Maine Celtics Blow Out Oklahoma City To Take Game 1 Of Finals

PORTLAND, ME – JD Davison, Drew Peterson, and Neemias Queta all recorded 20-point double-doubles as the Maine Celtics cruised to a 106-86 victory in Game 1 of the NBA G League Finals presented by YouTube TV.  

Davison finished with 23 points, four rebounds and 12 assists to lead Maine. Queta had 20 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks while Drew Peterson tallied 20 and 11 boards, along with five assists and three steals. Jordan Walsh added 15 points, six rebounds, two blocks and three steals.  

Jaden Schakelford paced Oklahoma City with 21 points and four assists. Ousmane Dieng logged 15 points and four assists and Olivier Sarr turned in nine points and 12 rebounds.  

Shackelford opened the scoring with a drifting corner three, and Peterson spun into a mid-paint floater to get Maine on the board the next trip down the floor. Maine forced a couple of early turnovers to get themselves off and running and maintained that pace, holding the Blue to below 30% shooting along with pushing it up the court off makes. Keyontae Johnson took a hard fall contesting a shot about halfway through the first – he would not return to the game. With the Celtics up 25-14 late in the quarter on the back of 13 points and three steals from Peterson, Maine went on an 8-0 run from there to end the opening frame with a 33-14 advantage.  

Oklahoma City began the second on a 12-3 run to pull within 11, 36-25, but Maine had worked the lead back to 15 points by the first timeout break of the quarter. Peterson was getting to his spots in the halfcourt at will and scored efficiently to buoy the Celtics offense in the first half, tallying 17 points on 7-11 shooting along with three steals that kickstarted transition opportunities. Shackelford did the same for the Blue offense, notching 11 points across the first two quarters, but a strong close to the half handed Maine a 59-42 lead at the intermission.  

Maine carried its impressive showing into the second half, coming out of the locker room with an 11-5 run that sent the Portland Expo crowd into “the wave” and extending the lead to 23 by the seven-minute mark. The Celtics held serve with the lead north of 20 points for nearly the entire quarter with Davison and Queta leaving the marks on both ends of the floor. Oklahoma City scored eight unanswered late in the third but a three from Slater in the closing seconds pushed Maine’s lead back to 23 points, 84-61, after three. 

A trio of buckets inside from Queta kept the Celtics rolling as the fourth got underway, and Maine never looked back. Oklahoma City couldn’t trim the deficit to anything lower than 20 points until the halfway mark of the quarter and after a 14-2 run from the Blue, an emphatic windmill dunk in the open court from Walsh all but sealed the deal. Maine closed out the game and allowed head coach Blaine Mueller to empty the benches down the stretch, securing the Celtics’ first-ever win in the G League Finals.  

The Celtics and Blue will head down to Oklahoma City for Game 2 and return to the Portland Expo for Game 3 if necessary. Tipoff is slated for 9:00 PM EST on ESPNews.