The Oklahoma City Thunder head to bean town to face a banged up Boston Celtics squad. OKC is looking for the split in the two game season series.
The OKC Thunder are coming off a quality victory over the Toronto Raptors, lead by yet another ravishing performance from Russell Westbrook. He recorded his fifth consecutive triple double.
The Raptors were on an 11 game winning streak, holding the NBA’s best home record and top seed in the Eastern conference.
Before OKC took down the Raps Toronto had lost only five games on their home court all season. Sweeping the Raptors is no small feat, but OKC joined the Golden State Warriors as the only other team to sweep Toronto this season.
*Toronto still has one game each remaining against the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets. Toronto is currently 0-2 against the Clippers and Nuggets.
Russell Westbrook's 102nd career triple-double marked the 33rd game he's outright led both teams in points, rebounds and assists.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 19, 2018
According to @EliasSports, that's tied with Wilt Chamberlain for the most such games in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/smV1oNgr5d
Furthermore the Thunder can not be satisfied with a split on this two game East road trip. OKC must continue playing with desperation as if they had lost in Toronto.
Tale of two halves
The last time the OKC Thunder took on the Celtics the Thunder were unrecognizable from the first half to the next. Oklahoma City played a near flawless first half, outscoring the Celtics by 18 points while shooting 44.4% from the perimeter because of great ball movement.
The wheels completely fell off in the second half, however, as OKC was outscored by 25 points. The Celtics cranked things up shooting 53.3% from the perimeter to the Thunder’s 29.4%. Couple that with the C’s registering nine more assists than OKC and the outcome was inevitable.
The Celtics point of view
Moving along to the Celtics side of this contest. The C’s are the definitive second seed in the Eastern Conference. Boston holds a six game lead over the third place Cleveland Cavaliers and a trail the East leading Raptors by five games.
That is not a bad spot to be in considering Boston lost their key free agent acquisition to a gruesome ankle injury on opening night.
The Celtics are currently one game under .500 in the month of March. If Boston finishes with a losing record in March it will be the first time it has finished with a losing record in a calendar month all season. Moreover the C’s will undoubtedly play with added motivation as they are coming off a 19 point loss courtesy of the New Orleans Pelicans.
With that, let’s get to the three keys for tonight’s match.