Led by blossoming superstar Kevin Durant, the C's lost a tough one to a good, young Thunder team. Jeff Green (whom the team traded for Ray Allen on draft day '07) sunk the C's with two clutch three's as the clock wound down. The Thunder simply outlasted the Celtics down the stretch.
It's tough to believe that the Celts lost a game where they shot 60%, but a closer look at the box score can help explain. The Thunder shot twice as many free throws as the C's, (34 vs 17), and KG echoed the team's sentiment about the difference in foul calls, stating "You would've thought we were playing Michael (Bleeping) Jordan out there". He's right--Durant and the Thunder were the benefit of some extremely questionable calls all night long. Having said that, the young team remained aggressive for all 48 minutes and that's what aided them to the win.
The Celtics have struggled to shoot the deep ball all season and last night was no different; 3-13 from beyond the arc. On the season they hit 34.4% of attempts, good for 19th in the league. Bringing in free agent Rasheed Wallace was supposed to help this issue but the veteran hasn't exactly been Mr. Reliable since his arrival.
Hopefully this loss lights a fire under the team's behind and gets them playing championship caliber basketball once again, but someone outside of the "Big Four" must step up and play a key contributory role a la James Posey in '08 if the C's hope to bring home title # 18.
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