We Will All Be Thunder Fans In June So You Might As Well Jump On The Bandwagon Now

If you call yourself a basketball fan, I have to assume that you are a big fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are by far the most fun and exciting team to watch in the NBA led by the transcendent Kevin Durant. More importantly, even though they lost to them in the NBA Finals last season, they represent the most serious threat to a repeat by the Miami Heat. Who doesn't support that?

This afternoon, the Celtics (34-28, 12-19 away) lost to the Thunder (47-16, 28-4 home) 91-78 at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Boston's five-game win streak ended but honestly, they played about as well as we could hope for given that they had somehow beaten Oklahoma City 108-100 on November 23 at TD Garden and since the Thunder are basically unbeatable at home. Did I mention that they are the best team in the Western Conference (sorry Spurs)?

The C's were right in it, down only three (68-65) heading into the fourth quarter before Durant (23 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists) and crazy Russell Westbrook (15 points) did their thing in winning time. Kevin Martin (12 points) was the only other Thunder in double-figures, former Celtic Kendrick Perkins had six points, five rebounds and five assists while BC's Reggie Jackson added six points and four rebounds.

Paul Pierce (20 points, 6 assists) played well but he didn't get much help since Boston scored just two points more than its season-low (77 at Clippers, Dec. 27). The Celtics shot 10 of 40 (25% for math majors) in the second half, showing how their defense-especially Avery Bradley (12 points, 5 assists) on Westbrook (season-low 2 assists-kept them in it for probably longer than they deserved. Kevin Garnett (5-for-19 from the field) couldn't find his shooting touch all game and managed a very quiet 10 points and 11 rebounds. Brandon Bass had a season-high 13 rebounds including five offensive boards, haha I have no idea what that means.

In his first game back in Oklahoma City, Jeff Green (8 points) was a non-factor, he shot 2-for-11 from the field in 28 minutes with three turnovers, three fouls and two rebounds. Haha yikes.

There were numbers for the Celts to be happy about: they hit three more 3-pointers (7-4) than the Thunder and grabbed three more rebounds (44-41) with seven more offensive boards (10-3). Other than that, Oklahoma City owned everything else but that is to be expected by any rational Celtics fan.

The key for Boston is that they'll have to maintain their focus while they play a pair of really bad teams this week: the Celtics are at the Bobcats (13-50, 5th in Southeast Division) on Tuesday (7 p.m., CSN) before hosting Toronto (25-39, 4th in Northeast Division) on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., CSN) and the Bobcats on Saturday (7:30 p.m., CSN). I don't care that they have a back-to-back, they need to go 3-0 against those pathetic teams. The Bobcats once again are the worst team in the NBA although they did beat the Celtics 94-91 on February 11. Maybe that'll teach the C's not to underestimate them again.

UPDATE 3/11: Shavlik Randolph was signed to a second 10-day contract. No idea why, he's a stiff that hasn't played yet as far as I know.

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Eddie House will tell you when he's had enough

I don't think I've ever seen a shooter in the NBA as hot as Eddie House is right now.

He had a season-high 28 points last night, including a blistering 8-of-9 on 3-pointers as the Boston Celtics put away the Sacramento Kings, 119-100 at the Garden for its ninth straight win.

In three of his last four games, he's combined to shoot 22-of-31 on threes. He's making a late case to be included in the 3-point shootout at the All-Star Weekend in Phoenix.

The Celts (38-9) actually started out slowly as the Kings (10-37) hit 10 of its first 11 shots from the field. No problem though as Sacramento led 30-28 after the first and Boston came back with a 40-19 second quarter sparked by House's in the zone shooting.

The third quarter (29-24 Kings) and fourth, 27-22 Celtics were just semantics as the second quarter was enough to put away the NBA's second-worst team (I'm looking at you Wizards).

Besides House, the other revelation during the win streak has been the much-improved play of the Boston bench. Tony Allen returned last night and had 10 points, eight rebounds, three steals and three assists. Glen Davis also added 14 points.

Rajon Rondo also stated his case for a spot in Phoenix, in the All-Star game, by scoring 24 points and dishing out nine assists. Kevin Garnett had 14 points, eight boards and five assists while Ray Allen notched 12 points. Paul Pierce was held to eight points and eight assists.

John Salmons led the Kings with 22 points while impressive rookie Jason Thompson had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Martin scored 18 points, Bobby Brown (the other one) had 13 points off the bench and Brad Miller posted 11 points in the loss.

For the game, the C's shot 55.0% to Sacramento's 44.0%. They also had seven more rebounds (40-33) and 12 more assists (30-18). Finally, the Celts had nine steals to the Kings' two.

Boston hits the road tomorrow night to face the struggling Detroit Pistons.