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<\/a><\/p>\nDeandre Ayton MediaNews Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Payton Pritchard
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Amare Williams
Nikola Vucevic
Jordan Walsh
Delano Banton (10-day)
John Tonje (10-day)<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) out<\/p>\n
Lakers Reserves
Kobe Bufkin
Rui Hachimura
Jaxson Hayes
Bronny James
Luke Kennard
Maxi Kleber
Dalton Knecht
Jake LaRavia
Adou Thiero
Jarred Vanderbilt
2-Way Players
Chris Manon
Nick Smith, Jr
Drew Timme<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
None listed
Head Coach
JJ Redick<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Derrick White vs Luka Doncic
Doncic is averaging 33.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.6 assists per game while shooting 47.3% from the fiield He is coming off a game where he finished with 38 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists and 1 block. He missed the December game against the Celtics. The Celtics have to slow Doncic down and guard him both on the perimeter and in the paint along with anticipating his passes.<\/p>\n
Baylor Scheierman vs Austin Reaves
Reaves is averaging 25.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game. He is shooting 51.1% from the field and 37.4% from beyond the arc. In the December meeting between these two teams, Reeves finished with 36 points, 3 rebound, and 8 assists while shooting 50% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc. He is coming off a game where he finished with 29 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Jaylen Brown vs LeBron James
LeBron is averaging 21.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 7.2 assists while shooting 49.9% from the field and 30.6% from beyond the arc. In his last game on Friday, he finished with 13 points, 3 rebounds, 11 assists and 1 steal. He didn\u2019t play in the first game between these two teams. He may be old, but he is still dangerous and a very good passer.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – I can\u2019t say it enough that defense is the most important key to winning. The Celtics are 8th in the league with a defensive rating of 112.6. The Lakers are 24th with a defensive rating of 116.5. The Celtics have played good defense for the most part in recent games but they still are not consistent on that end for 48 minutes each game They must stay committed to playing tough, lock down defense, especially against a Lakers team with some very good offensive weapons. The Celtics must especially defend in the paint as the Lakers are 9th in the league with 51.9 points in the paint per game.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Rebounding takes effort and energy and the Celtics will need both to out-rebound the Lakers. The Celtics need to crash the boards and keep the Lakers from getting second chance points and fast breaks. The Celtics are averaging 45.6 rebounds per game (8th) while the Lakers are averaging 40.9 rebounds per game (24th). The Celtics must put out extra energy and effort to beat the Lakers to rebounds.<\/p>\n
Move the Ball Carefully – The Celtics need to move the ball in order to find the best shot on each possession. When the ball sticks and players try to do too much, the Celtics struggle. They are at their best when they pass the ball and keep it moving. The Celtics had 31 assists in their win over the Warriors. The Celtics are 28-4 when they have at least 25 assists. But they have to make careful passes and not get sloppy because the Lakers average 17.8 points off turnovers.<\/p>\n
Be Aggressive – The Celtics must be the more aggressive team. They have to be aggressive in going to the basket, in diving for loose balls, and on defense. They have to aggressively crash the boards. They have to be the team that plays harder and that wants it more. In most of their losses, they have allowed their opponents to play harder and be more aggressive. They absolutely can\u2019t let the Lakers play harder than them if they want to have a chance to win.
X-Factors
On the Road – The Celtics are playing in the second game of a 4 game road trip. They need to fight through the distractions of playing on the road and on the other coast in a different time zone and keep their focus on playing the right way. They need to put all those distractions of playing in a strange arena and in front of hostile fans and staying in hotels and away from family aside and put all their focus on playing the game.<\/p>\n
Pride – \u201cBeat LA\u201d is one of the most iconic chants in sports. This is a storied rivalry and no matter the circumstances, the Celtics always want to beat the Lakers and vice versa. The Celtics have to focus on the game and on playing aggressive basketball. It\u2019s a matter of pride and the Celtics need to get the job done and \u201cBeat LA\u201d. On the other hand, LeBron always has a chip on his shoulder against the Celtics and LeBron and his teammates are going to give extra effort to beat one of their biggest rivals.<\/p>\n
Officiating – The officiating can always be an x-factor. Every crew calls the game differently and the Celtics have to adapt to how the game is being called and not allow bad calls and no calls to take away their focus. If you doubt that officiating is an x-factor, just think back to the last Finals between these two teams. In game 7, the Celtics were up 6 going into the 4th quarter. The refs had called the game evenly up until then. But in the 4th quarter, the referees took over and it cost the Celtics that game. The Lakers took 21 free throws in the 4th quarter alone while the Celtics took 6. The Lakers took more free throws in the 4th quarter than they did in the first 3 quarters combined. (Yes, I am still a little bitter over that.) Hopefully the refs call it fair in this game and let both teams play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics (36-19) at Los Angeles Lakers (34-21)Sunday, February 22, 20266:30 PM ETTV: NBC\/Peacock, NBCSB, TelemundoRadio: 98.5 Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[34698,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-189323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-celtics-game-previews","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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