OKC steals C’s thunder
Drop fourth straight at Garden
Maybe the road is now their answer. It wasn’t so long ago that the Celtics came within two points in the Staples Center of sweeping a four-game road trip.
They’re headed back to the friendly skies, too, this week with brutally tough stops in Indiana (Tuesday) and Milwaukee in a Thursday night special. The problem is that the Celtics are suddenly hemorrhaging at home.
Unable to stop the likes of Chris Paul (28 points) and fellow guard Dennis Schroder (27 off the bench), the Celtics lost their fourth straight home game, 105-104, to Oklahoma City.
They’ve gone 1-4 since the aforementioned trip, with the only bright spot a win in Cleveland. Something has to be readjusted on a team that hasn’t shot better than 42.7% during this four-game home losing streak.
“We’ve just got to stay together. There’s definitely been some very tough losses,” said Kemba Walker. “But we’ve got to try our best to hold our heads high. Stuff like this happens. Losses come and you can learn from them, you can choose to get better, or go the other way and everybody just go to their own individual corners. But what we’re going to do is we’re going to get better and we’re going to continue to stay together. Every team goes through some adversity. We’ve been through our ups and downs this past year. And we’re just going to stay together.”
And, in Brad Stevens parlance, they have to do it on every possession. Sunday they were burned at the end of quarters. After leading by as many as 18 points (63-45) with 1:07 left in the first half after whacking the Thunder with a 19-4 run that concluded with five straight 3-pointers, the C’s gave up a 12-0 run, including the first five points of the third.
The Thunder also outscored them 9-3 over the last 1:16 of the third, including a Schroder three that cut their lead to a point (84-83). From there the Celtics had to fight for an ill-fated survival.
“We loosened up defensively, kind of let our guard down a little bit and they put a run on us,” Hayward said of what followed. “That was huge. That was definitely a big last minute or whatever, last 40 seconds or whatever it was. We’ve got to be better at the end of quarters, end of games obviously too, but tough one tonight.”
And, as during the night’s other key checkpoints, the result was a downturn.
Jayson Tatum’s reverse layup off a Marcus Smart bounce pass gave the Celtics a 100-99 lead with 3:41 left, and 1:20 later Paul took it back with two free throws.
Tatum missed at the rim — Walker had just missed an identical opportunity — and with 1:11 left Paul answered a wild Smart miss by planting a 15-footer over Daniel Theis for a 103-100 Oklahoma City lead. Theis scored off a Hayward feed, and Tatum, after blocking Schroder in the corner, hustled down the floor to collect a Smart outlet for a 104-103 lead.
Steven Adams missed twice from the line, and though Paul got the rebound, he missed from mid-range. Adams tipped the rebound out of bounds.
But the Celtics couldn’t climb out. Walker, attempting to escape a trap after an inbounds play, had the ball picked away by a charging Schroder, who drove in for a 105-104 OKC lead with 8.5 seconds left.
Tatum attempted to back in Paul, turned, and frontrimmed a 15-foot attempt just before the buzzer sounded.
“I told coach in the huddle I wanted to guard Jayson because I had a feeling they would go to him. I worked out with JT in the summer,” said Paul. “We played hoop. You asking me, he probably got the shot he wanted. But I just wanted to make it tough on him.
“I love defense,” he said. “Even though I gave up a ton of back doors and offensive rebounds tonight, I love defense and I love that challenge. So if he was gonna win it, it was gonna be on me.”
And ultimately Tatum’s 18foot turnaround found iron. Walker scrambled for the rebound as the buzzer sounded.
“It’s a shot I can make. Next time,” said Tatum.