The Boston Celtics turned in their second win in a row against the Oklahoma City Thunder Saturday, playing one of their best games of the season despite their opponent being among the handful of teams in the league built to maximize their draft position this offseason.
Normally that would be an easy win, but Boston has had a bad habit of playing down to lesser teams in recent years. This time, however, it seems that whatever lessons there were to glean from the Celtics’ big win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday appear to have stuck with the team, resulting in a 111 – 105 win over the Thunder.
Let’s take a more granular look at the win against Oklahoma City.
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Enes Kanter
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
No fault of his own given the NBA has moved on from his style of play as a main feature, Kanter has not had much of a role with the team this season save a few favorable matchups, and this was one of them.
The Turkish big man put up a double-double in 17 minutes of play, logging 10 points and as many rebounds, a steal and 2 blocks in one of his best (and only) games of the season.
Grade: B-
Josh Richardson
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
This was probably one of the worst games of the season for Richardson so far, and it wasn’t too bad of a game for him just the same with the former Vol logging 6 points and 4 rebounds in 26 minutes of play.
In fairness, it was more that Boston’s other players were cooking well enough that J-Rich kept out of the kitchen, and we won’t ding him for that.
Grade: C+
Al Horford
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Again Horford had what might look like a quiet game if you were not paying too much attention, but his 10 points, 11 boards, and 7 assists were again the glue holding this win together.
While we still have a soft spot for Kemba Walker at the Celtics Wire, we can’t deny that the trade that sent him to OKC for Way Above Average Al was easily the move of the year for the Celtics.
Grade: B+
Jayson Tatum
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The St. Louis native continues to steamroll opponents as he settles into the sort of groove we expected him to hit this season, albeit a bit earlier.
33 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists on an efficient 11-of-22 shooting is exactly the kind of game Boston needs from Tatum to reach the lofty goals the team has moving forward.
Grade: B+
Grant Williams
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The Tennessee product continues to level up in the amount of responsibility he is able to handle for the Celtics with a good game as a starter for Boston — albeit against a lesser if still dangerous opponent.
His 14 points and 8 boards hint he might soon be ready for a legitimate shot at a starting role soon, though if we are being honest playing the Thunder is more or less the “easy” mode of the NBA these days.
Grade: A-
Marcus Smart
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The Flower Mound native followed up his best game of the season with a subdued offensive outing with a memorable cobra-strike moment thrown in for good measure.
The game did not call on Smart to assert himself as a scorer and he did all he was needed to as a floor general, so this was a good if not great outing for him all things considered.
Grade: B-
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Schroder has been an excellent addition to the team save his occasional off-nights, and Saturday was not among them.
The game’s second-highest scorer alongside Tatum with 29 points and 6 assists, it will be interesting to see how head coach Ime Udoka handles the rotation in light of Schroder’s play when Jaylen Brown returns.
Grade: A-
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