How we see it goin' down: Celtics at Dallas

Tip: 8 PM Court: American Airlines Arena Watch it: TNT Hear it: WEEI

Referees: Ed Malloy, Rodney Mott and Scott Wall

The Matchup


Record: 15-15 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East)	Record: 20-12 (2nd Southwest, 4th West)
On road: 4-7	At home: 12-5
Streak: Lost 3	Streak: Lost 1
Leaders	Leaders
Buckets: Pierce (17.3 ppg)	Buckets: Dirk Nowitzki (19.1 ppg)
Boards: Garnett (7.8 rpg)	Boards: Brendan Haywood (6.7 rpg)
Dimes: Rondo (9.5 apg)	Dimes: Jason Kidd (5.4 apg)
For the Stat Geeks:	For the Stat Geeks:
Offensive Rating: 100.7 (24th NBA)	Offensive Rating: 102.1 (19th NBA)
Defensive Rating: 98.4 (3rd NBA)	Defensive Rating: 98.5 (4th NBA)
Pace: 88.6 (28th NBA)	Pace: 91.8 (15th NBA)

Last time

The Mavericks beat the Celtics 90-85 on Jan. 11 in Boston. You may remember Dirk Nowitzki's drive and lay-up sealed the game for Dallas.

This time

Get it to: Paul Pierce

I know he's been playing like crap, but the Truth has has averaged 27.2 points on 51.4 percent shooting in his last six visits to Dallas. Let's hope history repeats itself. It's our only hope.

Gotta stop: Dirk Nowitzki

Without Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass, the Celtics have NO ONE to guard Dirk. I shutter to think what Nowitzki will do to Chris Wilcox on the perimeter or JaJuan Johnson in the post.

The Wild Card: The Celtics kids

Doc Rivers might as well unleash the hounds – Avery Bradley, E'Twaun Moore, Greg Stiemsma and JaJuan Johnson. Let's the kids and their energetic optimism run wild.