This New Year’s Eve, the Celtics will be in San Antonio to face off against the Spurs. San Antonio is having an underwhelming season at 20-17, which has them sitting at eighth in the Western Conference. The West is so weird this season. Every time I look to check an opposing team’s record I’m unimpressed with their position in the conference because of how close it is. San Antonio is only 4.5 games out of first place out West. If the Spurs were in the Eastern Conference, they’d be in sixth place just behind the Celtics.
San Antonio is a place that the Celtics haven’t won at for almost 8 years. They came close last season, but Manu Ginobili made a game winning three for the Spurs. The Celtics did take a game from San Antonio last season though. That win broke an 11 game losing streak against the Spurs. The C’s will look to start a win streak of their own tonight.
A Familiar Foe
This past summer, San Antonio dealt disgruntled star Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors for DeMar DeRozen (Thanks a lot Pop). DeRozen was someone that the Celtics would see four times each season because of the divisional match-up.
This trade has done wonders for the Raptors, but hasn’t had as big of an impact for the Spurs. They’re sitting around the eighth seed which is one place lower than they finished last year. To add to that, Kawhi didn’t even play much at all last season. At this time last season they were 24-12.
As for DeRozen himself, his stats are pretty similar between this season and last. He’s still averaging about 23 points per game. He’s also shooting 3 percent higher from the field this season at 48%. I’d say this has something to do with him shooting less threes. Last season, DeRozen averaged 3.6 three point attempts per game, this season that’s down to 1.1. This is a good thing for the Spurs because he’s only shooting 17% from deep this year. It’s not a good thing for opposing sides because he’s playing more to his strengths. He’s taking mostly mid range shots and layups.
Making the Spurs Work
Tonight the Celtics will have their work cut out for them on the defensive end. San Antonio is the fifth best shooting team in the league at 47.6%, and the best three point shooting team at 39.3%. Despite being the best at shooting threes, the Spurs are dead last in three point attempts.
If the C’s want to slow the Spurs down tonight, they’ll have to make them work for their offense. Having the highest three point percent while taking least amount of threes says a lot about this team. It means that they’re disciplined on offense and try to get the best shot every possession. What else would you expect from a Gregg Popovich coached team? Boston is going to have get out on the shooters like Marco Belinelli to prevent the Spurs shooting from distance. There’s no way the Spurs will force up bad threes tonight.
The Spurs also have the fewest turnovers per game in the league. They give the ball away just 12.2 times each game. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because the Celtics are 7th in the league in steals at 8.8 per game.
Let’s Not Fall Behind Tonight
We all know about the Celtics’ big comeback in Memphis on Saturday, but it would’ve been really great if they could’ve just coasted to a win without the turmoil. I actually have a really good feeling about that win. I feel like it’s something that’s going to bring the team together more. If that’s the case, then the Celtics could finally catch fire and become the team we all know that they can be.
That all starts tonight. I want to see this team come out firing and never look back. San Antonio is a solid team at home, they’re 10-5 so far this season. If the C’s can get a dominant win on the road, it could do wonders for their confidence. In both of the games so far on this trip, the Celtics have been behind by a lot. They lost by double digits in Houston, and of course had to climb all the way back from being 19 down against Memphis.
The Celtics were at their best when they were coming out in the first quarter and building an early lead. Over the 8 game win streak, they outscored their opponents 7 times in the opening quarter. If they can come out hot tonight, I think they’ll have a good chance at winning in San Antonio for the first time since 2011.
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