The Celtics dropped a close one to the Thunder on Wednesday, and, in a game that was fairly close statistically, one might point to the free throw shooting as the key statistical differential. Oklahoma City shot twice as many free throws as Boston did, with the majority of those attempts going to Kevin Durant.
Durant went 15-for-15 from the stripe, and this was not something that went unnoticed by the Celtics' vocal leader, Kevin Garnett, who used an expletive during a live post-game presser to describe how he felt Durant was being treated by the officials. Take a (NSFW) gander.
ShareFor those of you at work or unable to view the video for some other reason, what Garnett said in response to the number of Durant's free throw attempts went like this:
"I thought we was playing Michael F*****g Jordan tonight, the way he was getting the whistle," Garnett said. "Durant damn near shot more free throws than our whole team. That's the game."
In all fairness, that wasn't the game.
The Celtics shot just over 36 percent from the field in the fourth quarter, were outscored by nine points in the second half, and were outrebounded by eight over the final two periods. While Durant did shoot nine of his 15 free throw attempts in the second half, the Celtics were only whistled for two more fouls than the Thunder during that stretch, while their leading scorer, Paul Pierce, didn't hit a field goal and scored just a single point in the third and fourth quarters combined.
I'm not at all blaming Garnett for swearing on live television to convey his disappointment, but I am blaming him for pointing to a fairly meaningless statistic to explain his team's loss to what is, right now, simply a superior team.
I mean, before this game, if someone were to tell you that the sixth-place team in the West was better than the fourth-place team in the East, would you have even considered wasting any energy arguing the point?
I didn't think so.
[Video via RedsArmy.com]
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