A whole no-show: 1 Takeaway from Boston Celtics-Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder

1. That sucked.

It was terrible.

A whole no-show.

Your intrepid creator right here thought of batting across the concept of merely writing “If the Celtics don’t care to point out up, why ought to I trouble with Takeaways?”

However let’s attempt to be a bit higher.

The Boston Celtics obtained destroyed by the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder on Tuesday night time. Correction: The Boston Celtics obtained destroyed by the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder with out star participant Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

On the finish of the Takeaways from the loss on the Denver Nuggets, we wrote the next:

The Celtics now head to play on the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. The Thunder aren’t workforce, however they’ve sufficient expertise to journey up good groups who don’t present up. Boston can’t go in anticipating that merely arriving on the enviornment is sufficient. With an enormous recreation looming in opposition to Luka Doncic in Dallas on Thursday, the Celtics should be targeted on the subsequent activity on Tuesday in Oklahoma Metropolis first. In any other case, it’ll be a two-game slide heading into enjoying Doncic and the Mavericks.

So…yeah.

We aren’t going to make this an entire deal the place folks want fired, traded, tarred-and-feathered and drawn-and-quartered in Boston Widespread. There’s sufficient of that going across the web already. However this was actually dangerous.

The Thunder play actually exhausting. Some nights they present the promise of what’s the come. Gilgeous-Alexander is a kind of abilities that may single-handedly win video games. He’s that good.

However he didn’t play. Oklahoma Metropolis began a gaggle that went 6’7’’, 6’6’’, 6’6’’, 6’4’’ and 6’7’’. They appeared like a mid-major NCAA workforce, each by way of measurement and expertise on the ground.

And the Thunder scored a franchise-record 150 factors and gained by 33. And it wasn’t even actually that shut.

Postgame, Joe Mazzulla and the assorted Celtics gamers who spoke all mentioned variations of “Taking part in with out effort and power is unacceptable.” Malcolm Brogdon open mentioned that when Boston discovered Gilgeous-Alexander was out, they relaxed. It was clear from the bounce that the Celtics to a person thought merely stepping foot on the ground can be sufficient.

The Thunder made eight layups within the first quarter on their technique to 34 factors. Unhealthy begins occur, however this one by no means obtained higher.

OKC scored 40 factors within the second quarter and 48 factors within the third quarter. The Thunder had a whopping 70 factors within the paint. By the point the fourth quarter began, Oklahoma Metropolis gamers had been actively in search of Celtics to placed on posters. And so they succeeded time and time once more.

There aren’t any silver linings from this one for the Celtics. No “Nicely at the least…”. Not from this one.

This wasn’t a nasty capturing night time the place you shrug and transfer on. It wasn’t an evening the place the opposite workforce merely couldn’t miss. Nicely, they couldn’t, however that’s as a result of the Thunder ran a layup line for lots of the sport. If it wasn’t a layup or dunk, they’d wide-open jumpers.

You may even excuse a recreation or two every year season the place the workforce simply type of doesn’t present up in opposition to a nasty workforce. The canine days of the midpoint of the season are an actual factor.

However this occurred just a few weeks after a string of robust street losses, adopted by baffling residence losses. Coming off a loss to the Nuggets, the Celtics ought to have proven up and blown out the SGA-less Thunder.

Every time one thing dangerous occurs, we all the time say “You already know what? We must always have recognized again when…”. You by no means actually know the whole lot goes sideways within the second. It’s type of like placing on weight. You don’t discover the primary few kilos you placed on. You then catch a sideways look within the mirror and, horrified, you exclaim “What occurred? How did we get right here?”

It’s actually, actually essential that Boston doesn’t let this debacle in Oklahoma Metropolis flip into their “We must always have recognized again when the Celtics obtained killed by the Thunder with out SGA”.

When the calendar modified from 2021 to 2022, the Boston Celtics modified. They obtained severe about bringing effort on a nightly foundation they usually laid waste to the remainder of the NBA for a couple of three-month interval.

This season began that method too. It appeared like Boston was on a mission to bounce again from shedding the NBA Finals by rampaging their technique to Banner 18. They weren’t simply successful video games. The Celtics had been destroying groups.

What occurred in the midst of December? The place did that workforce go? Why does this group look a lot like that dispirited, disjointed, disconnected 2021 workforce once more?

It’s one factor to say all the fitting issues. The 2021 Celtics mentioned all the fitting issues. Over and over and over. At some point, proper across the flip of the calendar, saying turned doing.

It’s time for the 2023 Celtics to cease saying the fitting issues and to start out doing them once more. We all know they’re loads succesful. We noticed it final season and we noticed it to open this season.

No extra speaking. Actions converse louder than phrases. Don’t inform us that you simply’ll be higher. Be higher. And begin on Thursday night time in Dallas.