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New York Knicks (8-17) at Boston Celtics (13-10)
Thursday, December 6, 2018
8:00 PM EST
Regular Season Game #24, Home Game #10
TV: TNT, NBCSB, MSG
Radio: 98.5 Sports Hub, ESPN NY 98.7
TD GardenProbable Starters PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris
C: Al Horford
Celtics ReservesSemi Ojeleye
Daniel Theis
Guerschon Yabusele
Terry Rozier
Gordon Hayward
Jaylen Brown
Aron Baynes
Brad Wanamaker
Robert Williams
InjuriesJabari Bird
Two Way PlayersP. J. Dozier
Head CoachBrad Stevens
Probable Starters PG: Emmanuel Mudiay
SG: Tim Hardaway, Jr.
SF: Mario Hezonja
PF: Noah Vonleh
C: Enes Kanter
Knicks Reserves Ron Baker
Damyean Dotson
Frank Ntilikina
Kevin Knox
Luke Kornet
Mitchell Robinson
Courtney Lee
Two Way Players Isaiah Hicks
Allonzo Trier
Injuries Lance Thomas
Kristaps Porzingas
Trey Burke
Head CoachDave Fizdale
Game Notes The Boston Celtics look to expand on their recent winning ways and extend their current 3 game winning streak to four games with a revenge win against the New York Knicks, the last team to beat the Celtics in the TD Garden, 117-109. After that game, Brad Stevens said there were "50,000 things wrong with this club". Boston has gone on to win 4 of 5 games after that loss and has played a consistent 48 minutes of basketball, brought back their excellent defense, but most importantly have been playing great offense straight from the start of each game. Since that game the Celtics are putting up 117.4 PPG while shooting 49/42/90 and giving up just 104 PPG. The addition of The Marcus's into the starting lineup has bolstered the team's starts to game while Gordon Hayward appears to quickly be making himself back into the player he was before the injury with numbers of 30 points, 9rebounds and 8 assists last game.
New York comes into the game playing decent ball with a 4-3 mark over their last seven games with wins against Boston, New Orleans, Memphis and Milwaukee and well played games in losses to Washington and Detroit. But for the Knicks to win again they are going to have to shoot the nearly .500 from the field and .500 they shot from their last game against the Celtics. The Knicks will absolutely need to have another insane scoring and shooting night from someone like Trey Burke did last game. The Knicks have both a bottom 10 offense, shoot with great inefficient and have bottom ten defense, a defense that gives up a lot of points in the paint and a lot of points off offensive rebounds. They do very little above mediocre in the league.
The Knicks are led offensively by Tim Hardaway, Jr. with at 22.1 points a game. Unfortunately, Hardaway brings little else to the Knicks on a positive note so limiting his offense will neatralize Hardaway completely. Old Boston nemesis, Enes Kanter, who always seemed to have a good game against Boston(13.5 PPG, 9 RPG, 60% TS%in 17games% will need to be kept out of the paint and away from the offensive boards. Trey Burks, who put up 29 the last time these teams played is out for the game so for the Knicks to pull this out they will need the Celtics to struggle put up points from the get go and have another player like one
or two of their young talented players like Knox, Ntilinkina, Trier, Dotson or Robinson, who have all showed promise at times this year.
For Boston, the keys should start with coming out with an attitude and fire as the Knicks loss at home the last time they played was embarrassing and quite likely their low point of the year. The Celtics have a new starting line that is playing very well offensively, especially coming out of the blocks, Hayward and Rozier have both played better off the bench, and after missing three games, Rozier and Hayward will be joined by Jaylen Brown who missed the last 3 games after seemingly turning around his season the last four games he played before hurting his tailbone. The Celtics have been hot with Hayward putting up 30/9/8 numbers his last game, Tatum going for 18.3/6/1.5 with 1.8 steals and 50/40/100 shooting splits over his last 4 games. And of course if any team wants to beat the Celtics they have to shut down All-Star Kyrie Irving who overcame a slow start but over the 19 games has 23.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 6.4 APG, 1.9 SPG with a shooting line of 50.1/41.4/81.4. KI is back!!
Here's hoping for a blowout to show this team that last game against us was a fluke.