Game Recap 03/10: Boston Celtics @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Even with Serge Ibaka plagued by foul trouble and with Russell Westbrook nursing a sore right ankle, that doesn't explain the fact that Oklahoma City was dominated on the glass by Boston, a super weird fact as the Celtics have been terrible on rebounding the whole season. The truth is that this happened yesterday with the Celtics outrebounding the Thunder on the offensive glass by 10-3, something that helped breaking the natural offensive flow from Oklahoma City.
As expected, the elite backcourt defense of the Celtics did an great job. Oklahoma City shot just 4-16 3pts and only 2-6 FG on pick and roll ball handler plays! The good news for the Thunder was that they played some excellent defense, as Boston shot just 37.7% FG, 7-20 3pts and dished just 17 assists! Oklahoma City held the Celtics to 10-40 FG in the second half! Even though they have been the main reason for their recent good run, the Celtics's bench was terrible on this game, with Jeff Green shooting 2-11 FG, John Terry 3-8 FG and Jordan Crawford 1-5 FG!
Game Preview Article: New York Knicks @ Golden State Warriors
It was clear to me that the Warriors ended their Friday night game against Houston dead tired (just like Houston by the way). Of course, with them having a home game against Milwaukee in the following day, it was evident that the Warriors wouldn't be on a nice spot to have a decent game against the Bucks and that was confirmed in the second half of that game. David Lee didn't play that game, but the Warriors were actually up by 48-47 at halftime, but they faded away in the second half by getting outscored by 45-56.
Golden State's backcourt is likely the most talented unit in the league in terms of shooting skills, but they struggle on defense and Milwaukee just torched them with Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings shooting a combined of 20-35 (57%) FG. Without David Lee, the Warriors couldn't have a clear edge down low and in fact, they only shot 10-19 FG at the rim and 4-15 FG from 3-9 feet, in a combined of 14-34 FG, so no wonder Golden State lost this game!
On the other hand, the Knicks had received bad news with Amare Stoudemire and they had Carmelo Anthony still out due to the injury, however they pounded the Jazz at home for an easy blowout win last Saturday. The key for their success was some great outside shooting with 13-32 (40.6%) 3pts. As much merit as the Knicks had, they faced the right opponent to bounce back: Utah was playing the final game of a road trip, who was also on a back to back night and when their defense is just #28 on the league on defending pick and roll ball handler plays and also #28 on spot up defense, there isn't much you can do to stop the Knicks's offense, especially when your starting backcourt unit is Mo Williams and Randy Foye! Utah kept giving the Knicks some wide open looks and they just took advantage of that.
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