Moses Brown matches Dwight Howard, Steven Adams in performance vs. Celtics

The Oklahoma City Thunder benched Al Horford so they could give more time to young players. Or maybe they benched him to improve lottery odds. Or maybe they benched him because they already had a better option in the bench waiting for time.

That last one is hyperbolic, of course, but center Moses Brown played out of his mind on Saturday night to help the Thunder stay competitive for three quarters against the Boston Celtics before ultimately falling 111-94.

In the first half, Brown recorded 17 points and 19 rebounds. Even by the excitement Thunder fans already have for the second-year center, that is absurd.

The only other player since the start of the 2015-16 season to grab 19 boards in a single half is Dwight Howard, according to the Thunder. Howard did so just over three years ago, on March 21, 2018, when he grabbed 20 in the second half and finished with 30 on the game.

Brown finished the game on Saturday with 21 points, a career-high, and 23 rebounds, which tied a team record, according to the Associated Press. Steven Adams recorded that number on December 19, 2018.

“There’s a lot of 7-footers in the NBA, but it’s a small group of people that are his size that play as hard as he does,” said head coach Mark Daigneault.

Through Brown’s performance, the Thunder led the Celtics 52-47 at halftime and 80-76 at the end of the third quarter. It wasn’t until a Luke Kornet 3-pointer with 10:16 to play in the fourth quarter that Boston finally took the lead.

The Celtics wouldn’t relinquish it. Kornet hit consecutive 3s near the beginning of what turned into a 19-0 run by Boston.

“They pushed a good button with Kornet,” Daigneault said. We kind of had the game in a good spot up until he hit those two 3s.”

“Kornet got in and he was someone that was able to shoot 3s, so we had then to try to figure it out how to be better on the defensive end,” said guard Theo Maledon.

Oklahoma City couldn’t properly adapt. With Kornet pulling Brown outside the paint and an injury to Lu Dort, the Celtics were finally able to seal off the Thunder by outscoring them 35-14 in the fourth quarter to create a final score that doesn’t properly reflect how close the game had been for the majority of the contest. It took the Celtics more effort than they likely expected entering the night.

After all, the Thunder were without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Horford. Only one player from OKC’s opening day starting lineup was active.

That Lu Dort, who entered concussion protocol 44 seconds into the third quarter after he took an elbow from Jaylen Brown. His exit coincided with the Celtics’ stars blowing up. Brown put up 13 in the third quarter, more than half of his 25 total points, and Jayson Tatum had 20 of his 27 in the second half.

Dort, with a plus-five on the night, was the only Thunder player with a positive plus-minus.

Brown and Tatum helped the Celtics keep pace in a game in which Oklahoma City came out with more energy and better intentions than Boston, to borrow a phrase from Daigneault.

Maledon had 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Kenrich Williams scored a dozen off the bench.

“For a young player, (Maledon) just has such an easy way about him out there,” Daigneault said. “He’s a great game manager, almost to the point of … he can tend to be a little bit too safe sometimes and a little bit too low-mistake for a young player, and we really try to encourage him to be aggressive.”

Assuming Dort misses a few games with the concussion, Williams’ role should take a jump, as should that of Ty Jerome and Svi Mykhailiuk. The Thunder wanted more time for their young players. With these injuries to Dort, Gilgeous-Alexander and Bazley, they’ve found it, though the means to acquire it are certainly not the way they wanted.

Extra points

Aleksej Pokusevski briefly exited the game with an apparent knee injury but returned.

He finished with eight points on 3-for-10 shooting (0-for-4 from 3), five assists and steal and block apiece. He also had this throwdown:

Dort was in concussion protocol following the game. Updates will be provided when they are available.

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