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Boston Celtics (7-5) at Portland Trailblazers (9-3)
Sunday November 11, 2018
9:00 PM EST
Regular Season Game #13, Road Game #9
TV: NBCSB, NBCSNW
Radio: 100.7 WZLX, Rip City 620 AM
Moda CenterProbable Starting Matchups
Point Guard vs
Kyrie Irving vs Damian Lillard
Shooting Guard vs
Jayson Tatum vs CJ McCollum
Small Forward vs
Gordon Hayward vs Jake Layman
Power Forward vs
Jason Tatum vs Al-Farouq Aminu
Center vs
Al Horford vs Jusef Nurkic
Celtics ReservesTerry Rozier
Marcus Morris
Marcus Smart
Aron Baynes
Semi Ojeleye
Guerschon Yabusele
Brad Wanamaker
Robert Williams
InjuriesJabari Bird
Daniel Theis
Two Way PlayersWalt Lemon, Jr.
P. J. Dozier
Head CoachBrad Stevens
Trailblazers ReservesWade Baldwin
Zach Collins
Meyers Leonard
Caleb Swanigan
Evan Turner
Nik Stauskas
Seth Curry
Gary Trent, Jr.
Anfernee Simons
Injuries Maurice Harkless
Head Coach Terry Stotts
Game Notes The Celtics finish up their first extended road trip of the year with a game in Portland against a hot Blazers team that have won 6 of their last 7 games and sit in second place in the Western Conference. Boston comes off a disappointing showing in Utah where they gave up a season high 123 points in a 123-115 loss, their 3rd loss in their last 4 games. The Celtics will get a red hot Kyrie Irving back as he missed the last game attending a memorial service for his recently passed grandfather.
This will be the last game of a 6 game homestand for Portland where their only blemish was a close loss to the Lakers. The Trailblazers are one of the best teams in the league during this young season, averaging 117.2 points per game. They have the 2nd highest point differential in the league at +10.0 and are second in the league in rebounds per game with 51.9 per and rebounding percentage. The Portland's offense is iso heavy as they have the lowest assist percentage in the NBA good for the 2nd lowest amount of assists per game. Portland has a very good defense with a 105.0 rating good for 7th best in the league.
The Blazers are led by their dynamic PG, Damian Lillard who is having an MVP caliber season thus far. He is putting up an impressive 26.6 points, 5.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game with 46/38/94 shooting splits. Lillard's dynamic duo backcourt partner, C. J. McCollum is having another stellar season with per game numbers of 21/2.6/4.3. Together they make up one of the best backcourts in the league. Portland will be a challenge inside as once again Boston's small ball starters will have to attempt to stop yet another big man in the paint, Jusuf Nurkic. The 24 year old Nurkic is having his best season of his career with 15.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.
For the Celtics to win this game they are going to have to bring 48 minutes of guts and effort, something they haven't done all year. This also might be a good time for Stevens to either start or play Around Baynes heavy minutes. We can see from the Denver and Utah games that Horford can just not guard big, long and strong centers inside. If the opposition decides to pick and roll with the big man and have him run to the rim, Boston will get killed in the paint. The Celtics backcourt will have to once again try to keep an opposing guard from going off and killing them. Portland is an iso heavy team so tight man to man and driving those guards into double teams should be the order of the day.
Hopefully the Celtics aren't looking forward to getting on the plane to head home after playing five games in nine nights traveling thousands of miles across the Western part of the country. It will be up to Stevens to motivate this team and make sure the concentrate more on the game than getting home to sleep in their own beds.