Celtics Title Town

The Good

Rebounding isn't bad, so hit the glass

The Celtics out rebounded the Thunder 44-41. The weird stat? The Celtics had 10 offensive rebounds compared to the Thunder grabbing 3 on the offensive glass. Bass why can't you try and do this every night? He pulled down 5 of the 10 offensive rebounds. Bass on the night? Well, I'll get to him a bit later. Bass ended with 13 rebounds, and KG had 11. It's a shame that the offensive rebounding didn't lead to more easy baskets.

 The Captain continues to keep the boat above water

Pierce had  a team  high 20 points, and he made timely baskets all day to keep the Celtics close. Pierce's defensive could be the bigger story from Thursday. Durant was limited to 23 points around 5-6 points below his season average, and he was 6-of-16 from the field. Pierce had help, but he was good enough to take some of the credit. Hopefully Paul continues this hot streak.

The defense worked well against a high octane force

The Celtics had the defensive numbers in their favor, but the offensive chaos was visible. They allowed 44% from the field, and 25% from three-point land. The Celtics forced a solid 14 a game. The answer has been a mix of zone and old school man-to-man. Sometimes the Celtics have mixed the two schemes. Whatever it is, the new scheme has worked. The defense is a good sign for the Celtics in a tough loss.

The Bad

KG what was that?

I want KG to take around 20 attempts a game, but they need to be worth it, or good attempts. Of course not every attempt will be great, but I don't recall a game like this from KG. I know he's had some poor shooting nights, but his selection speaks to me. Some nights he just doesn't have it in the tank. But Sunday afternoon I could see energy in those old legs. Kevin may have wanted to carry the offensive load, and it could have hurt more then it did good.  I think will see a nice bounce back from KG this Tuesday.

Bench missing in action

The Celtics bench has been great, but against the Thunder they had a total of 23 points with Terry adding 9 points, and Green with 8 points. Green was 2-of-11, and maybe he was a bit nervous. The bench can't give you 40 points every night. The entire team was out of sink on offense except for Pierce, and even Bradley.

The Ugly

Turning the ball over is hard to take

The Celtics had a season high 9 turnovers for a single quarter in the first, and they finished with 19 turnovers for the game. I think the turnovers killed the Celtics, and they never allowed themselves to get into the game because of that. Terry had a team high 4 turnovers. Chris Wilcox had issues catching passes all night. He had 3 turnovers. The Thunder don't have the best defense in the world. I think the Celtics felt nenervous for whatever reason. 

Bonus

Bass I'll let slide

I don't think Bass had a bad game, and I don't think he had a good game. His rebounding was a surprise, and that's the effort we need, and I hope he goes for that every night. Bass had 13 rebounds, and now we know he can give that effort every night. He seemed like the only Celtic that had the offense going, but he was just s3-of-4. They could have looked for him a bit more?