Assessing the Celtics’ championship ambitions after loss to Thunder – NBC Sports Boston

Our aim is not to dismiss losses. The Oklahoma City Thunder harassed the Boston Celtics in the second half of Sunday’s potential NBA Finals preview, and the Celtics limped out of Paycom Center with their first double-digit loss of the season.

Boston’s offense was a clunky disaster in the second half, and the Thunder made things look worse with their physicality and assertiveness, whether by tearing away loose balls and creating easy transition opportunities or by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Jayson Tatum hit the rim to thwart Boston’s final comeback attempt.

The Celtics haven’t done themselves any favors with their shooting. In the shadow of Oklahoma City’s Bricktown, the Celtics built their own brick city. According to Cleaning the Glass tracking, Boston is now 5-5 against teams ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating. However, this number drops to 2:4 when you take a closer look at the teams that are in the top 10 in both defensive rating and point difference.

In comparison, OKC is 7-2 and Cleveland is 3-1 against those teams, with Boston’s only loss.

It’s fair to assume that Boston’s offense was particularly poor in Sunday’s game. In fact, here are three of our favorite statistical anomalies from this direction:

1. Tatum recorded 15 potential assists in Sunday’s loss, well above his season average of 11.6 per game, and the Celtics made just one (ONE!) of those shots.

Tatum routinely generated quality looks for his teammates, but the only thing his feeds counted for was an alley-oop dunk from Kristaps Porzingis in transition. Tatum is averaging 14.8 assist points per game, but that number dropped to two in Oklahoma City.

2. Boston didn’t do themselves any favors with their clean performances against Oklahoma City. According to NBA tracking, the Celtics went 10 of 27 (37 percent) on all open shots (4 to 6 feet) and a terrible 3 of 21 (14.3 percent) on all wide open shots (6 and beyond feet).

Boston was 8 of 39 (20.5 percent) on all open or better 3-pointers, including missing 17 of the 20 wide-open 3-pointers it needed. This season, the Celtics hit 38.9 percent on all wide-open three-pointers.

The Thunder’s defense deserves full credit for how uncomfortable it was against the Celtics, but Boston’s 48 open shots were only slightly below their season average in open shots (48.6).

3. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard — five of Boston’s top seven offensive players — combined to miss all 19 shots they attempted in the second half of Sunday’s game. Suffice it to say, this is not the Banner 19 that Boston is chasing.

This shouldn’t affect the Thunder’s dominance in the second half. They are undeniably the best team in basketball entering the 2024-25 season and kept Boston on their toes over the final 24 minutes. We’re craving a seven-game showdown in June.

But both teams still have a long way to go until then.

Whenever the Celtics hit one of these bumps – and with 10 losses in their first 36 games, they’ve suffered more than expected so far – the question becomes: How will the team respond? Even moving past the main matchup of the season, there’s still an important double-dip of games to cap off a discouraging week, and these games could tell us whether Boston’s second-half fumble in OKC is a blip or something There was something more shameful.

The Celtics wrap up a four-game road trip against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night and then return home to host the surging Sacramento Kings on Friday night at TD Garden. Both opponents rank in the top 10 in point differential according to CTG tracking and have two of the seven best offenses in the NBA.

A 3-1 lead would take some of the pain out of OKC’s stumble, even if it was the crown jewel of the trip. Porzingis had watched the Boston players huddle together before this trip west and took stock of the disappointing December. The hot start to 2025 seemed like a statement trip, but the Celtics need to finish strong to assuage any worries that linger after the OKC loss.

Kristaps Porzingis reacts to the Celtics starting their four-game West Coast road trip 2-0, sharing that the team previously held a “look in the mirror” meeting following a disappointing December for the team.

What makes Sunday’s loss a little more frustrating is the fact that it was one of the rare moments this season where Boston had all of their top eight healthy. The Celtics had a full roster for the first time since November, and yet not only did their offense crater in the second half, the bench was largely ineffective.

Aaron Wiggins made more field goals (six) than Boston’s four-man bench group of Pritchard, Hauser, Luke Kornet and Al Horford (five). Pritchard, a leading candidate for Sixth Man of the Year, was 0 of 5 and limited to less than 11 minutes of playing time.

Some will quickly consider whether Boston should think more deeply about adding part of its bench ahead of next month’s trade deadline. We’ll continue to see how difficult it will be to find someone talented enough to routinely crack Boston’s top 9, especially given the Celtics’ limited options.

Like most of the problems these Celtics have suffered, it seems to come back to a common theme: Boston needs to play more consistently in all aspects of the game. No one was worried Sunday about the team’s offense, which scored 65 points in the first half to build a 13-point lead. But it remains shocking how good the Celtics can be over a 24-minute period and how unsightly bad they can be over the next 24 minutes.

You can blame the schedule (three road games in four nights is no easy task) or even the referees (although we’d like to kindly remind you that the Celtics shot 11 more free throws than the Thunder, and the referees were the least of them you problems). But the fact is that Oklahoma City dominated the second half with their physicality and grit. The Celtics couldn’t compete on the big stage.

Tuesday’s matchup in Denver may prove that half was an outlier. But the Celtics need to 1) bury this loss and 2) muster the necessary intent. We’ll say it again and again: It’s hard to stay focused when your only true goal can’t be achieved until June. But first you have to find something that moves you.

The Celtics didn’t make their lives any easier by the way they went astray at times. We were spoiled by how easy they routinely made winning look in the 2023-24 season. This season is far more demanding and the Celtics will need to find the focus needed to get where they want to go.