such a deep hole after the first half, Thunder coach Scott Brooks never had the opportunity to rest Durant and Westbrook, and they just wore down.

The Thunder are an interesting team. I didn't write a "The Next Lamb" about them, because I didn't know what to say, other than "They have Kevin Durant, everyone's favorite opposing player, and they have this guy, Russell Westbrook, who everyone compares to Rajon Rondo." They usually have Jeff Green, but he was out with an ankle injury. Without Green, Oklahoma City really is a two-horse outfit, and the Celtics do well against teams like that, particularly when a guy like Westbrook is more than happy to comply with Boston's invitation to shoot jumpers on every possession.

Indeed, this game went a lot like last year's date in Oklahoma City. In that one, Boston showed up at the tail end of a four-game road trip, after winning in San Antonio the night before. It seemed like a letdown game, but OKC came out a little flat and Boston jumped on them early, then put it away in the third.

I don't know what to make of the Thunder. Like a lot of people, I think I got a little carried away with their performance at the end of last season, and predicted them to finish second in the West. Durant's the best scorer in the game, and Westbrook's off to a great start (though he has a long way to go in terms of his decision-making). But beyond that, they have a bunch of guys with as-yet-unfulfilled potential. They're still a franchise that's in great shape, but it seems the talk of them as a contender is a bit premature.

Celtics Drop Two to Western Opponents

There have been a couple of games since my last post. Sunday's blowout loss in Boston to Tony Parker-less San Antonio is hardly with writing about, another of the inexplicable (though increasingly explicable as their frequency grows) all-out debacles that have plagued us this season, particularly at home.

Wednesday was an exceedingly entertaining, narrow home loss to the up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder. Boston lost this one despite shooting nearly 60 percent for the game, for two reasons:

1) They had no answer for Kevin Durant. That hardly makes them unique among NBA teams, of course, but it doesn't change the result of the game. The Praying Durantis had 37 points on the evening, upping his scoring average to 29.7 per game, tying him with LeBron James. And even when Durant wasn't the one doing the actual scoring, he played a major role. On the first of two late Jeff Green three-pointers, Durant's presence on the strong side led Green's defender, Kevin Garnett, to cheat off of Green, in order to be in a better position to help should Durant drive. As we are too aware, post-knee surgery KG doesn't recover quite as quickly as pre-knee surgery KG, and he couldn't recover in time to disrupt Green's shot once the ball swung to the weak side.

2) Oklahoma City shot 34 free throws to Boston's 17, with Durant nearly matching Boston's total, shooting (and making) 15 from the charity stripe. This wasn't lost on Garnett, who after the game colorfully commented that Durant was getting calls that only the game's greatest player would get. I wasn't paying close attention the entire game, and save one really bad foul that Pierce got called for stripping Durant late, I wasn't terribly upset with the fouls that Boston got called for, but upset because I felt that Boston was getting hit for stuff that OKC wasn't. In terms of averages, the Thunder shot about eight more free throws than Boston usually gives up, and the Celtics took about eight fewer than they usually do. (Hat tip, Boston Globe.) In my view, I think it's accurate to say that Oklahoma City was not 33 percent more aggressive than most opponents last night, nor was Boston 33 percent less aggressive. Clearly, the officiating had some effect on the game.

With that said, Boston still gave up better than 50 percent shooting, and themselves missed two very open looks in the final seconds. Rasheed Wallace couldn't convert a wide-open three from the top of the arc that would have cut the Thunder lead to one with 1:09 to play. Not to blame Wallace -- that shot was his only miss of the night and his 18 points were the most he's scored since January 10 -- but that was a big one. And Ray Allen missed a very good look without about eight seconds left that similarly would have made things interesting.

The Hawks, by the way, soundly beat the Lakers in Atlanta, and now are a game up on the Celtics for the third seed in the playoffs with eight games left. Frankly, I don't care -- the only way we're not going through Cleveland anyway is in the unlikely event Atlanta beats them, and while I suppose playing the Hawks is better than playing the Cavs, our results against them this year don't suggest that this would be a much easier proposition. However, some people do care, and for those that do, I'll remind you that Boston needs only to finish the regular season with the same record as the Hawks to earn the third seed, thanks to a rule that everyone hates and expects to change (the first tiebreaker is not head-to-head record, but whether one team won their division and the other didn't).

Upcoming games: Houston on Friday, Cleveland on Sunday (1 p.m. Eastern, ABC).

RwH Wednesday Night Mashup

Apologies for posting this a day late. I had a ton of basketball on my plate last night and didn't get all the away through it. I don't know how Kelly Dwyer does it. It was a bit like being drunk: I don't remember parts of the evening; I fell asleep in my chair; at one point, I made a sandwich but didn't bother using a plate, resting it on my chest in between bites.

This afternoon, though, I caught up. Brief thoughts on everything I watched.

Boston 105, Utah 86 [recap] [box score]

I DVRed this game and watched it after getting home from Clips-Thunder (see below). It seems like it was one of these games where no one and nothing in particular stands out, except for the fact that one team seems overmatched. I supposed Rajon Rondo's night stands out, statistically, but it wasn't one of those games that he just controls; his 14 points and 11 assists came rather quietly. In all, Boston had seven guys in double figures, led by Kevin Garnett's 18. The Jazz, now 3-5, certainly don't look like a playoff team right now.

TMJF: Blazers 107, Wolves 84

Stat Line: 25 minutes, 5-11 FG, 1-2 3FG, 4-4 FT, 15 pts, 6 rebs, 1 asst, 2 TOs.

I sorta zoomed through this one this afternoon because I already knew the score (it turns out that trying to avoid learning the score of three NBA games while attending another NBA game is a fairly pointless exercise). Jonny Flynn had what is becoming his usual game, playing solidly until he felt the game slipping away, then trying to force the action a little too much. Coach Kurt Rambis gave him an early hook after a few poor trips before the half and to start the third quarter. Flynn's replacement, Ramon Sessions, had his best game of the year (1o points, 5 assists), and I guess we'll soon see how steep Rambis expects Flynn's learning curve to be.


Muy Beno: Oklahoma City 83, Los Angeles Clippers 79

Wow, this was an ugly game. The Thunder seemed content to shoot jumpers all night, missing most of them, while LA's Chris Kaman, perhaps upset by being left off the All-Star ballot despite being the reigning Western Conference player of the week, missed a variety of bunnies on his way to a nice little 9-for-26.

At this point, you're probably wondering, "What did you expect?" And it's fair to wonder why I'd even bother going to a Thunder-Clips game. The answer, of course, is Kevin Durant. KD is liable to put on a show every time he steps on the hardwood, and so when he comes to town, you go see him, particularly if you can get tickets for $2.99 on Ticket Exchange.

Durant had a relatively quiet 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting, but it's really jarring to see this guy in person. He's a peculiar mix of tall, long, and thin, a unique combo of lanky and gangly and athletic and smooth. Of course, you know this from his reputation and from watching him on TV. But until you see him live, you can't appreciate just how odd it is to see a guy built like him operate the way he does, draining long jumpers, gliding in for dunks, putting the ball on the deck, pulling up, and shooting in what seems like one continuous motion, the ball at the bottom of the net before you even realize it's left his hand. He's still one-dimensional, all offense, but what a spectacular dimension it is.

I love his nickname -- The Durantula -- but while his phsyique is vaguely insectual (!), his long, thin body and vast wingspan does nothing to recall the meaty, plodding arachnid from which the moniker is derived. It's a great nickname, but it's so inapt. Think I can drum up any public support for calling him The Praying Durantis?

Muy Beno: Cleveland 102, Orlando 93

This was by far the best performance of the season by a Cavs team that has struggled in the early going. The difference between this game and last season's Eastern Conference finals is that last night, Lebron James had some help from his teammates. Heading into last year's playoffs, all the talk was that James finally had the supporting cast he needed to win a title. But that cast, after playing so well all year as Cleveland amassed the league's best record, turned into a bouquet of shrinking violets in losing four out of six to the Magic last summer. Quite frankly, the rest of the Cavs looked afraid to create anything for themselves during that series, as though they feared that if they shot and missed, they'd be criticized for not getting the ball to the league's most dominant force.

Last night, the Cavs went to new acquisition Shaquille O'Neal early and often, drawing two quick fouls on Dwight Howard. Mo Williams, whose disappearance in the Eastern Conference finals was probably most notable because of how effective he had been during the regular season, was assertive from the outset. His confidence was no doubt buoyed by the fact that he was white-hot, hitting his first nine shots. Cleveland shot absurdly well for the stretch of the game that mattered, settling in at 48 percent for the night only after cooling off considerably in the last half of the third quarter and all of the fourth (with the game well in hand).

This wasn't on display last night, but it's been clear through the season's first couple of weeks that Cleveland and Orlando are both struggling to consistently incorporate new players into their attacks, though injuries and suspensions and other absences have no doubt contributed. That had to be expected, though, and it's worth noting in these pages only because it's in contrast to the entire KG-Ray Allen era in Boston. Two seasons ago, everyone expected the new-look Celtics to take some time to gel, but they hit the ground running on the way to league's best record and the franchise's 17th championship.

This year, a completely revamped second unit has meshed extremely well, despite losing a key component (Glen Davis) to injury on the eve of the season. Eddie House is still a chucker, and no one (including me) has a problem with it. Not even Rasheed Wallace, a guy who -- while he's never had an alpha dog complex -- is something of a volume shooter himself. No one seems to care that Wallace spends most of his time hoisting threes on the perimeter. Marquis Daniels has subordinated his playing time and statistics (he was a starter in Indiana, remember), gladly playing the role of facilitator for the bench guys. As a unit, they seem to have the same sort of chemistry that the starting group has.

Credit the coaching staff, I guess, as well as the leadership of the veterans that set the tone for the team. In a year where the race for best record in the East promises to be tight and homecourt advantage just might tip the scales in the playoffs, little things like a fast or slow start to the season just might make the difference.

Housekeeping: Please see the important update to Tuesday night's post on timing issues in the Denver-Chicago game.