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<\/a><\/p>\nDonovan Clingan Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Anfernee Simons
Chris Boucher
Xavier Tillman
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Baylon Scheierman
Jordan Walsh<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
Amari Williams
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) out
Josh Minott (ankle) questionable
Neemias Queta (illness) questionable<\/p>\n
Trail Blazers Reserves
Jerami Grant
Rayan Rupert
Robert Williams III
Yang Hansen<\/p>\n
Two Way Players
Sidy Cissoko
Javonte Cooke
Caleb Love<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Scoot Henderson (hamstring) out
Damian Lillard (Achilles) out
Matisse Thybulle (thumb) out
Blake Wesley (foot) out
Duop Reath (foot) out
Robert Williams III (injury management) questionable
Deni Avdija (back) questionable<\/p>\n
Head Coach
Tiago Splitter (Acting Head Coach)<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Jaylen Brown vs Deni Avdija
Avdija is averaging 26 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.9 assists while shooting 47.1% from the field and 35.6% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists 1 block and 2 steals while shooting 50% from the field and 30.3% from beyond the arc. Avdija is questionable for this game and if he can\u2019t play, then Sidy Cissoko should get the start here.<\/p>\n
Payton Pritchard vs Shaedon Sharpe
Sharpe is averaging 21.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He is shooting 45.5% from the field and 33.9% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics this season, he finished with 26 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal while shooting 50% from the field and 62.5% from beyond he arc. The Celtics need to do a better job of defending him in this game.
Honorable Mention
Derrick White vs Jrue Holiday
Jrue Holiday is averaging 15.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He is shooting 45% from the field and 36.1% from beyond the arc. He didn\u2019t play in the Celtics first game against the Trailblazeers in Portland. This is his first visit back to Boston where he won a championship with the Celtics. This should be a good matchup between former backcourt teammates.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – I know I say it every game, but defense is the key to winning every game and will be the key to winning another championship. The Blazers have an offensive rating of 113.5 (21st) while the Celtics have an offensive rating of 121.2 (1st). The Celtics are 12th in the league with a defensive rating of 114.0 while the Blazers are 18th with a defensive rating of 115.1. The Celtics especially need to defend the perimeter as the Blazers are 3rd with 41.7 threes attempted per game. The Celtics allowed the bulls to hit 21 threes on 46.7% shooting. They have to do better at defending the perimeter. The Celtics need to keep making tough defense their priority and identity.
Rebound – As Pat Riley once stated, \u201cNo rebounds, no rings.\u201d The Celtics are 11th with 44.9 rebounds per game while the Trail Blazers are 8th with 45.3 rebounds per game. The Celtics must make an extra effort to grab rebounds in order to give themselves extra possessions as well as to keep the Blazers from scoring second chance points, as the Trail Blazers are 2nd with 17.8 second chance points per game. The Celtics were out-rebounded 48-39 in the first game against the Blazers and they have to do better if they want to win this game.
Three Point Shooting – The Celtics are 2nd in the league, taking 42.7 threes per game. The Blazers are 3rd, taking 41.7 threes per game. The Celtics make 15.8 threes per game while the Blazers make 14.1 threes per game. The Celtics need to focus on taking good shots and they need to move the ball so as to get open shots. Against the Bulls, the Celtics took 47 threes and made 15 while the Bulls took 45 threes and made 21. If the 3s aren\u2019t falling, the Celtics need to get to the basket or take mid-range shots. They also must defend the perimeter because the Blazers can get hot and put up a lot of 3 pointers if left open.<\/p>\n
Be Aggressive – The Celtics have to be the team that works harder and wants the win more. They have to dive for loose balls, go for every rebound and just hustle on every play on both ends of the court. They have to be aggressive in getting to the basket as well and not settle for outside shots, especially if they aren\u2019t falling. Whether it\u2019s the starters or reserves, they need to go all out with maximum effort. And they need to show that effort for all 4 quarters.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
Home and Fatigue – The Celtics are at home after back to back games on the road. They should get a boost from playing at home in front of their home crowd. The Trail Blazers are playing in the 1st game of a 3 game road trip and face the distractions of travel, hotel stays, and playing in front of a hostile crowd. The Blazers have been off since Friday while the Celtics are playing in the 3rd game in 4 nights, including a double overtime game. Fatigue could be a factor down the stretch.<\/p>\n
Officiating – I know that I say this every game, but the officiating really is always 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 call it evenly and sometimes they just make a bunch of head scratching calls. The Celtics have got to adjust to the way the game is being called and not let themselves get frustrated by the officiating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portland Trail Blazers (23-23) at Boston Celtics (28-17)Monday, January 26, 20268:00 PM ETGame #46, Home Game #21TV: PeacockRadio:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,38331,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-562805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-celtics-game-previews","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115963826797336391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562805","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=562805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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