BOSTON — The Celtics, for the first time this season, are finally a winning basketball team.
They climbed above the .500 mark for the first time this season as they welcomed the rebuilding Thunder. The Celtics dispatched their opponent in a 111-105 victory Saturday at TD Garden, improving to 8-7.
Jayson Tatum is just about all the way back, shaking off some shooting rust as he scored 33 points, adding eight rebounds and five assists. Dennis Schröder had 29 points while Al Horford had 10 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown (hamstring) and Robert Williams III (knee) for Saturday’s game. But Boston coach Ime Udoka said they’re not ruling the pair out for their next game as they hope to make their return.
Boston continues its home stand with a 7:30 p.m. Monday game against the Rockets. Here are four takeaways from the Celtics’ win over the Thunder:
Back to All-Star form
The counting stats keep coming for Tatum, who posted his third-straight 30-plus point game. Saturday proved to be another efficient game for Tatum as he puts together more and more of these scoring nights with consistency.
Tatum finished 11-for-22 from the floor Saturday, including 6-for-12 on 3-pointers. It was also the third-straight game where Tatum where he shot at least 50% from the field as his shooting numbers slowly trend up. It’s the type of level Celtics fans have expected from the two-time All-Star.
Another victory, but some bumps
Saturday is the type of performance the Celtics need more of: beating rebuilding teams with relative ease. The C’s went out on a big run out of the gates and kept up that pressure on the Thunder. But Oklahoma City went on a few runs Saturday, even cutting a 25-point lead to a four-point game late.
That’s on the bench as the Celtics needed a little more from their starters than expected. When Udoka emptied the benchwarmers, they couldn’t quite close it out as the Thunder made it somewhat interesting. But the Celtics came away with the victory anyway.
Considering how the Celtics have blown big leads this season, they’ll certainly take the victory. There were some mild complications, especially during garbage time late, but the Celtics closed out the Thunder.
Thus ends Schröder week
Schröder saw plenty of old places and faces over the past three games, going up against the Hawks, Lakers and Thunder — all three of his former teams. It was a strange scheduling quirk, but saw Schröder get a little extra juice during those games.
He got some positive chants from the Atlanta crowd, played through an ankle sprain against the Lakers and was complimentary of Sam Presti and the Thunder throughout the last few days. Schröder’s elevated his game with Brown out as he’s become a bonafide scoring option for the C’s.
Another chance
The Celtics get two-straight games against struggling teams from the Western Conference with the Rockets coming into town next. Houston has slugged it out to a 1-15 start this season, including a 107-97 loss to the Celtics earlier.
While the C’s have been criticized for playing down to their opponent’s level, another smooth win would be great for momentum. The 2-5 start seems like the outlier now as the Celtics look for their third-straight victory Monday.
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