Inside The Celtics

Here's What Stood Out in the Celtics' Loss vs. the Thunder: Turnovers and a Lack of Defensive Resistance Leads to a Blowout

Celtics get blown out in terms of energy and effort, leading to the same result on the scoreboard.

Bobby Krivitsky

Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports
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Perhaps, one views Tuesday's loss as unavoidable in an 82-game season and a product of not getting up for a matchup against a Thunder team missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Or maybe you label the gulf between the energy and effort Oklahoma City played with compared to Boston as unacceptable. Either way, it resulted in the hosts throttling their visitors from the northeast.

The Thunder repeatedly deterred drives from above the break from reaching the rim, making it a point to show multiple bodies. That often led to turnovers.

Boston's 17 giveaways translated to 27 points for Oklahoma City, allowing the hosts to build confidence and find its rhythm. With Gilgeous-Alexander sidelined due to a non-Covid illness, the Celtic's inability to protect the ball against what the Thunder were showing them provided the hosts with a vital source of scoring.

Those turnovers and transition opportunities also helped Oklahoma City generate 70 points in the paint and 21 on the fast break.

Jaylen Brown scored a game-high 29 points, and Jayson Tatum had 27, but the Celtics never figured out how to sustain their offensive attack, taking 40 of their 88 shots from beyond the arc despite only converting those at a 30-percent clip.

As is often the case, their offensive struggles impacted their physicality and resistance defensively.

Now, a deep dive into what stood out from each quarter of Boston's 150-117 loss to the Thunder.

Thunder's 1-2-2 Zone Defense Helps Hosts Gain a Slight Edge Over Its Guests

Jaylen Brown got off to a terrific start in the opening frame, generating seven of Boston's first 11 points, mostly from attacking the basket.

His next bucket came on an old-school three-point play, stopping on a dime for a mid-range pull-up as Luguentz Dort fouled him.

But after Jayson Tatum subbed out at the 6:44 mark, the Thunder ripped off a 14-4 run. Oklahoma City went to a 1-2-2 zone defense upon Tatum's exit, but Boston got plenty of good shots that didn't go down. The visitors' points came from Marcus Smart twice attacking the rim for layups.

While Joe Mazzulla often challenges his team to play through rough stretches, he decided it was best to take a timeout and pause the action. When play resumed, the Celtics went on a 7-0 run in a minute. That burst featured four points from Tatum, and Malcolm Brogdon, creating and capitalizing on a three for himself.

The quarter ended with the Thunder holding a 34-33 edge over their guests.

Celtics' Inability to Take Care of the Ball Has Them Down by 20 at Halftime

Oklahoma City started the second frame with an 11-2 run. Boston's double teams proved ineffective, as the hosts had no problem finding the open man and making the visitors pay.

The Thunder also repeatedly made the Celtics pay for the latter's inability to take care of the ball. Boston had five giveaways to Oklahoma City's one with 3:23 left in the period, resulting in an 8-0 advantage for the home team in points off turnovers.

After the Thunder converted an errant Marcus Smart pass that went out of bounds into a Jaylin Williams dunk, Mazzulla again took a timeout, trying to stop the bleeding with his team trailing 62-47.

But on Boston's first possession after the break, Kenrich Williams stripped Smart, leading to an Isaiah Joe three at the other end. Joe benefited as much as any individual on Oklahoma City, generating 17 points, all in the second quarter.

With 1:28 left in the first half, Smart picked up a technical while Brogdon was at the free-throw line. The former was upset with the officiating dating back to a play in the first frame where he got elbowed in the face in the low post but got whistled for a defensive foul.

Impressive defensive plays were few and far between for the Celtics in the first half. But after Brogdon went 2/2 at the foul line, he kept his feet moving against a Josh Giddey drive, getting himself in a position to strip the ball out -- listed as a block in the box score -- when Giddey exposed it.

Brogdon's theft led to a transition opportunity where Tatum earned a trip to the charity stripe and went 2/2. But even after his free throws, Boston trailed by 18, and entered halftime down 74-54.

The Thunder played with far more energy, and were more locked in defensively than the Celtics. There's no excuse for that or the latter committing eight of their nine turnovers in the second quarter.

Down its best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, those giveaways were a vital source of scoring, allowing a young team to get out and run and to get in rhythm.

The hosts entered the break with a 15-5 advantage in points off turnovers. That helped them build a 38-22 edge in points in the paint and shoot 56.9 percent from the field. And largely thanks to Joe's 17-point eruption in the second frame, Oklahoma City's second unit outscored Boston's 30-13.

It Only Gets Worse for the Celtics in the Third Frame

The Thunder picked up where they left off at the start of the third quarter, extending their lead to 27 3:17 into the frame.

Three of their first four possessions resulted in layups or dunks. That included a play where Jaylen Brown and Derrick White deciding not to switch against a screen for Dort gave the latter a path to the rim as White couldn't fight through the pick and get back in front of him.

Mazzulla initially challenged his team to play its way out of another rough patch. But after Tatum gambled for a steal and couldn't come up with what would've been the basketball equivalent of a pick-six, resulting in an open three for Giddey, who followed it up with a layup, Boston's bench boss took a timeout.

Oklahoma City led 90-63 at that point.

But after the break, Brown and Tatum attacked the rim, fueling a 6-0 run, courtesy of two layups from the former and one by the latter. Defensively, a switch to a zone, challenging the Thunder to beat them with their shooting, resulted in the Celtics starting to string together stops.

Their run grew to 10-3 after Brown swished a mid-range jumper and dished to Tatum for a fast-break layup, shrinking the deficit to 93-73.

But when you allow a team to build and sustain its confidence and rhythm, daring them to beat you from the perimeter becomes less likely to work. That's especially true when the defense is reacting slowly enough and not providing the necessary resistance, leading to 16 Oklahoma City points in the paint in the third quarter with 3:28 left in the frame.

A 12-3 Thunder run grew their advantage to 112-83 with 2:39 left. That stretch included Giddey torching Boston's defense, burying a pair of threes, plus turning a defensive rebound into a layup.

As Oklahoma City delivered another haymaker, Smart got ejected for expressing his displeasure with a foul call ruled on the floor, not sending him to the free-throw line.

As Smart signaled and voiced, he was going up for a shot. While he didn't appear to do anything that warranted a technical, especially a second one, after he got rung up, understandably, he was heated.

When the quarter ended, the Thunder held a 122-91 advantage. The least the Celtics can get from this game is added rest for their top rotation players.

Will Payton Pritchard's Fourth-Quarter Performance Lead to More Minutes?

While the Celtics went on a 12-3 run early in the final frame, the score was too lopsided for it to matter.

What could prove a positive is Payton Pritchard produced 15 points in the fourth quarter. He made 6/11 shots, including 3/4 threes. With Sam Hauser yet to regain his rhythm, perhaps Pritchard earns more minutes moving forward.

At least Boston's top players got the final 12 minutes off, as Tatum, Brown, Horford, and Smart, due to his ejection, sat out the fourth quarter of the Celtics' 150-117 loss to the Thunder.

Up Next

The Celtics' third matchup in this four-game road trip takes place against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. The game tips off at 7:30 pm EST. Inside The Celtics will have content related to the game coming out before, during, and afterward. And follow @BobbyKrivitsky on Twitter for updates and analysis from pregame to post.

Further Reading

There may not be a Better Time to Buy Jayson Tatum's MVP Odds Than Right Now

This Stat Shows Just How Impressive the Celtics' Red-Hot Start to Season Has Been

Teams Showing Interest in Celtics Guard Payton Pritchard (Report)

The Top 5 Plays from Sunday's Celtics-Nuggets Game

Here's What Stood Out in the Celtics' Loss vs. the Nuggets: Jokic's Triple-Double, Denver's Hot Shooting Snap Boston's Four-Game Win Streak

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Bobby Krivitsky
BOBBY KRIVITSKY

Bobby Krivitsky's experiences include covering the NBA as a credentialed reporter for Basketball Insiders. He's also a national sports talk host for SportsMap Radio, a network airing on 96 radio stations throughout the country. Additionally, he was a major-market host, update anchor, and producer for IMG Audio, and he worked for Bleacher Report as an NFL and NBA columnist.

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