In what was arguably their most competitive game of the season, the Boston Celtics lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 123-127 in their first game of the new calendar year and also ending Boston’s six-game winning streak on Tuesday in OKC.

The Celtics overcame an 18-point deficit late in the game to bring the score within two-points, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 19-points in the second half ended up being too much for the Celtics. Josh Giddey also added 13-points in the second half to help propel OKC to victory over Boston.

In a game that saw 64-points combined from Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis, it wasn’t enough for the Celtics to get the win. A lot of it has to do with Jaylen Brown not playing to his normal level. He ended the first half with only one made field goal on eight attempts and went to the free throw line four times, making all four, totaling six-points in the first half.

Brown finished the game with 15-points on 4-of-18 shooting from the floor and didn’t make any of his eight 3-point attempts. It just wasn’t his night after playing great basketball for the past month.

But it’s not all on Brown. Don’t confuse me for John Zannis, as this isn’t a smear campaign for Brown. Jrue Holiday might have played worse than Brown in this game. In fact, Holiday was essentially benched in crunch time in favor of Payton Pritchard. Holiday finished with seven points and was a plus-minus -15, the lowest in the game.

Derrick White, as usual, was great in this game and kept the Celtics alive in the fourth quarter by making three 3-pointers in the final frame after he started the game by getting stitches on his left eyebrow after colliding with Gilgeous-Alexander. White finished the game with 19-points, five rebounds, six assists, one steal, and one block.

The largest scoring variance was in the third quarter, which seems to be common for this team, as OKC outscored Boston by 15-points in the quarter. Head coach Joe Mazzulla received a technical foul in the third quarter as well.

The biggest takeaway I noticed from this game is just how much Porzingis is relied on and to his credit he seems to always deliver for the Celtics. This game truly proved the Porzingis curveball is essential for the Boston Celtics.

Boston’s next game is the first night of a back-to-back on Friday against the Utah Jazz in Boston and then flying to Indiana for another game against the Pacers on Saturday.

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Photo Credit: Boston Celtics