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Celtics Reserves
Anfernee Simons
Hugo Gonzalez
Xavier Tillman
Josh Minott
Sam Hauser
Luka Garza
Baylon Scheierman
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
Amari Williams
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) out
Chris Boucher (personal) out<\/p>\n
Kings Reserves
Devin Carter
Nique Clifford
Keon Ellis
Drew Eubanks
Doug McDermott
Malik Monk
Dario Saric
Dennis Schroder<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Dylan Cardwell
Daeqwon Plowden
Isaiah Stevens
Injuries\/Out
Zach LaVine (ankle) doubtful
Domantas Sabonis (knee) out
Head Coach
Doug Christie<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Payton Pritchard vs DeMar DeRozan
DeRozan is averaging 18.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 50.1% from the field and 36.0% from beyond the arc. Over his career against the Celtics, he has averaged 21.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists. DeRozan especially needs to be defended for mid-range shots where he excels.<\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown vs Keegan Murray
Murray is averaging 14.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.1% from the field and 26.3% from beyond the arc. Over his career, he has averaged 12.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Derrick White vs Russell Westbrook
Westbrook is averaging 14.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 42.7% from the field and 36.0% from beyond the arc. Over his career, he has averaged 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He is still a threat for a triple double every game and is a very good rebounding guard.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense is always the key to winning every game. The Kings have a defensive rating of 119.5 (28th). The Celtics defensive rating is 114.3, 15th in the league. The Celtics need to defend the paint as the Kings average 49 points in the paint per game. The Kings average 30.5 three pointers attempted per game, which is 29th in the league and they are last with 10.6 3 pointers made per game. The Celtics need to make defense a priority and commit to playing tough lock down defense for 48 minutes, regardless of the opponent\u2019s statistics.<\/p>\n
Rebound – The Celtics have to put out extra effort to grab the rebounds on both ends of the court. By doing so, they limit the second chance points and fast breaks for the Kings and also give themselves extra possessions. The Celtics are averaging 43.9 rebounds per game to 41.0 rebounds per game for the Kings. The Kings average 14.0 second chance points per game and extra effort from the Celtics can limit those. The Kings are missing their best rebounder (Sabonis) but that doesn\u2019t mean the Celtics can relax on the boards.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Underestimate – For the 4rd straight game, the Celtics are facing a team that is under .500. It would be easy for the Celtics to underestimate the Kings and expect an easy win against an 8 win team. That would be a mistake because this Kings team has beaten Denver, Minnesota, Miami and Houston so they aren\u2019t an easy team to beat if you don\u2019t bring the effort. The Celtics have to come out strong from the start and play hard right up until the final buzzer. The Kings are very capable of beating them if they don\u2019t play their best.<\/p>\n
To 3 or Not to 3 – The Celtics are 3rd in the league, attempting 42.9 threes a game. When they fall, the Celtics are tough to beat. But, when they aren\u2019t falling, the Celtics struggle. Against the Jazz, the Celtics shot just 29.5% on threes but drove more and shot midrange shots in the 4th. If the Celtics aren\u2019t hitting their 3s, they have to go to Plan B and take the ball to the basket or shoot from midrange. If the 3s are falling, great!! If not, go to Plan B.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
Fatigue on the Road – This is the 4th game of a 5 game road trip. The Celtics have had to travel across the country and across 3 time zones. Fatigue could come into play for them. Also they need to ignore the distractions of travel, an unfamiliar arena and a hostile crowd and concentrate on playing together, playing hard, and playing the right way.<\/p>\n
Officiating – Officiating can always be an x-factor. Every crew will call the game differently. Some will call every little thing and the game will have no flow. Others will let a lot go and let them play. Some crews favor the home team while others call it evenly or have a personal agenda. The Celtics need to adjust to how the game is called and not let the officials mess with their focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics (20-12) at Sacramento Kings (8-25)Thursday, January 1, 202610:00 PM ETRegular Season Game #33, Road Game #18TV:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,38331,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-510771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-celtics-game-previews","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115822654145721490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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