A matchup between the hottest teams from the East and the West delivered exactly what was expected Tuesday night: a playoff-level battle between the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Both teams entered the night with impressive win streaks under their belts. Boston had won a league-best six straight, including four road wins against Western Conference teams. OKC, in the previous week, had reeled off four consecutive wins against the West-leading Timberwolves, the defending champion Nuggets, the Knicks, and the Nets.
Something had to give, and it was ultimately the Celtics who came up short of a massive fourth-quarter comeback attempt before falling 127-123 at Paycom Center.
This was one of the greatest road tests of the season for the C’s, as they finally got a chance to face the most skilled version of the Thunder since the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook days.
The first half was neck-and-neck before MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke open the game in the third quarter, helping OKC outscore the C’s, 40-25. SGA scored 16 of his game-high 36 points during that frame while shooting 7-of-10 from the field.
The C’s battled back in the fourth, cutting an 18-point deficit down to two points over the final six minutes of regulation. Kristaps Porzingis (34 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks), Jayson Tatum (30 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists), and Derrick White (19 points, five rebounds, six assists) were all magnificent in crunch time, but they just couldn’t get over the hump.
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“Overall, our effort was there,” Porzingis said after the game. “Even when they made that run, we kept fighting and we made our runs in the fourth and came back in the game. That’s a talented, young team and I don’t believe this was some fluke game for them. They’ve been playing really well. They’re (second) in the West, a really good team to go up against, and a really good experience for us.”
Part of the experience was trying to figure out how to slow down SGA, and although the league’s third-leading scorer erupted, Boston managed to completely halt his production down the stretch.
Jayson Tatum volunteered to be SGA’s primary defender in the fourth quarter, and he stepped up to the challenge by helping the C’s hold SGA to an 0-for-3 shooting effort in the fourth – his worst fourth-quarter shooting performance since December 16, 2022.
“We didn’t give him angles to the basket,” said Joe Mazzulla, “which is hard to do because [he’s a threat] every single possession. I thought in the fourth quarter we did a better job of picking him up a little bit higher. We stayed square, didn’t give him angles, and if we did, we had guys at the rim and we made multiple efforts.”
Part of that increased defensive pressure had to do with Payton Pritchard’s presence down the stretch. Mazzulla opted to have his backup point guard play the entire fourth quarter, and Pritchard, who led the team with a plus-9 rating, made a massive difference.
“He brought good ball pressure, good physicality,” said Mazzulla. “Just brought a level of physicality to the game defensively and then spacing on offense. I thought his presence helped us get back in the game.”
Although they couldn’t ultimately get over the hump, it was still a great experience for the C’s, testing their in-game adjustments against the best offensive team in the West.
“It was a good learning lesson,” said Porzingis. “You saw from the third to the fourth how we bounced back and played better basketball. But we just fell short tonight and hats off to them.”
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