Gino's Jungle

THUNDER 109 CELTICS 104

The first half was fun to watch. There wasn't much question about that. The reason it was fun to watch? It was a west coast style of play. Both teams were scoring [pretty much] at will on each other. That was a big flashing neon light for the Celtics that things weren't headed in the right direction. The C's were playing a young, fast, and athletic team in a track meet... Not good.

But it didn't turn out to be all that bad. Sure, the team would have liked it to have been at their own pace (which is for the most part the half court), but they played pretty well at the Thunder's pace. Things got a little dicey in the 2nd half though. I am one who will on most occasions find any reason this side of the Mississippi to blame a loss on something OTHER THAN THE REFS. Well, I am tripping, and I have fallen into the Mike Munger hole.

For those of you who don't know Mike, he tends to like to get on the refs, because hey, overall they suck (to be blunt). I won't get into it too much, but the C's only got a chance to cash in at the line 17 times which was half of what the Thunder got. The problem with that is the Celtics were getting the ball inside all... and I mean all night long. You can do the math when I say: The Thunder scored 15 more points at the free throw line.

The Celtics shot the ball well (60%), hustled, and even got an awesome outing from Sheed... and they lost. It is tough to take, but one we will have to take either way. All I wanted was for two great teams who play polar opposite styles of play to play each other head to head and see who won. Unfortunately I feel I was robbed of that. To end on a good note.. Sheed played well / KG played well / Rondo played well / Baby played well. Onto the next game which is home against Houston on Friday.

(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) / (Photo via AP at NBAYahooSports)