By Kyle Soppe
A nice match up between the experienced Celtics and the young Thunder who appear ready to own the Western Conference. Kevin Durant (who has done enough to warrant his own original logo, creation on left) and Russell Westbrook out dueled the Celtics Big Three in a 119-104 shootout that saw both teams make furious runs.
Some say it’s not how you start, but rather how you finish. The Celtics can make the argument that neither is important, as they outscored OKC by nine in the games first seven minutes and by eight in the games final 24 minutes.
Kevin Durant poured in 28 points against Boston, and has now tallied at least 19 points in every game in 2012. Durantula has scored at least 28 points seven of his last 12 games. Over that span, he has made 68/78 free throws and has grabbed at least five rebounds in every game.
The Thunder have won a league best 11 straight games at home.
OKC set an NBA season high with their 72 point first half. For reference, it took the Celtics three quarters to score 80 points and the Atlanta Hawks four quarters to manage 82 points.
Russell Westbrook scored at least 31 points for the third consecutive game, all of which the Thunder have won. He is shooting 54.5% from behind the arc and 91.7% from the free throw line over his scoring rampage. Sure, he’s not your average point guard, as he is a score first player, but his 6.33 assists per game is impressive while he is scoring 34 points per game over those three games. Speaking of shoot first guard, he has taken at least 20 shots in 54.5% of his teams games, but the Thunder are tied for the best record in the NBA. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Daequan Cook made a team high three three pointers on Wednesday night. The sharp shooter made at least as many treys than deuces, something he has done in over 90% of the Thunders games.
James Harden handed out a team high seven assists, improving the Thunder to 4-0 when he distributes at least seven helpers.
As for the Rondo-less Celtics, they shot 48.6% from the field, a respectable 38.9% from long distance, and 85.3% from the stripe.
Kevin Garnett, who was questionable coming into the game, recorded one of every three rebounds grabbed by Boston. His rebound total (13) was greater than his shot total (11) for the third time this season, the Celtics had won the previous two occasions.
This was the first time in which the Celtics scored 100+ points in a game and lost.
Boston has been involved in four games this season in which a team has failed to score 72 points for the entire game.
Paul Pierce (who averages 3.8 assists per game over his career) had a game high eight assists, which was one third of the Celtics total. Of his 23 points 12 came from the free throw line, the first time this season in which more than half of his points came from the charity stripe.
Boston’s Big Three all managed at least 20 points, the first time they have done that this year. In fact, it is rare that two of them eclipse the 20 point plateau. Pierce and Allen had only done it once previous to last night, Garnett and Pierce had done it twice, and Allen and Garnett hadn’t done it before last night.
Four games on the books today as we approach All Star Weekend.
Leave a Reply