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<\/a><\/p>\nVictor Wembanyama NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Amare Williams
Jordan Walsh<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
John Tonje<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Nikola Vucevic (finger) out
Payton Pritchard (neck) out<\/p>\n
Spurs Reserves
Bismack Biyombo
Carter Bryant
Dylan Harper
Keldon Johnson
Luke Kornet
Jordan McLaughlin
Kelly Olynyk
Mason Plumlee<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Harrison Ingram
David Jones Garcia
Emanuel Miller<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Harrison Barnes (ankle) out
David Jones Garcia (ankle) out
Lindy Waters III (illness) questionable
Mason Plumlee (reconditioning) available
Head Coach
Mitch Johnson<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Neemias Queta vs Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama is averaging 23.9 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 3.0 blocks and 1.steals per game. He is shooting 50.5% from the field and 35.3% beyond the arc. In the first game against Boston this year, he finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 blocks while shooting 47.1% from the field and 25.3% from beyond the arc. He is a monster on defense and is a threat to score from anywhere on the court. The Celtics can only hope to slow him down.<\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown vs De\u2019Aaron Fox
Fox is averaging 18.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He is shooting 48.6% from the field and 34.1% from beyond the arc. Against the Celtics on January 10, Fox finished with 21 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal while shooting 56.3% from the field and 16.7% from beyond the arc. Fox is one of the fastest players in the league and the Celtics need to keep him from getting out on the break.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Derrick White vs Stephon Castle
Castle is averaging 16.4points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He is shooting 46.8% from the field and 30.1% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 9 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals while shooting 18.8% from the field and 14.3% from beyond the arc. He is coming off a 145-120 win over Houston where he finished with 23 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists while shooting 75% on threes. He can be dangerous if not defended well.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense will always be the most important key to winning games. The Celtics are 5th with a defensive rating of 111.6 while the Spurs are 3rd with a defensive rating of 110.2. The Celtics need to defend the perimeter because the Spurs shoot 37.6 threes per game and they shoot 35.6% as a team. They also need to defend the paint as the Spurs average 51.1 points in the paint per game. The Celtics need to make defense a priority and play tough team defense from start to finish and not let up. This game will be won on the defensive end.<\/p>\n
Rebound – The Celtics can\u2019t score if they don\u2019t have the ball, and they will struggle if they give up second chance points to the Spurs. The Celtics and Spurs are tied for 3rd with both teams averaging 46.4 rebounds per game. The Celtics are going to have to work extra hard on the boards in this game with Wembanyama ready to snag every rebound. When the Celtics put in extra effort on the boards, that effort tends to spread to other areas of the game as well.<\/p>\n
To 3 or Not to 3 – The Celtics are 3rd in the league, attempting 42.4 threes a game. When they fall, the Celtics are tough to beat. But, when they aren\u2019t falling, the Celtics struggle. 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. The Spurs are a good defensive team and will try to chase the Celtics off the 3 point line and they need to be ready for that.<\/p>\n
Move the Ball Carefully – The Celtics play their best when they share the ball. They are 28-2 when they have 25 or more assists in a game and they are 14-0 when they have 29 or more assists. However, the Celtics need to take care of the basketball and limit turnovers. They have to make careful passes and also be aware while dribbling and not drive into a crowd or allow a defender to steal the ball since the Spurs average 17.5 points off turnovers per game.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
On the Road – The Celtics are playing in the 2nd game of a 3 game road trip after having to travel across country and across time zones. They have to sleep in hotels and play in hostile arenas. The Spurs are a very good home team, losing just 6 games at home this season. The Celtics have to overcome all the distractions of playing on the road and stay focused on playing the game the right way.<\/p>\n
Officiating – Officiating is always an X-Factor. Every crew officiates differently and teams need to adjust to the way the game is called. Will they call the game evenly or favor the home team? Will they call it tight or let them play? Hopefully we get fair officiating and they let them play and the Celtics focus on playing and not on the officiating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics (43-21) at San Antonio Spurs (47-17)Tuesday, March 10, 20268:00 PM ETRegular Season Game #65 Road Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,38331,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":["post-651626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio-spurs","tag-basketball","tag-celtics-game-previews","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sanantonio","tag-sanantoniospurs","tag-spurs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116207072245532821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651626","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=651626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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