Game 65 Preview: Bobcats at Celtics

Courtney Lee and the Celtics need to stay in front of their men tonight.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Celtics fans.

For those who may have already forgotten, the Celtics (35-29) still have a game to play before the much anticipated arrival of the Miami Heat on Monday night.

That game comes tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats (14-51).

With their loss last night in Toronto, the Bobcats became the first team in the NBA to be officially eliminated from playoff contention. To put their struggles in perspective, the Bobcats come to town with a scoring differential of negative -10.02. Only ten teams in NBA history have been worse.

They've dropped 11 of their last 12 games. Their only win? That came in their 100-74 demolition of the Celtics on Tuesday night. The Celtics may have been without Paul Pierce, but a 26-point defeat at the hands of the worst team in the Eastern Conference is still discouraging.

Boston has won seven of their last ten games and ten straight at home.

Here's a preview:

Projected lineups:

Bobcats:
Kemba Walker
Gerald Henderson
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Josh McRoberts
Bismack Biyombo

Celtics:
Avery Bradley
Courtney Lee
Paul Pierce
Brandon Bass
Kevin Garnett

Keys to the game:

1. Go hard in da paint: Yep, exactly what Wacka Flocka said. The Celtics were atrocious on the interior in Charlotte on Tuesday. They let the Bobcats score 40 points in the paint and grab 16 offensive rebounds. Dribble penetration has been a problem too. They allowed Kemba Walker, the Bobcats' smallest player, to take 14 shots in the paint in their past two meetings. That's bad. No fancy adjectives needed here, just bad. The Celtics need to close up the middle and force the Bobcats to shoot from the outside. And they're not very good at that.

2. Energy: A lack of energy, a lack of focus, whatever you want to call it, the Celtics were just not -- to steal a phrase from the beloved Bobby Valentine -- physically and emotionally into the game. That can't happen tonight. It's easy to look past the lowly Bobcats and look ahead to the Heat's visit in a couple days. But, as we saw this past Tuesday night, the Celtics cannot take these pesky 'Cats lightly. They need to be physically and emotionally invested from start to finish. And they can't come out and lay an egg in the second half like they did on Tuesday.