![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2253215683.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\nIvica Zubac Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Anfernee Simons
Chris Boucher
Xavier Tillman
Josh Minott
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Baylon Scheierman
Sam Hauser<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
Amari Williams<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) out
Head Coach
Joe Mazzulla<\/p>\n
Clippers Reserves
Nicolas Batum
Kobe Brown
Cam Christie
Derrick Jones, Jr
Yanic Konan Niederhauser
Brook Lopez<\/p>\n
Two-Way Players
Jordan Miller
Kobe Sanders
TyTy Washington, Jr
Injuries\/Out
Bradley Beal (hip) out
Bogdan Bogdanovic (hamstring) out
Ivica Zubac (ankle) available
Chris Paul not with team
Head Coach
Tyronn Lue<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Derrick White vs James Harden
Harden is averaging 25.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 7.9 assists while shooting 43.2% from the field and 36.2% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 37 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 1 steal while shooting 40.9% from the field and 45.5% from beyond the arc. He took 15 free throws in that game. He is very dangerous from both inside and on the perimeter and the Celtics need to stay with him on defense without fouling.<\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown vs Kawhi Leonard
Leonard is averaging 28.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 50.2% from the field and 38.5% from beyond the arc. He didn\u2019t play in the first game against the Celtics. He is coming off a game in which he scored 45 points. This should be a good matchup of 2 of the best two way players in the league.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Neemias Queta vs Ivica Zubac
Zubac is averaging 15.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists nd 1.0 blocks. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 1 block while shooting 60% from the field with no 3 pointers. He has missed the last 5 games with a sprained ankle but is expected to return for this game.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – As always, defense is a key to getting a win in this game and in every game. The Clippers have an offensive rating of 115.3 (11th) while the Celtics have an offensive rating of 121.3 (4th). The Celtics are 15th with a defensive rating of 114.2 while the Clippers are 22nd with a defensive rating of 116.6. In Thursday\u2019s game, the Celtics allowed the Kings to shoot 55.6% from the field and 50.3% from beyond the arc in the first half, but held them to 37.5% from the field and 20.3% from beyond the arc in the second half. The Celtics need to play tough lock down defense for the entire game and not just for 1 or 2 quarters.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Rebounding is also a big key to winning. It is very important now because the Celtics have struggled on the boards in their losses this season. The Celtics are 6-8 in games in which they are out-rebounded by their opponents. They simply have to fight harder to grab rebounds than their opponents. Every Celtic must crash the boards and fight for rebounds.<\/p>\n
Energy and Effort for 48 Minutes – The Celtics have to come out with energy and have to play harder than the Clippers from the opening tip until the final buzzer. 100% effort from every Celtic will be needed to get a win in this one. The Clippers have been playing very well and the Celtics can\u2019t expect to win with less than 100% effort for all 4 quarters. They have to be the more aggressive team, getting off to a fast start and playing hard right up to the final buzzer with no let up. They will get the Clippers best effort and so the Celtics simply must work harder with no let up.
Bench Contributions – In the first game against the Clippers, the Celtics got just 16 points from their bench while the Clippers reserves gave them 37 points. Against Sacramento, the Celtics reserves chipped in 46 points. The Clippers have a very good starting lineup and so the game may come down to how well reserves from both teams play.
Don\u2019t Underestimate – For the 5th straight game, the Celtics are facing a team that is under .500. It would be easy for the Celtics to underestimate the Clippers and expect an easy win against an 12 win team. That would be a mistake because the Celtics barely beat them in Boston without Kawhi Leonard. With Kawhi, they are a tough team to beat. The Celtics have to come out strong from the start and play hard right up until the final buzzer. The Clippers are very capable of beating them if they don\u2019t play their best.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
Last Game On the Road – The Celtics are on the road, playing in the Pacific time zone and have the distractions of travel, hotel stays, missing family, and playing in front of a hostile crowd. They have to overcome all those distractions and stay focused on playing as a team and on giving their best effort. The last game of a long road trip is always the toughest and so the Celtics need to stay extra focused and play their hardest if they want to win this one.<\/p>\n
Officiating – I know that I say this every game, but the officiating always can be an x-factor in every game. Every crew calls the game differently whether they call every little ticky tack foul or they let a lot of contact go and let the teams play. Some refs favor the home team and some not so much. The Celtics have got to adjust to the way the game is being called and not let the officiating take away from their focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics (21-12) at Los Angeles Clippers (12-21)Saturday, January 3, 202610:30 PM ETRegular Season Game #34, Road Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,38331,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-514994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-celtics-game-previews","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-laclippers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115834021956607199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514994","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=514994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.celticsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/63\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2254405394.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0.012500000000003,0,99.975,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\n