The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder had been lifeless even for 40 minutes on Wednesday night time. Then the Celtics’ vaunted three-point capturing deserted them and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander overwhelmed them.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 in OKC’s 118-112 win, contributing 10 factors and two assists because the Thunder pulled away within the last eight minutes. As that was taking place, the Celtics missed seven straight threes, a part of a 20-for-63 three-point capturing night time.
Boston took 63 of their 94 pictures behind the arc, which means greater than two-thirds of its pictures had been threes. Counting on bounce pictures was a giant cause that the Thunder, who took 26 fewer three-pointers than the Celtics, shot 23 extra free throws and scored 15 extra factors from the foul line.
The Celtics lead the league in three-pointers made, however capturing them at such an excessive quantity is a high-risk, high-reward technique. Towards groups with powerful perimeter defenders like Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and SGA, these three-point makes an attempt could be harder — and the Thunder did not even have All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso Wednesday.
However the greatest issue down the stretch was that Boston, with two All-Defensive guards of its personal in Derrick White and Jrue Vacation, merely couldn’t cease Gilgeous-Alexander.
Wednesday’s recreation was similar to the 2 groups’ earlier assembly Jan. 5. That recreation was tied till the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter, at which level SGA began dominating (5 factors, two assists) and the Celtics stopped scoring. Boston shot even worse from three-point vary within the first recreation, making solely 9 of its 46 makes an attempt from deep.
The Finals are months away, and each groups have an extended highway forward of them. But when the Celtics find yourself going through the Thunder, they’re going to have to seek out a solution for his or her three-point woes, and so they’ll positively have to seek out a solution for SGA.
