How we see it goin’ down: Celtics vs Nets

Tip: 7:30 PM    Court: TD Garden    Watch it: CSNNE     Hear it: WEEI

                           Referees:  Ed Malloy, Kevin Scott and Sean Wright

 Get your tickets here

The Matchup

Record: 17-17 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East)	Record: 11-25 (5th Atlantic, 13th East)
At home: 12-8	On road: 5-9
Streak: Won 2	Streak: Won 1
Leaders	Leaders
Buckets: Pierce (17.2 ppg)	Buckets: Deron Williams (21.9 ppg)
Boards: Garnett (8.0 rpg)	Boards: Kris Humphries (10.7 rpg)
Dimes: Rondo (9.6 apg)	Dimes: Williams (8.3 apg)
For the Stat Geeks:	For the Stat Geeks:
Offensive Rating: 100.2 (25th NBA)	Offensive Rating: 103.7 (14th NBA)
Defensive Rating: 99.0 (4th NBA)	Defensive Rating: 111.1 (30th NBA)
Pace: 89.2 (27th NBA)	Pace: 88.9 (29th NBA)

Last time

Dubbed the ugliest blowout you'll ever see, the Celtics beat NJ 89-70 on Jan. 4. The Nets were without Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries.

This time

Get it to: Ray Allen

Rookie MarShon Brooks has slid into the starting line-up, but not for his defense. I'd love to see the Celtics seek out Ray in this game. The Nets use Anthony Morrow as their back-up two guard. He's an even worse defender than Brooks. There's really no need to single out Brooks and Morrow because the Nets might be the worst defensive team in the league.

Gotta stop: Gerald Green

I'm kidding… The obvious "stop" is Deron Williams. Rajon Rondo can earn some brownie points with his bigs by manning up on D-Will. If not, Williams penetration could lead to a slew of easy buckets for Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries.

The Wild Card: Brook Lopez

A foot injury sidelined the Nets center for all but 3 games of the season. After two slow games, he erupted for 38 points on Tuesday vs the Mavericks. Kevin Garnett's playing at high level. I'm excited to see these two go at it.

How we see it goin' down

The Nets are awful. They don't defend, they can't shoot and they're just as bad as the Celtics with turnovers and rebounding. What do they have going for them? 8 of their 11 wins have come on the road. I'm expecting some type of galvanized Celtics team effort tonight. A "screw the media and the trade rumors" type peformance by all the big guns.

Prediction: BOS 92 – NJ 80