Every morning, we’ll give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: Celtics sleepwalk to Game 2 loss
The Boston Celtics came out of the gates on a 9-0 run and scored 25 first quarter points. They then took a Valium and napped through the second and third quarters in which they scored a combined 24 points. A frantic finish couldn’t save them, and the 8th seeded Philadelphia 76’ers stole home court advantage with an 82-81 win.
This was a brutal, brutal game to watch until the final few minutes where both teams started making plays. The talk this morning (and late last night) was about the illegal screen call on Kevin Garnett, but the game was won on a 12-0 Philly run late in the third quarter. The Celtics managed to take a lead with less than a minute left, but Philly held its composure (or poise, as Doug Collins said 15 times during a timeout) and put the C’s away.
Charles Barkley said at half time that it’s clear the Celtics have no respect for Philadelphia. If that’s true, then they should respect them now, because continued disrespect might send the Celtics home early.
2: OklaHOLYCRAPDIDTHEYCRUSHTHELAKERS!
It was a relatively tight game to start this one, with the Thunder taking a seven point lead after one. But it ballooned to 16 at the half and then in the third…
OKC outscored the Lakers 39-24 in the third. Kevin Durant had 13 of his 25 and Russell Westbrook had eight of his 27 in the third. There were dunks and alley oops and threes and… well… it was an ass-kicking.
I would be shocked if it continued, but for now there’s nothing more to say. The Lakers got whooped. OKC forced 15 turnovers and scored 22 points off of them. But even if you eliminate every single one of those, the Lakers would’ve still lost by 7.
3: HIGHLIGHTS!!!
Kevin Durant finds Westbrook on the oop
Rajon Rondo with the oop to Ryan Hollins
James Harden steal and slam
4: Line of the night: Russell Westbrook – 27 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals
So much for rust, huh? Westbrook hit 10 of his 15 shots attempts, including his lone 3 and all six of his free throws. The only real blemish on his line was the one turnover.
We know Westbrook is prone to some streaky-ness, but when he’s playing like this, you can forget about beating Oklahoma City. The one-two punch with Durant is too much. And these guys put these numbers up without even playing 30 minutes. Yeesh.
5: You can quote me on that
“If you’re going to tell me Kevin was the only one moving in picks tonight, then I’ll live with that. He clearly was not the only one, but he was the one who got the calls tonight. We put ourselves in that position. I say it all the time if you put yourself in a position to let someone else do something, then you can lose games and that’s what happened.”
-Celtics coach Doc Rivers, on the foul that sealed the game for Philadelphia
“They’re great fans. They’re good-looking women. “I’m looking up in the stands and thinking, ‘Wow, you all are beautiful.’”
-Ron Artest, on the fans in OKC
