Heading to Oklahoma City Sunday night turned out less challenging than anticipated. After two straight wins in overtime and still no Shaq, it was unsure if the C’s would be too tired to face the Thunder. The first quarter started out slow, with Jermaine O’Neal missing quite a few easy jumpers. Good thing Garnett was all over the rebounds. Rondo really boosted team morale with his assists and patience. He had plenty of open shots but chose to take his time to set up the plays and make the key assists. Pierce and Allen scored consistently, being answered right back mostly by Ibaka.
Second quarter the Celtics really picked up the pace with Rondo making layups and Daniels contributing with clutch assists. Rondo played great defense, utilizing his long arms for the reach and making steals. Pierce encountered some troubles as he kept bricking it from under the hoop. He was finally able to draw the foul and make the free throws. Allen hitting some trademark 3’s gave the Celtics a comfortable lead. O’Neal comes up with a nice block, the crowd complaining was goal tending. Pierce takes advantage of an and-one he receives off a Harden foul, bringing his free throws to 5/5. Westbrook offered up some good D but seemed to be missing in action in offense, finally scoring his first points of the game with 1:25 left to play in the first half. Celtics up by twenty at half, with 6 turnovers to Oklahoma’s 12.
Oklahoma must have gotten one hell of a pep talk and/or ass chewing during halftime because they came out full force in the third. Durant opened with a 3 pointer a good 5 feet outside the 3 pt line and Westbrook picked up 9 straight points. Celtics didn’t seem to be scoring any, going over 6 minutes between points. Rondo turned it over more than once, giving up more points to Westbrook and the lead was cut.
Since our bench stepped it up scoring 21 points in the first half, they came back in to start the fourth. Davis hits 3 straight from the top of the key and quickly quiets the Thunder crowd. Erdin does his part, going 4/4 on free throws and with the defensive plays by Robinson and Davis, the Celtics go back up by 17 with 6 to play. Davis has a great block on Durant, with is questionably called a foul. But in the end the C’s are able to keep their lead and go to 6-1 for the season. All in all, no one had an exceptional game. Everyone got their jobs done, but no one really took the spotlight this game. But hey, we needed this win today after our Pats got handed an embarrassing whooping from a rookie.