The Celtics face the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, another playoff team that is stacked with young talent led by Kevin Durant, who led the NBA in scoring last season. Both of these teams are fun to watch, but they play very different styles of basketball. It should be a great game as OKC's explosive offense goes up against a very physical veteran Celtics' defense. The Thunder have the ability to put up points in bunches when point guard Russell Westbrook and Durant are working their inside-outside game when both are knocking down jumpers and exploding to the hoop. Also, Jeff Green is one of the best up and coming big men as an aggressive big man who also will explode to the hook if given the opportunity, similar to Josh Smith from the Hawks. Boston's tough defense is matched by few, and they will need to be at their best tonight if they want to keep the Thunder under 100 points.Where the Celtics should be able to outplay and outmuscle OKC is in the paint, even with Shaq still sitting out due to injury. Kevin Garnett, Glen Davis, and Jermaine O'Neal should be able to dominate the key both on offense and on defense against the inexperienced big men on the Thunder. It is a given that Westbrook and Durant will find a way to put up points, so just being consistent with scoring inside will be the key to this game. Rondo should keep putting up 10+ assists tonight if he can find his big men off the pick and roll, and the stellar shooting thus far from Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will help his cause as well. I expect Boston's defense to come alive this game the way they did against the Heat in the season opener. Also, look for Boston's Big Four to dismantle OKC's defense down low on the way to their sixth win of the season.
Really interesting and positive game last night for the Celts. I admit I thought OKC was going to hand them their butts last night but the Celts just played them extremely well and made it look mostly easy. I didn't see much of this one but Doc and others are commenting on how well the bench played - Nate, Erden, Baby (as usual) and especially Daniels. Think about this - Daniels had the best plus/minus in the game (+11) while guarding Durant who ended up with 34! That's amazing - most of the 34 were against people not named Daniels. His play has been the biggest surprise of the year - it's hard to understand how someone who was so useless all of last year has suddenly become a noticeable important bench player so quickly this year - someone who used to create far more trouble for his own team than for the opposition. Kudos to Doc and the coaching staff for sticking with him and getting him to turn it around. Anyway the bench guys so far this year have played well individually, but not as a unit - until last night. Last night was a huge step forward - I think whether the Celts win 45 games and get a 5th or 6th seed or 55-60 and get a top 3 seed is pretty much a question of how well the 2nd team can play together as a cohesive unit. Looking forward to seeing them do it again in Dallas tonight.
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