You could try but it would be hard to come up with a much more depressing single game result than what happened to the rudderless Celtics (32-30 overall, 19-12 home) this evening at the TD Garden. They somehow found a way to lose to one of the worst teams in the NBA-the Thunder (21-41 overall, 12-20 away)-by a score of 119-115. Yes, three of Boston's best players-Jayson Tatum (ankle), Kemba Walker (oblique) and Robert Williams (knee)-were all out but I don't care, if you consider yourself to be a contender let alone a playoff team, you can't lose to a bottom feeder outfit that entered with a 14-game losing streak and on the second night of a back-to-back. I'm pretty sure that mild-mannered Celts head coach Brad Stevens doesn't drink (of course not) but I wouldn't blame him for getting hammered tonight to forget about this loser squad of his.
Oklahoma City has been sitting many of their best players for weeks (to get the best draft position possible) so you have to be a truly hardcore NBA fan to name more than a few of the nobodies currently playing for the Thunder. They were led by swingman Luguentz Dort (team-high 24 points), power forward Darius Bazley had a double-double (21 points, 10 rebounds) and seven-footer Aleksej Pokusevski (12 points, 6 rebounds) who somehow weighs under 200 pounds. Off the bench, center Isaiah Roby added 15 points and seven rebounds while shooting guard Ty Jerome also scored 15 points. The Thunder are a G-League team so they obviously gave the C's plenty of chances to come away with the win (27 turnovers!) but Boston could do nothing consistently except brick 3-pointers (11-of-49 for 22.4%) over and over.
There were only three Celtics that showed anything that resembled professionalism: shooting guard Jaylen Brown (game-high 39 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals), rookie guard Payton Pritchard who scored a career-high 28 points in 33 minutes off the bench and center Luke Kornet (10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks) who was another bright spot as a reserve. Guard Marcus Smart (14 points, 6 assists, 5 steals) had one of his patented brutal shooting performances (4-for-17 including 1-of-10 on 3-pointers) which always seem to come at the most opportune times. Swingman Evan Fournier (11 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals) was similarly terrible when it came to putting the ball in the basket: 4-for-14 from the field and 2-of-9 on 3-pointers.
Boston has dropped its last three games in a row and they are right back at it tomorrow night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) at home against Charlotte (30-31 overall, 14-18 away) who not only kicked their ass on Sunday but they are only a game and a half behind the C's with a game in hand. I hate to say it but this season just has to end for the Celtics before they do anything else like tonight's dreadful showing. Something major has to change with this team over the summer because they are not going anywhere with this current toxic mix of players and coaches.
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