How we see it goin' down: Celtics at Kings

Tip: 10:00 PM Court: Power Balance Pavilion Watch it: CSN Hear it: WEEI

Referees: Tony Brothers, Matt Boland and Scott Twardoski

The Matchup


Record: 23-19 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East)	Record: 14-29 (5th Pacific, 14th West)
On the road: 7-11	At Home: 10-9
Streak: Won 2	Streak: Lost 3
Leaders	Leaders
Buckets: Pierce (18.3 ppg)	Buckets: Marcus Thornton (18.0 ppg)
Boards: Garnett (8.2 rpg)	Boards: DeMarcus Cousins (11.2 rpg)
Dimes: Rondo (10.1 apg)	Dimes: Tyreke Evans (4.9 apg)
For the Stat Geeks:	For the Stat Geeks:
Offensive Rating: 100.9 (26th NBA)	Offensive Rating: 102.0 (24th NBA)
Defensive Rating: 99.5 (3rd NBA)	Defensive Rating: 109.7 (29th NBA)
Pace: 89.8 (23rd NBA)	Pace: 93.7 (3rd NBA)

Last time

The Celtics have won 8 consecutive games against the Kings. The average margin of victory is 17 points.

This time

Get it to: Paul Pierce

Tyreke Evans – the Kings starting small forward – might be hobbled (day-to-day/ankle sprain). His back-up is John Salmons. I like Pierce’s chances against either one. I’d love to see the offense go through Paul right from the start.

Gotta stop: Jason Thompson

DeMarcus Cousins is going to get a lot of attention, but Thompson is the guy who scares me. He dropped 21 points and 15 rebounds (5 offensive) on the Pistons Wednesday night. The Celtics can’t sleep on him.

The Wild Card: The pace

Sacramento is a horrible defensive team that loves to push the tempo. If the Celtics try to run too much, we might see a turnover fest. I’d rather see the Celtics play a methodical half-court game where they can break down the Kings with efficient ball movement.