One thing that silences a crowd is lights-out defense.

The Truth and his Celtics teammates put the clamps down on sharpshooter Kevin Durant and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, taking a raucous crowd out of the game en route to a 96-83 victory.

The Truth was back to his old self on the offensive end, dropping 20 points on 7-12 shooting, including draining three from beyond the arc. In one of his most complete performances of the young season, No. 34 finished tied for the team lead with nine boards on the night, and second only to point guard Rajon Rondo in assists with five.

The Celtics trailed 29-21 after the first quarter, but ratcheted up the defensive intensity, allowing the Thunder to score only one field goal over the next 9:44. The Truth stayed on the court with the second unit and led the Cs on a 19-4 run, putting them ahead to stay.

When the final horn sounded, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers felt great about the defensive performance by No. 34 and his teammates:

"The whole key for us is if we can make a team play against our half-court defense, we can do pretty well. But if we don't get back and we gamble for offensive rebounds, they can score because we are breaking our rules. Everything was a setup, they had to walk it up. We want to run, we don't want them to run, and I thought we did a better job of it (tonight)."

NEXT UP
The Celtics return home for a Friday night game against Richard Jefferson and the Milwaukee Bucks.

RELATED STORIES
Celtics’ clamp down for 96-83 win over Thunder (AP, Nov. 5, 2008).
http://www.nba.com/games/20081105/BOSOKC/recap.html
Champion Celtics top OKC (TulsaWorld.com, Nov. 6, 2008)
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=20081106_226_B2_...

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