Next Up - Warriors @ Celtics, Saturday January 26, 2019 at 8:30 PM

The biggest game of the year for the Boston Celtics happens tomorrow night in the TD Gardens at 8:30 PM.  The game is a nationally televised game to be broadcast on ABC.

The GSW have turned into a moving target.  As many top NBA teams have morphed into pace and space basketball dominated by 3 point shooting, the Warriors can now beat you in the post.  Cousins is a real nice fit for a team that has won 3 out of the last 4 championships without a dominant center.

Once again the Warriors have ascended to the top spot in the Western Conference and have put together a 9 game winning streak in the process.  
Boston has taken advantage of some home cooking winning 5 in a row, 4 of which were at home.

In many respects this game is coming at the right time.  The Celtics have settled into a rotation that seems to be working well.  Guys like Jaylen Brown who could not buy a basket earlier in the season  has shot the ball extremely well over the past 12 games.  Marcus Smart continues his assault on our senses and Tatum and Morris continue to shoot the ball well.  The Celtics firepower is not in question.

Keys to winning this game include playing great perimeter defense and that includes not over reacting to every up fake and miss-direction play.  The new challenge will be defending Cousins.  He will play on the perimeter and can play bully ball in the post.  It is a tough assignment for Horford and Baynes.  I think Theis may play a role in our small ball lineup.  

Cousins is not in basketball shape yet so Boston may be able to push the ball but our centers need to get up and down.  

The one player that no one can match up with effectively is Kevin Durant.  He's too quick for Morris and too long for Tatum or anyone else for that matter.
 
This is going to be a tough game.  I expect the Celtics to bring their A game to the fight.

Al Horford has had a few extra days to rest his knee and hopefully Kyrie has been taking in enough fluids to be ready to go.

All good points. If I'm a gambling man, I'd have to put my money on GSW at this point. But I'm a Celtics fan, so we will win by 35! Someone's winning streak is coming to an end Saturday.

I'd like to see an All-World performance from Al. It's going to take all-world performances from everyone to win this one. Kyrie and Smart get a pass. For everyone else...All hands on deck!

db

I think this is the beginning of finding out where we will be in the pecking order. If the Celtics don't take VERY good care of their home games the rest of season it will be next to impossible to make up in ground on the teams ahead of us. We still have a lot of good teams coming to town. We also seem to have letdowns against teams we should take care of.

Of course road games are important also. We have some tough games on the road as well but we should take care of the ones that come into our house. I think we are going to get a idea on this GS game how good we are. GS is a whole different animal that were just toying with the Wizards last night. Kyrie would have a tough time starting on that team. We are going to have to take good shots and not try to get in a shootout with them. That is just dying a slow death We can do it if we play smart, share, move the ball, rebound, and play super defense.

Maybe I missed something, but Jaylen matched Durant in points in both games last year and had the primary coverage on Durant. Jaylen is the top young wing defender in the league, he matches up very well with Durant. Look forward seeing the match up again, the game within the game. I also think Tatum’s defense has improved as of late and he will also do a good job hounding Durant.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Maybe I missed something, but Jaylen matched Durant in points in both games last year and had the primary coverage on Durant. Jaylen is the top young wing defender in the league, he matches up very well with Durant. Look forward seeing the match up again, the game within the game. I also think Tatum’s defense has improved as of late and he will also do a good job hounding Durant.

Cow you are absolutely correct. Brown matched Durant very well last year. But this year Brown is basically seeing a big reduction in minutes because GH is back.

I have no idea how Brad will use him in this game. They are both playing rotation roles. So I guess Tatum gets first crack. Smart on Klay, Irving on Steph. Morris on Green and AH on ???

This will be war.

dboss wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Maybe I missed something, but Jaylen matched Durant in points in both games last year and had the primary coverage on Durant. Jaylen is the top young wing defender in the league, he matches up very well with Durant. Look forward seeing the match up again, the game within the game. I also think Tatum’s defense has improved as of late and he will also do a good job hounding Durant.

Cow you are absolutely correct.  Brown matched Durant very well last year.  But this year Brown is basically seeing a big reduction in minutes because GH is back.  

I have no idea how Brad will use him in this game.  They are both playing rotation roles.  So I guess Tatum gets first crack.  Smart on Klay, Irving on Steph.  Morris on Green and AH on ???

This will be war.  

Right I said in another thread a week or so ago the biggest problem with the team early this season was Brad going out of his way to create a role for GH when GH wasn’t sure what his game was and didn’t have effectiveness or consistency....threw off whole team. Guys are starting to settle into roles, we are finding our identity, seeing more purpose, both teams are playing well, wish we were getting more out of Timelord.

Whoever is hotter from 3 is gonna win or whoever can defend the 3 better will win.....

Yeah 3 point shooting will be a factor as will defending the 3.

It should be a fun game to watch. I sure hope our bigs play well.

I'm worried about Steph and Boogie scoring in the paint.

Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
56 minutes ago
Kevin Durant was asked if the Celtics are different than other teams they’ve faced so far: “We faced similar kind of rosters, but as far as skill level, I don’t think we’ve faced anybody as skilled as this team."

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Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 35 minutes ago
Steve Kerr, noted Horford stan: "He’s a perfect modern-day center. He can protect the rim, run DHOs & step out to the 3 point line & can put the ball on the floor, he’s a really good passer. So that means you have to guard the entire floor & there’s nobody to cheat off of." [1/2]



bob



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In the last 105 regular season games Steph Curry has played, Golden State has only been held under 90 points twice.

Both by Boston

beat wrote:In the last 105 regular season games Steph Curry has played, Golden State has only been held under 90 points twice.

Both by Boston

DEFENSE!!! DEFENSE!!! DEFENSE!!! DEFENSE!!!