Celtics murderous road trip starts tonight in Oklahoma City
That is just the beginning of what can only be described as a murderer's row of a schedule.
Five games on the road in seven nights against the aforementioned Thunder, the reeling Nuggets, Doc's Clippers, the super red hot Golden State Warriors and culminating against Portland in Rip City.
Although, they aren't struggling as badly as the Nuggets, the Thunder have come somewhat down to earth since the re-injury of their superstar point guard Russell Westbrook.
Before the injury the Thunder had the best record in the NBA.
Since Westbrook went down they are just 2-2 including a loss on their home floor after giving up a sixteen point lead in the fourth to the woeful Nets.
They also had a close win last night in Minnesota on the back of a Kevin Durant game winner and late free throw misses by Kevin Love.
Durant finished the game with a season high 48 (23 in the fourth).
Unfortunately, the Celts are on an even bigger slide than OKC having lost six of seven.
Boston's been in a lot of these games losing to the Hawks and Pistons by a single point as well as to the Pelicans by three at TD on Friday.
These are the growing pains of an inexperienced team and coach and this road trip is only going to reinforce this reality.
The bright spots for the Celts have been few and far between with one player having a great game one night then an absolute horrible shooting night the next.
For instance, Avery Bradley went 4-6 from three against the Pelicans but shot the ball just three for ten without any attempts behind the arc the night before in Chicago.
What has been most confounding is the lack of Kelly Olynyk's playing time in the two games following his breakout 21 point performance against the Hawks on New Year's Eve.
In the two subsequent games Olynyk played a grand total of 15 and a half minutes.
In the game immediately following his Hawks outburst he was not in foul trouble and played just under eight minutes in a twelve point loss to the Bulls.
So, conspiracy theorists and tankologists, if you've ever needed fuel for your fire, there you go.
My prediction:
Kevin Durant has another monster game and is just too much for the C's to handle.
That is, unless, Jeff Green wakes up out of his slumber coming back to OKC and has a huge game on both sides of the floor.
With the way he's been playing, I don't see that happening, however.
Thunder: 108 Celtics 91
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Leave your own thoughts and predictions on today's game in the comments below.
