It was nearly the perfect start. A punch in the mouth, and a way to make a statement to open a game. The Thunder just wasn’t ready for the recoil.
An 11-2 Thunder burst to begin Thursday night’s game led to a dominant first quarter that held the Boston Celtics to just 16 points, which rolled into a first half effort that held the visitors to just 34 points, season low for Thunder opponents. Head Coach Billy Donovan’s club was pushing the pace when appropriate, hitting ahead on outlet passes for streaking teammates.
On defense, with Jerami Grant in the starting lineup in place of Patrick Patterson, for matchup reasons, the Thunder was able to switch everything 1-through-4, and it bunkered down and stayed tight in its pick-and-roll defense, crashing over on the release of a pass when the ball was trapped, but staying home on shooters when the ball was under control.