Saturday, December 8, 2012

Game 20 Preview: Sixers at Celtics

You know what the good thing about the NBA is? After a crushing loss, you're able to get back at it the very next day against the same team and get some revenge. Wait...that's baseball, isn't it? In an extremely rare circumstance, the Celtics (10-9) are back at it tonight against the team that handed them their 9th loss of the season just last night, the Philadelphia 76ers (11-8).

I have no idea how this one is going to play out. The Celtics exuded a lot of energy last night on the road, so how much energy will they have tonight? They probably don't even know themselves. But they can ill afford to fall to 1-5 against teams in their division. Let's see if they can muster up some energy and salvage a split with the Sixers.

Here's a preview:

Projected lineups:

Sixers:
Jrue Holiday
Jason Richardson
Evan Turner
Thaddeus Young
Lavoy Allen


Celtics:
Rajon Rondo
Jason Terry
Paul Pierce
Brandon Bass
Kevin Garnett

Keys to the game:

1. Limiting turnovers: Turnovers were a huge problem last night. The Celtics turned the ball over 19 times to Philly's 9. Philly commits the second-fewest turnovers per game with an average of 12.4. Boston is in the middle of the pack at 15.0 turnovers a game. 14 of those 19 turnovers for the Celtics came from the starting five. It's up to them to control the ball, which in turn will lead to more control over the game.

2. Getting the JET back in flight: After his worst shooting performance of the season, Jason Terry was disappointed but not discouraged. He is still confident in himself and rightfully so. Do not expect a duplicate performance tonight. The JET will take-off once again, and he should bounce back in a big way tonight. He needs to get it going early.

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