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<\/a><\/p>\nRudy Gobert Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Payton Pritchard
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Amare Williams
Jordan Walsh
Baylor Scheierman
Max Shulga
Charles Bassey (10-Day)
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Injuries\/Out
Nikola Vucevic (finger) out
John Tonje (G-League) out
Head Coach
Joe Mazzulla<\/p>\n
Timberwolves Reserves
Kyle Anderson
Joan Beringer
Jaylen Clark
Mike Conley
Bones Hyland
Joe Ingles
Julian Phillips
Terrance Shannon, Jr
Two-Way Players
Enrique Freeman
Zyon Pullin
Rocco Zikarsky<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Anthony Edwards (knee) out
Naz Reid (ankle) questionable<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Jayson Tatum vs Julius Randle
Randle is averaging 21.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He is shooting 48.4% from the field and 31.4% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics, Randle finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists while shooting 46.2% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc. The Celtics have to guard Randle both in the paint and on the perimeter as he is very good from both.<\/p>\n
Sam Hauser vs Jaden McDaniels
McDaniels is averaging 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 block per game. He is shooting 51.8% from the field and 41.6% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 1 steal while shooting 37.5% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. He is shooting very well, especially from the perimeter and so the Celtics will need to defend him well.
Honorable Mention
Neemias Queta vs Rudy Gobert
Gobert is averaging 11.0 points, 11.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 blocks. He is shooting 69.8% from the field and 0% on 3 pointers. In the first game against the Celtics, he finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists while shooting 83.3% from the field with no 3\u2019s. Hopefully the Celtics can pull Gobert away from the basket as he is a very good rebounder and rim protector.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense Defense Defense!! Defense is the key to winning every game. The Timberwolves have an offensive rating of 116.2 (11th) while the Celtics have an offensive rating of 119.7 (2nd). The Celtics are 4th with a defensive rating of 111.7 while the Wolves have a defensive rating of 112.7 (9th). When the Celtics are focused and put their minds to it, they are very tough to score on (see the 4th quarter of the last game against the Grizzlies) but at times, they lose focus and allow the opposing team to score way too much (see the 1st 3 quarters in their game against the Grizzlies). The Celtics have got to stay focused and play tough team defense for all 4 quarters if they hope to get a win in this game.<\/p>\n
Rebound – The Celtics are averaging 46.4 rebounds per game (4th) to 44.4 rebounds per game for the Timberwolves (11th). The Celtics will need to crash the boards to keep the Wolves from getting extra possessions and second chance points. The Celtics are 36-9 when they out-rebound their opponents and just 9-13 when they are out-rebounded. Much of rebounding is effort and the Celtics have got to work harder on the boards than the Wolves.<\/p>\n
Effort and Energy – Against several teams this season, the Celtics have lacked energy (see first 3 quarters of their last game). They have allowed teams they should have blown out to either beat them or make it a close game. Along with putting out more effort and energy, the Celtics must put that effort into playing team ball. They escaped with a win over the Grizzlies, but if they don\u2019t play harder in this one they may not be as lucky.<\/p>\n
Move the Ball – The Celtics are tough to beat when they keep the ball moving and find the open man but when one player over dribbles and lapses into hero ball, they falter. The Celtics are 28-0 when they have more assists than their opponent but just 17-21 when they have fewer assists than their opponent. Keep the ball moving and don\u2019t lapse into hero ball, whether in the first quarter or the 4th quarter. They have to make careful passes, however, because the Wolves average 18.4 points off turnovers per game.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
It\u2019s Home Court Advantage for a Reason – There is a reason why they call it home court advantage. The Celtics have the crowd behind them and if they give a good effort, the fans will cheer them on and help to motivate them. The Wolves had to travel, stay in a hotel, play in front of a hostile crowd and on an unfamiliar court. The Celtics need to come out with effort and protect their home court.<\/p>\n
Officiating – Officiating always has the potential to be an x-factor. Each officiating crew calls the game differently. Some refs call it tight and constantly call fouls while others let them play with few fouls called. The Celtics need to adjust to how the refs are calling the game and not allow bad calls or no calls to take away their focus on playing the game. The Celtics can\u2019t let the officiating get into their heads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Timberwolves (43-28) at Boston Celtics (47-23)Sunday, March 22, 20268:00 PM ETRegular Season Game #71, Home Game #35TV:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,38331,307,152,3954,6,308],"class_list":["post-673591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-basketball","tag-celtics-game-previews","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-minnesotatimberwolves","tag-nba","tag-timberwolves"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116275801212703279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673591","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=673591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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