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Boston Celtics (2-1) at Cleveland Cavaliers (1-2)
Round 2, Game 4
Monday, May 12
8:00 PM ET
TV: TNT
Quicken Loans Arena Probable Starting Lineup Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins
Off the Bench James Posey, Leon Powe, Sam Cassell, PJ Brown, Big Baby Davis, Tony Allen, Eddie House
Inactive: Brian Scalabrine, Gabe Pruitt
Injury ReportScott Pollard, ankle, out
Probable Starting Lineup Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Off the Bench Joe Smith, Devin Brown, Anderson Varejao, Daniel Gibson, Aleksander Pavlovic, Damon Jones, Dwayne Jones
Inactive: Lance Allred, Billy Thomas
Injury Report Eric Snow, ankle, out
Key Matchups vs
Rajon Rondo vs Delonte West
Rondo struggled somewhat in game 3 and the Celtics struggled also. For the first time in the series Delonte out played Rajon. Delonte. Rajon will have to pick up his game on both ends of the floor. He will need to play better defense on Delonte and will have to be more aggressive on offense.
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Ray Allen vs Wally Szczerbiak
Wally found his stroke in game 3 and Ray has yet to get back on track. The Celtics will need Ray to score and to spread the floor for his teammates.
Honorable MentionKevin Garnett vs Ben Wallace
It is no coincidence that when Wallace plays, the Cavs play well and when he is out, they struggle. He gives them a defensive presence in the middle and he is also a good rebounder.
Keys to the Game DEFENSE!!!!! The Celtics must find their defensive intensity on the road. The Cavs shot 53% in the last game and that is unacceptable. It wasn't that the Cavs suddenly got so much better , it is that the Celtics got that much worse. The Celtics have to get back to playing that tough team defense if they want to win this game.
Rebound The Celtics were out rebounded by the Cavs in game 3 and when the Celtics allow teams to out rebound them, they usually lose. Part of this is because much of rebounding is desire and effort and when those are absent, it affects every area of the game.
Be Aggressive In the last two games the Celtics were sluggish to start the game and fell behind. In game 2, the bench came in and were able to cut into the deficit and get the Celtics back into the game but in Game 3, the bench also struggled and so the Celtics couldn't come back. They need to come out aggressive from the beginning and go after loose balls, rebounds and drive to the hoop instead of settling for jumpers.
X-FactorPoint Guard Play In the first two games, Rondo out played Delonte and was aggressive in getting the the Celtics into their sets and in taking the shot when he was open. In game 3, Rondo was tentative and hesitated on the shot and allowed Delonte to get open time after time. We need Rondo to play with confidence and to be aggressive. Sam also struggled in game 3 and we need both of them to play well if we are to win on the road.