BOSTON — His teammates had either already left the Celtics locker room or were preparing to depart the scene on Sunday night.
Kemba Walker, however, was still wearing part of his uniform and seated at his locker with a towel over his head.
The latest Celtics' loss — their fourth in five games — had ended over a half-hour earlier and Walker was still reliving a miserable finish against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Celtics were in possession of [...]
BOSTON — His teammates had either already left the Celtics locker room or were preparing to depart the scene on Sunday night.
Kemba Walker, however, was still wearing part of his uniform and seated at his locker with a towel over his head.
The latest Celtics' loss — their fourth in five games — had ended over a half-hour earlier and Walker was still reliving a miserable finish against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Celtics were in possession of a one-point lead in the closing seconds when Walker had the ball taken away from him by Dennis Schroder, who converted a game-winning layup with 8.5 seconds to go.
When Jayson Tatum missed a shot over Chris Paul at the other end in the final seconds, the Thunder escaped the TD Garden with a 105-104 victory over the Celtics, who have lost four straight home games for the first time since the middle of the 2014-15 season.
“It's frustrating,'' said Walker. “I just have to be better and just find a way to hold onto the basketball.''
The Celtics (42-21), who kicked away an 18-point second-quarter lead, and the Thunder went through a fourth quarter that included 11 lead changes and six ties.
Trailing by three with 1:11 remaining, the Celtics went up, 104-103, when Daniel Theis scored on a layup and Tatum followed with a layup with 40.8 seconds to go. After two Steven Adams misses at the foul line, then a miss by Paul following an offensive rebound, the Celtics had the ball out of bounds in the backcourt.
But Walker was in the process of being trapped and tried to elude Paul, only to have Schroder race up and take the ball away from him, then head to the basket for the winning layup.
“I tried to get out of the double and I turned around and another guy came and he made a great play on the ball and I lost it,'' said Walker.
Said coach Brad Stevens: “Kemba did the exact right thing. He tried to dribble away from the obvious trap that was coming. Chris Paul did an amazing job of moving his feet without fouling. Schroder went for him full head of steam and by the time Kemba had realized that, Schroder was there. Great defensive play by them.''
Tatum was guarded by Paul on the final possession, but his shot hit the rim, and the Celtics' fourth loss in five games since a 3-1 road trip was official.
“It's a shot I can make next time,'' said Tatum. “He's a good defender, but I got the shot I wanted. I missed it. Tough night. It felt good.''
Said Paul: “I love defense, I love that challenge. If he was going to win it, it was going to be on me.''
Gordon Hayward, returning from a two-game absence due to a knee contusion, led the Celtics with 24 points with four 3-pointers. But Tatum (19 points, 8-for-22), Marcus Smart (19 points, 7-for-17) and Walker (14 points, 4-for-14) struggled with their shots.
The Celtics built a 63-45 lead with just over a minute to go in the half and looked like they were back on track. But the Thunder finished the second quarter by scoring seven points in 51.8 seconds and were within 63-52 at the break.
“We loosened up defensively,'' said Hayward. “We let our guard down a little bit and they put a run on us. That was huge.''
Paul (28) and Schroder (27) combined for 23 points in the third quarter when the Celtics were outscored, 31-21, with Schroder hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to get the Thunder to within 84-83.
That was followed by a back and forth final quarter when neither team led by more than four points. The Celtics were unable to grab the win, though, and are now in a funk for the second time this season.
“We've just got to stay together,'' said Walker. “There's definitely been some very tough losses, but we've got to try our best to hold our heads high. Stuff like this happens. Losses come.
“You can learn from them. You can choose to get better or go the other way. We're going to get better. We're going to continue to stay together.''
The Celtics now hit the road to play the Indiana Pacers and the Milwaukee Bucks for two difficult tests.
“This is part of navigating your way through this stuff,'' said Stevens. “You can feel like you're on top of the world one week and you can feel like the sky's falling the next. That's the hardest part of the NBA. That's how it goes.
“It's also fun to look back on when you kind of overcome it.''
jfenton@enterprisenews.com
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