Ray Allen was a star for the Seattle Supersonics from 2003-2007 before he was traded to the Boston Celtics in June of 2007. In his first trip to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder he ripped his former teammates for 18 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals to lead the Celtics to a 96-83 win.
I said in my pre-game post that Oklahoma City couldn’t afford to get off to the same slow starts that they had in their previous three games and they didn’t. The Thunder came out shooting over 50% in the first quarter and led the World Champions 29-21 at the end of one.
Next came the second quarter and a big dose of reality with a shooting slump that would last until the fourth. After an amazing first quarter the Thunder were outscored 49-26 over the next two quarters and ended up shooting a pathetic 36% from the floor for the game. Oklahoma City lost the rebound battle 49-46 and had three more turnovers than the Celtics.
They say that defense wins championships and after Wednesday night’s performance we can see why they are world champs. In addition to holding Oklahoma City to a pathetic shooting night the Celtics also had 10 steals with 8 of them coming from their starting five. We wanted to see how the Thunder compared to a championship level team and now we know.
Oklahoma City plays next at the division leading Utah Jazz on Friday night.
Draft 2019, Day 2: Tracker and open thread
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