Celtics upended by Oklahoma City, 119-115

The Celtics have a stripped-down look about them every night, Tuesday with three starters sidelined, and right now the level of competition doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the result.

The Celtics took it on the chin for their third straight loss, 119-115, from an Oklahoma City team that had just lost its last 14 games.

Not even a 39-point performance from Jaylen Brown or a career-high 28 from Payton Pritchard could make up for a horrific (10-for-47 from three) team-wide shooting night. Marcus Smart, with 14 points, hit his first 3-pointer of the night in the fourth only after missing his first nine downtown attempts.

Evan Fournier has a challenging task, shedding his post-COVID rust, and it showed Tuesday night in the swingman’s 11-point, 4-for-14 performance.

Smart’s first three of the night with 1:31 left and a Pritchard bomb got them back in it, followed by a Fournier layup after the swingman stole an inbounds pass. Brown’s diving mid-court steal set up two Smart free throws with 47.9 seconds left that cut the OKC lead to 110-107.

But Darius Bazley drove through a crowd to dunk before Pritchard cut the margin to three again with two free throws, and Smart fouled Theo Maledon, who hit twice with 28 seconds left for a114-109 OKC lead.

Brown, fed backdoor by Smart coming out of a timeout, was fouled and hit twice, cutting the OKC lead to three. But Isaiah Roby slipped backdoor down the other end for the dunk and a 116-111 lead with 17 seconds left. A Lu Dort free throw pushed the lead to 117-111.

Brown came back with a 3-pointer that cut the margin to two points with 5.1 seconds left. But Fournier stole the ball and got fouled on the inbounds play, hitting his first and purposely missing the second.

Smart fouled out hammering Roby on the rebound, and the latter hit twice.

Brown’s 11-point third quarter drove the Celtics to take the lead twice — for the first time since the score was 8-7 — before Dort tied the score at 78-78 from the line with four seconds left in the quarter.

The Celtics took the lead twice early in the fourth, but OKC responded with three 3-pointers over the next 1:40 for a 90-85 edge. But Brown scored the next five points for a 90-90 tie.

The Celtics dodged a bullet when Ty Jerome missed a free throw after Smart was called for a technical foul, and after the ensuing OKC turnover, Smart hit one two from the line for a very brief (91-90) lead.

But Dort’s 3-pointer triggered a 7-0 OKC run for a 97-91 lead.

Luke Kornet broke the run by bouncing in a foul line jumper, and followed by converting a Pritchard feed to cut the margin to two.

But Pritchard, much to Stevens’ ire, fouled Roby, and the forward hit twice, followed by two more from Dort for a 101-95 OKC lead.

Smart missed his eighth straight trey, Brown rimmed out another the next time down, and after almost two scoreless minutes, Ty Jerome drained a 3-pointer for a 106-95 lead. The run extended to 9-0 for a 106-95 lead.

If not for Brown (18 points) and Pritchard (17), the Celtics would have died of thirst in this offensive desert.

The two accounted for 35 of the Celtics’ 49 first half points, with Smart (four points, 0-for-4 from three) the next highest scorer. Overall the Celtics were shooting 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) from downtown. Little wonder they trailed to OKC at the half, 55-49, despite the Thunder not shooting much better — 5-for-14 from three.

But Fournier found his range — at least somewhat — with a pair of 3-pointers within the first four minutes of the third quarter, including one right after a Pritchard bomb, that cut the OKC lead to 67-62.

This flurry also triggered the Celtics’ first extended run of the night — an 18-4 burst that tied the score twice, before Romeo Langford’s spin for a three-point play gave the Celtics their first lead (74-71) since the score was 8-7.

Ty Jerome tied it with a 3-pointer, but Brown responded with a lefty drive that was his 11th point of the quarter and his 29th of the game. Dort tied it with four seconds left in the third from the line.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3t720bv