How OKC Thunder Cooled Off Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics

The Oklahoma City Thunder used a second half surge to overcome the Boston Celtics and it big key was keeping Jaylen Brown scoreless after intermission. How did the Thunder pull that off?

Jan 5, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) dribbles the ball between Oklahoma City Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins (21) and guard Cason Wallace (22) during the second quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Things looked dicey for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first half against the Boston Celtics, who were on fire, swelling a double digit lead. The Green and White were led by Jaylen Brown with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block while shooting 66 percent from the floor.

The game quickly shifted in the second half as Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday were held scoreless headlined by Brown's 0-for-7 efforts.

“They moved Lu Dort to him — that had a little bit to do with it. But I think there's times where, again, we have to fight for our spacing, to give guys opportunities to score," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said post game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder bench boss confirmed the change and echo'd those sentiments. "We Moved Lu Dort on him," Daigneault said simply after the game when asked about cooling off Brown.

Lu Dort mentioned after the game, that the Thunder were switching everything anyways in the first half, so he just decided to pick up Brown initially in actions to start the second half which resulted in an impressive defensive display - team wide.

The Thunder held the Celtics to just 27 points, shooting 20 percent from the floor. That represents the lowest point total and shooting percentage any team has held an opponent to in a single half this season.

“I feel like [Lu Dort] was guarding me in the first half as well — I just think they switch a lot. I just think our spacing wasn’t great in the second half. They close those gaps, they send guys. We didn’t have great spacing offensively, so it made it harder to make those reads and those passes. I feel like it’s more on us — we just got to be better in those moments. But if you put everybody in space, and we get to our spots with our shooting ability, it makes it hard," Brown said after the game.

Oklahoma City not only upped the physicality in the second half, a much-needed change but flying around the court and playing on a string in its defensive shell really junked up the game for the Celtics and cramped its spacing.

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