Westbrook Struggles, OKC Loses To Celtics

Russell Westbrook was his usual aggressive self on Sunday versus the visiting Boston Celtics. However, Marcus Smart matched his energy and scoring to lead the Cs to a big road win to the tune of 100-85.

Smart had a career-high 26 points on an efficient 9-of-14 shots from the floor to beat the Westbrook-led Thunder still playing without Kevin Durant, who is out due to a hamstring injury. Playing against OKC appears to be a motivation for Smart, who broke his previous career-high of 25 points, also against the Thunder.

Westbrook outscored Smart with his own 27 but missed 15-of-20 field goals overall and making just 2-of-10 shots from behind the arc. The Celtics also got great contributions from starters Isaiah Thomas (20 points and 8 assists), Jae Crowder (10 points) and Jarred Sullinger (8 points and 15 rebounds) plus 14 points off the bench from Avery Bradley.

As a team, Boston shot 47.6 percent from the field (39-of-82 FGs) and outrebounded the Thunder, 47-34. The Thunder shot just 36.4 percent field goals (28-of-77 FGs) including 6-of-25 from behind the arc. Other than Westbrook, who was well defended by the Celtics backcourt, only Serge Ibaka finished in double-figure scoring with 16 points.

After starting the season at 1-3, the Celtics have now won four of their last five games to improve to 5-4 for the season. The Thunder had a three-game winning streak snapped and will still be without Durant in the next week or so.

Boston continues a short road trip matching-up against the Houston Rockets on Monday while Oklahoma City will face the Grizzlies in Memphis the same day.