Game 68 Preview: Celtics at Mavericks

Tonight marks Jason Terry's return
to Dallas.

The Celtics (36-31) shot themselves in the foot Wednesday night, letting a nice, easy win to start their three-game road trip slip through their grasps. They played great in the first half, and laid an egg in the second half.

Boston lost ground in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings. They sit in the seventh seed in the East, a game-and-a-half behind the Atlanta Hawks for the fifth seed and four-and-a-half games behind the Atlantic Division leading New York Knicks. Now, they face a tougher challenge tonight as they take on the Dallas Mavericks (32-36).

Dallas hasn't exactly had a great season. Dirk Nowitzki missed the team's first 29 games while recovering from offseason knee surgery. Through Dallas' first 21 games, O.J. Mayo shot a league-leading 53% from beyond the arc, but has cooled off over his last 47 games by shooting only 34% from downtown. Lastly, the Mavs have not been above .500 since November 21. They've been a disappointing, mediocre basketball team all year long.

However, they have won 7 of their last 11 games. So there's a silver lining, right?

Here's a preview:

Projected lineups:

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

Mavericks:
Mike James
O.J. Mayo
Jae Crowder
Dirk Nowitzki
Chris Kaman

Keys to the game:

1. The other guys: In Wednesday night's debacle in New Orleans, the Celtics bench scored a grand total of 2 points in the second half. I'll give you all a moment to process that. Two points in 24 minutes. Yeah, that's bad. Regardless, the bench needs to respond tonight, especially Jason Terry. Terry had been playing well over the past few weeks -- he was averaging 10.6 points on 47% from the floor in his past 9 games -- until his 0-for-5 in 20 minute performance on Wednesday night. Throw in the fact that tonight marks his return to Dallas, and all of that leads me to expect Terry to bounce back in a big way tonight. The problem is, he's going to need the rest of the Motley crue to do their part.

2. Coming back strong: The month of March has been a problem for the Celtics. Why? Well, during the month, the Celtics have struggled mightily in the second half in each game of March, particularly in the third quarter. Excluding their second game with the Bobcats and the Toronto game, the Celtics are averaging 18.9 points in the third quarter, easily the lowest of any quarter throughout the month. They've also blown double-digits leads in the second half in each of their past two games. The Celtics need to realize that they need to play all 48 minutes and not let up in the second half of games, because, as we saw Wednesday night, no matter who it is, that team will make you pay for coasting through a game with a big lead.

3. Banging on the boards: Rebounding has been a problem for a few years now for the Celtics team -- as evident the other night when Kevin Garnett failed to box out Anthony Davis which allowed him to tip in the game-winning basket. With two seven-footers in their starting lineup (Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman), Dallas is one of the biggest teams in the league, so the Celtics face a tall task -- literally -- of trying to bang with Dallas' bigs. Dallas is sixth in the league in defensive rebounding, and competing with them on the glass is going to be a challenge that Doc Rivers and company need to figure out how to solve.