After righting the ship last night against the 76ers, the C’s will look for their second straight win tonight against the Pistons. This will be Boston’s final game before the All Star break. It’d be great if they could go into All Star Weekend on a two game win streak.
The Pistons have been mediocre at best this season. They’re just barely hanging on to the final playoff spot in the East with a record of 26-29. Considering the talent they have on their roster, this season can be considered a disappointment. Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin are all star level players that should be producing better results than they have been. However, the Pistons have been pretty decent lately. They’re riding a four game win streak heading into tonight’s game. They’ve beaten Denver, New York twice, and Washington over their streak. The win against Denver is pretty impressive. The other three wins? Not so much.
The Celtics and Pistons have met three times already this season. The C’s have won two of the three games, including the lone game played at the TD Garden. Boston also won two of the three games last season. So they’ve been pretty dominant against the Pistons as of late.
There’s a few other games around the Eastern Conference to pay attention to. The Bucks are visiting the Pacers tonight at 7 pm. This is a great match up for the Celtics because one of the teams ahead of them has to lose. That means if the C’s manage to win then they’ll make some ground in the standings. The Raptors are hosting the Washington Wizards up in Toronto. That should be an easy win for the Raptors, but you never know. The last game that you should pay attention to is the game at MSG. The 76ers are looking to avenge their loss to the C’s yesterday against the tanking Knicks. There’s nothing too promising aside from the Milwaukee vs Indiana match up.
Bringing the Energy Even When the Game Doesn’t Call For It
As everyone saw last night, the Celtics are quite the team when they come to play. Unfortunately, they don’t come to play every night and often play down to their competition. We’ve seen them lose to bad teams numerous times this season. It’s really the reason why they aren’t a higher seed at the moment. The biggest key to tonight’s game is bringing the same energy that they brought yesterday.
Last night’s game was one that didn’t look promising heading into it. Yeah sure, it was the Sixers and the Celtics always walk all over them, but the way things had been going it was anyone’s game. Things changed when the C’s came out with a purpose and set the tone early, outscoring the 76ers by 5 in the first quarter. From that point on you could tell that the Celtics were going to give it everything they had despite being shorthanded.
Well, the injury reports aren’t out yet, but assuming we’ll see the same team as yesterday, the mentality has to be the same. From now until the end of the season, every game needs to be as important as a game against another top team, regardless of who the C’s are playing. The Pistons don’t have the best record, but they do have the talent to give the Celtics some issues if they aren’t careful.
Hopefully, the home fans will have a good amount of energy after the big win yesterday and give the C’s a little boost. The guys just need to go out and have fun again.
A Tall Task
Whether it was locking down Embiid or scoring 23 points for the C’s, Al Horford was terrific last night against Philadelphia. He’s been great all season when the Celtics have needed something extra because of injuries. Well, tonight he’s going to have to step up again. Horford will have the “tall task” of dealing with the big boys of the Pistons.
Andre Drummond leads the league in rebounds per game with 15. Without Aron Baynes on the floor, Horford is going to have to work hard on the glass. He’ll undoubtedly have some help as Jayson Tatum and Marcus Morris do their fair share of rebounding, but Al is still going to be dealt the task of trying to contain the big man. Of Drummond’s 15 rebounds a night, 5 of them come on the offensive glass. It’s important that the Celtics don’t allow him to gift the Pistons extra chances. The ex UConn star has been on a tear as of late as well. Over his last 5 games he’s averaging about 24 points and 15 rebounds each night.
Blake Griffin is going to be an All Star for the 6th time in his career. He has been the main man for this Detroit team all season, averaging a hefty 26 ppg and 8 rpg. Like Drummond, Griffin is a presence in the paint. I’m not so sure Horford will be primarily matched up with him, but he will definitely see a decent amount of him. Al will be tasked of trying to slow Blake down, which hasn’t been an easy task this season given his scoring average. I have confidence that Big Al will be able to do a decent job on Griffin. Horford is coming off a great defensive game against Philly and is probably feeling pretty confident at the moment.
Hayward Back?
This season has undoubtedly been a roller coaster ride for both Celtics fans and players. Out of the players, Gordon Hayward has experienced this the most. There have been stretches where he’s been awful and fans are upset with him, and there have been stretches where he’s been great and his the local hero. The tough thing is, when he’s doing good it doesn’t usually last very long.
That is, until now. Over the last few weeks Gordon has been playing much better and I’ve written about it plenty. Earlier on in the season he had a few monster games against Minnesota, but other than that there wasn’t any that have stood out. Well, last night may have been his best game of the season because of the importance of it. Hayward stepped up and provided much needed scoring off the bench for the C’s. His 26 points was a team high in the road win in Philly.
Over these last few games it’s like something has clicked for G. His confidence is certainly higher than it has been. If you go back and watch the first quarter of last night’s game, you can see the confidence Hayward is playing with. He checked into the game and then took a pull up three coming off of a screen. This isn’t something that we’ve seen all that much of this year. Sure, he’s taken pull up shots like that, but it hasn’t been right after getting subbed in the game. He is usually really passive when playing with the starters, but took the initiative in that game.
That stellar performance last night makes two straight star performances from Hayward. He was better than credited for against the Clippers and of course showed up last night. If he comes out tonight and puts in another superb shift, there’s something to be really excited about.
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