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<\/a><\/p>\nKel\u2019el Ware NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Boston Celtics Reserves
Anfernee Simons
Josh Minott
Xavier Tillman
Sam Hauser
Hugo Gonzalez
Baylon Scheierman
Chris Boucher
Luka Garza
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
Amari Williams
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) out<\/p>\n
Miami Heat Reserves
Kasparas Jakucionis
Jaime Jaquez, Jr
Keshad Johnson
Dru Smith
Kel\u2019el Ware
2-Way Players
Myron Gardner
Vladislav Goldin
Jahmir Young
Injuries\/Out
Tyler Herro (toe) out
Pelle Larsson (ankle)out
Niola Jovic (elbow) out
Terry Rozier III (not injury related) out
Davion Mitchell (ankle) probable
Andrew Wiggins (back) questionable<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Payton Pritchard vs Norman Powell
Powell is averaging 24.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He is shooting 49.3% from the field and 42.9% from beyond the arc. The Celtics need to defend him well as he is the Heat\u2019s high scorer and can put up a lot of points. If Herro can play, then he would start here and is averaging 23.2 points, and shooting 50.5% from the field and 40.5% on 3\u2019s. Whoever starts here, it will be key to slow them down.<\/p>\n
Jordan Walsh vs Bam Adebayo
Adebayo is averaging 19.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He is shooting 48.1% from the field and 34.3% from beyond the arc. The Celtics need to keep him off the boards as he is capable of pulling down double figures in rebounds and they need to defend him both in the paint and on the perimeter.
Honorable Mention
Neemias Queta vs Kel\u2019el Ware
Ware is averaging 11.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game. He is shooting 53.3% from the field and 40.7% from beyond the arc. He is dangerous in the paint to block shots and to grab rebounds. He is also a good 3 point shooter and so the Celtics have to stay with him both in the paint and on the perimeter.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense will always be the biggest key to winning every single game. The Celtics are 18th with a defensive rating of 115.1. The Heat are 4th with a defensive rating of 111.8. The Celtics need to defend the perimeter since the Heat attempt 36.7 threes a game and shoot threes better than the Celtics at 36.7%. They also have to defend the paint as the Heat are 3rd with 56.2 points in the paint per game. The Celtics need to work harder than the Heat on defense and make that their priority.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Along with defense, rebounding is always a key to winning. As Pat Riley once said \u201cNo rebounds, no rings.\u201d The Celtics average 43.4 rebounds per game (19th) while the Heat average 45.4 rebounds per game (8th). The Celtics are 10-4 when they out-rebound opponents and just 5-7 when out-rebounded. It takes effort and hustle to get rebounds and the Celtics need to give more effort than the Heat to grab rebounds if they want to win this game.
Reserve Contributions – Against the Pistons, the Celtics starters out-scored the Pistons starters 91-75. But the Celtics reserves were out-scored 47-14. The Celtics have to get more from their reserves. The starters can only do so much if they don\u2019t get help on offense from their bench. The Celtics got 65 points from just Brown and White and they could use more scoring from Pritchard, Walsh and Queta as well. The Heat have one of the best benches in the league and the Celtics need to get more from theirs.<\/p>\n
Effort and Focus for 48 Minutes- The Celtics have to play with extra effort overall for all 4 quarters. In most of their losses and even in their wins, they have allowed their opponents to play with more energy than them for periods of time during the game. They play well for stretches but let up and allow their opponents to surge ahead. Against the Bucks, the Celtics shot 52.4% from the field and 47.8% from 3 in the first half but just 26.1%from the field and 11.5% (3-26) from 3 in the second half. Against the Pistons, the Celtics shot 52.4% from the field and 26.3% from 3 in the first half but just 40% from the field and 25% from 3 in the second half. They also struggled from the free throw line. They have to stay focused for all 48 minutes and be ready for their opponents to play harder in the second half and they need to match that effort and if the 3\u2019s aren\u2019t falling, get into the paint.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
Home Game and Fatigue vs Rust – The Celtics are at home and will have the crowd behind them to give them extra motivaton. The Heat will be playing in front of a hostile crowd and in an unfamiliar arena. The Celtics have not played since Monday while the Heat are playing on the second night of back to back games. Will the Celtics show rust because of being off or will the Heat be fatigued from playing 2 nights in a row?<\/p>\n
Officiating – Officiating is always an x-factor in every game. Every crew officiates differently. Some call it tight, others let them play. The Celtics need to adjust to how the refs are calling the game and not allow bad calls or no calls to take away their focus from playing the game. The more aggressive team will usually get the benefit of the calls and so the Celtics need to be the more aggressive team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Heat (15-12) at Boston Celtics (15-11)Friday, December 19, 20257:00 PM ETRegular Season Game #27 Home Game #14TV:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26218,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-90247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-celtics-game-previews","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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