Tip: 10:30 PM Court: Oracle Arena Watch it: CSN Hear it: WEEI
Referees: James Capers, Tony Brown, Haywoode Workman
The Matchup
 |
|
| Record: 22-19 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East) | Record: 18-21 (4th Pacific, 13th West) |
| On the road: 6-11 | At Home: 10-10 |
| Streak: Won 1 | Streak: Won 3 |
| Leaders | Leaders |
| Buckets: Pierce (18.4 ppg) | Buckets: David Lee (19.0 ppg) |
| Boards: Garnett (8.2 rpg) | Boards: David Lee (9.8 rpg) |
| Dimes: Rondo (10.0 apg) | Dimes: Stephen Curry (5.3 apg) |
| For the Stat Geeks: | For the Stat Geeks: |
| Offensive Rating: 100.6 (25th NBA) | Offensive Rating: 105.9 (7th NBA) |
| Defensive Rating: 99.2 (3rd NBA) | Defensive Rating: 107.0 (26th NBA) |
| Pace: 89.8 (24th NBA) | Pace: 92.3 (8th NBA) |
Last time
Celtics swept the season series last year 2-0. Paul Pierce led the C’s with 25.0 points per game while Ray Allen connected on 53.8% of his three-point attempts en route to an average of 22.5 points per game.
This time
Get it to: Rajon Rondo
Monta Ellis is in Milwaukee and Stephen Curry is probably sitting out for a while to let that right ankle of his heal. That means Nate Robinson will probably draw the assignment of guarding Rondo in this one. And with Udoh's departure leaving the Warriors even more short handed, Rondo should do whatever he can to carve up the defense and get the shorthanded Warriors out of position and into foul trouble.
Gotta stop: David Lee
He's a tremendous rebounder that can make the Celtics pay even after they've forced a miss. Lee is a legitimate threat to have a 20 rebound night and make tonight hell for Boston.
The Wild Card: Ray Allen's ankle
The Warriors are in disarray right now. After hearing about the Ellis trade, one of them yelled "so we're giving up on the season now?" That's not the sign of a team that's going to want to come out hard, fight through screens, and chase Ray Allen all over the court. If Ray's ankle is good to go, then he'll find himself WIDE open as Golden State's already not-so-great defense gets worse.
How we see it goin' down
The Warriors are a mess. One primary scorer is apartment shopping in Wisconsin, the other is trying to duct tape his ankle together, and the rest of the guys are generally pissed off at how this whole thing went down.
The Celtics have had a day to rest and prepare. This has a lot of the ingredients for Golden State that led to the post-trade demolition the Celtics suffered last season. I thought this was going to be a win with the Warriors at full strength… now I think the starters will sit the fourth quarter.
Celtics 101 – Warriors 83
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
