When: January 4, 2016; 7:30 PM EST
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES Network
Radio: CBS 880 AM
While the Nets’ win over the Celtics in Boston on Sunday afternoon was an important one for a scuffling team that had lost three of its previous four games, it was a victory that came at a steep cost. After crumpling to the ground on a fastbreak in the third quarter, Brooklyn starting point guard Jarrett Jack had to leave the game and was diagnosed yesterday with a torn ACL (and another small tear in his knee), an injury that will cause him to miss the rest of the season.
It was an ugly, non-contact injury that immediately looked serious and led to what Jack called the “worst pain” he had ever felt in his life. Now, the Nets are without their starting point guard for the rest of the season as Shane Larkin and Donald Sloan will have to fill in.
Tonight, Brooklyn finishes its season series with the Celtics in a strange second home-and-home between the two teams. Monday’s half of it is at Barclays Center as the Nets try to take threes games from the team that holds their draft pick this June. Larkin will step into the starting lineup for the Nets, who will have to piece together a backcourt rotation that has been hit hard by injuries lately.
Probable lineups
BOS- Isaiah Thomas (PG), Evan Turner (SG), Jae Crowder (SF), Amir Johnson (PF), Kelly Olynyk (C)
BKN- Shane Larkin (PG), Bojan Bogdanovic (SG), Joe Johnson (SF), Thaddeus Young (PF), Brook Lopez (C)
Final thoughts
It’s never easy to sweep a home-and-home series with a team, especially not a good division rival like the Celtics. That’s complicated by the fact that the Nets are now without Jack for the remainder of the year and will have to use two backups to combine for 48 minutes or so of good point guard play. So, the Nets will have to play a very strong game tonight in order to notch their second consecutive win.
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