Celtics Fall Short to Thunder, 109-104


An excruciating loss to the Thunder tonight.
  • First off in what nation does Jeff Green masquerade as a power forward?  (Probably the same nation that Kurt Thomas lead college basketball in scoring & rebounding).  I mean did the guy even play the 4 at Georgetown?  He's a 3 who can maybe play spot minutes at the 4.  He's as much 6'9 as Leon Powe is 6'8.
    • Know who'd be a terrific fit at starting power forward for OKC?  Glen Davis. 
  • Jeru the Damaja Harden hasn't lived up to his #3 spot in the draft.  I think people give him the benefit of the doubt but I'm not sure how much better he'll become.
    • Harden and Terrence 50 Cent Williams should have a celebrity lookalike rap-off contest.
  • Rasheed was really solid in the 2nd quarter, shooting 5-5 from the field for 10 points while the Celts made an effort to give him the ball.  Lead by him and Glen Davis, there was a big production off the bench tonight, 36 points total.
  • Westbrook is a top 5 point  guard in the NBA, and if you don't recognize that, you don't know much about basketball.  Keeping him and Durant together is a must for them.
    • Speaking of Durant, he's the epitome of a superstar player I like.  Not ostentatious (sort of like the antithesis of Bean and LeBron) and very talented.  I'm even more impressed he aspires to stay and play in OKC.  Kudos to him. 
  • As well as Westbrook played (21 and 10), Rondo held his own- 16, 11 and 5.  He needs 2 assists to break Bob Cousy's Celtic all time season record.
A really tough loss in this one tonight.  The Celtics played as well as they could for the full 48 minutes and still came up short.  In a game where the C's shot lights-out (close to 70% in the first half) they could never distance themselves far enough, a recipe for a disaster.  The Thunder kept it close enough with a large free-throw disparity throughout.  They shot 34 free throws, to Boston's 17.  5 points in particular were very questionable: the Durant alleged 3 point attempt in the 3rd quarter when Ray was called for a foul and the Pierce foul on Durant in the 4th quarter.  Durant made all 5 of those free throws, which ironically enough was the final difference in the game.

Obviously Tommy's going to mention his displeasure for the free throw discrepancy but when KG's barking at the refs for getting hit on about 3 or 4 separate occasions on shots he made, maybe there's some legitimacy to it.  How can Zach Zarba make that call on Pierce's strip from the baseline?  This goes back to my entire concept that there should be about 10 refs for the game, 5 on each side of the floor keeping an eye on each matchup, and 2 additional refs able to view by monitor.  They should be able to communicate directly with the refs on the floor for egregious calls.  That's right folks, 12 refs per game.

The Squawks knocked off LAL tonight too.  I was actually thinking of cheering for LAL in this one but just couldn't get myself to do it.  So now the Celts are a game behind Atlanta for the 3rd spot.  Should be interesting how the rest of the regular season plays itself out.