Game 4 Preview: Celtics at Grizzlies

Brad Stevens and company will look to right the ship tonight in Memphis.

My apologies for being MIA. I was a tad under the weather over the weekend, but the batteries are recharged and good to go.

A lot has happened since last Wednesday night's season opener. The Celtics (0-3) dropped three straight, the Red Sox won the World Series, and the Patriots continue to look like, well, the Patriots.

With that said, the Celtics could easily be 3-0 right now. They've held leads in the fourth quarter in each of their three games and have only lost by an average of 7.5 points. They've shown they can compete, but they're just not there yet.

It doesn't get any easier as the C's encounter the second night of their first back-to-back of the season, and the first of six in the month of November. Yikes. To make matters worse, they travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies (1-2), who last year reached the Western Conference Finals. The Grizz are coming off a 111-99 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.

Here's the lowdown:

Projected lineups:

Celtics:
Avery Bradley
Jeff Green
Gerald Wallace
Brandon Bass
Vitor Faverani

Grizzlies:
Mike Conley
Tony Allen
Tayshaun Prince
Zach Randolph
Marc Gasol


Keys to the game:

1. Closing it out: In all three of their games, the Celtics have had their struggles in the final frame. In the fourth quarter, they've been outscored 80-50 by their opponents. The C's also rank second to last in the league in fourth quarter points per game at 16.7. If Boston is to get off the schneid and tally their first win, they're gonna have to do a better job of closing out games.

2. No "I" in team: For the second time this season, Gerald Wallace called out his teammates for being too selfish and padding stats. He did so after Boston choked away a 22-point lead on Friday night and eventually fell to the Milwaukee Bucks, 105-98. For those that think Wallace is out of line, think again. So far this season, Boston has the worst assist-to-turnover ratio in the league with the lowest amount of assists and the highest number of turnovers. Part of this is the lack of a pure point guard and the absence of Rajon Rondo, but part of it has been Boston's unwillingness to generate consistent ball movement. Everyone needs to get involved. This team is not good enough to rely on one guy (sorry Jeff Green) to go out and run the show.