Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault played down the significance of their 105-92 win over the defending NBA champions Boston Celtics on Sunday.
The result was the Thunder's 15th straight win, giving them a 30-5 record at the top of the Western Conference.
They also held the Celtics to just 27 points in the second half and overturned a 13-point deficit to get the victory. But despite all that, Daigneault reminded the media that it held no more significance than any of their other wins.
"It's one of 82 like I told you before the game. Every game's a different challenge, we’re all running our own race. We happen to be bumping against them," he said.
"We'll go our separate ways, so will they. The reason we're in the position we are right now is because we've improved, and we've had our heads down and been very present in competition. If we want to continue to improve, that’s what we have to continue to do.”
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the points for the Thunder with 33, although they had five players to hit double figures. Gilgeous-Alexander also finished with 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks.
After the first half, it had looked like the Celtics were capable of ending the Thunder's impressive run as they held a 65-55 lead, shooting 51.1% from the field.
But with just 27 second-half points and 21 missed attempts out of 24 from deep, the remainder of the game was a disaster – they scored eight points more in the first quarter than they managed in the entire third and fourth quarters.
Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis, who finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, was honest in his assessment of where it went wrong.
"We were fine [in the first half]. Once they turned it up a little bit in the second [half], we played stupid, and we just gave some possessions away," he said.
"Once you start giving up possessions, it was just downhill for us and the rest of the time was just battling uphill.
"It's not something unsolvable, but just an ugly second half for us offensively."