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<\/a><\/p>\nDaniel Gafford NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Celtics Reserves
Payton Pritchard
Hugo Gonzalez
Luka Garza
Amare Williams
Nikola Vucevic
Jordan Walsh
Sam Hauser
2-Way Players
Ron Harper, Jr
Max Shulga
John Tonje
Injuries\/Out
Jayson Tatum (Achilles) available
Jordan Walsh (illness) questionable
Head Coach
Joe Mazzulla<\/p>\n
Mavericks Reserves
AJ Johnson
Naji Marshall
Calet Martin
Ryan Nembhard
Dwight Powell<\/p>\n
2-Way Players
Moussa Cisse
John Poulakidas
Tyler Smith<\/p>\n
Injuries\/Out
Kyrie Irving (knee) out
Dereck Lively II (foot) out
Marvin Bagley II (neck) questionable
Brandon Williams (quad) questionable
Head Coach
Jason Kidd<\/p>\n
Key Matchups
Baylor Scheierman vs Cooper Flagg
Flagg returned to the Mavs on Thursday after missing 8 weeks due to a foot sprain. He is averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He is shooting 48.2% from the field and 30.2% from beyond the arc. In the first game against the Celtics he finished with 36 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals while shooting 50% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. The Celtics need to do a better job of defending him in this game. We may see Jaylen Brown starting here if Tatum starts.<\/p>\n
Jayson Tatum vs PJ Washington
Washington is averaging 14.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists. 1.0 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. He is shooting 44.7% from the field and 30.5% from beyond the arc. He missed the first game against the Celtics. He is coming off a game on Thursday where he finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 block while playing 33 minutes. I originally thought that Tatum would come off the bench but after seeing many opinions on the fact, I\u2019ve included him in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention
Jaylen Brown vs Khris Middleton
Middleton was traded from Washington at the trade deadline. He is averaging 10.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.2 assists. He is shooting 43.4% from the field and 32.5% from beyond the arc. Middleton wasn\u2019t with the Mavs for the first game against the Celtics. However, Middleton has always been a Celtics killer no matter what team he is on or how he plays against other teams.<\/p>\n
Keys to the Game
Defense – Defense is always the number one key to winning games. There is no truer statement than \u201cDefense wins Championships.\u201d The Mavs have an offensive rating of 109.9 (26th) while the Celtics have an offensive rating of 119.9 (2nd). The Mavs are 16th with a defensive rating of 113.9 while the Celtics are tied for 6th with a defensive rating of 111.9. When the Celtics struggle on offense, as they have in some recent games, they have to be able to stop the other team from scoring. The Celtics especially need to defend the paint as the Mavericks average 53.7 points in the paint per game (4th). The Celtics need to play much better than they did against the Hornets if they want to win this game.<\/p>\n
Rebound – Second to defense, rebounding is the key to winning. One of the few times I have agreed with Pat Riley was when he said \u201cNo rebounds, no rings.\u201d The Celtics are averaging 46.2 rebounds per game (6th) while the Mavs are averaging 44.6 rebounds per game (11th). The Celtics need to put out extra effort on the boards to keep the Mavs from getting extra possessions and second chance points and to give the same to themselves.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Underestimate – Once again, the Celtics are facing a team that is under .500 and missing key players. It would be easy for the Celtics to underestimate the Mavericks and expect an easy win against them. If the Celtics don\u2019t play with effort and focus, any team can beat them. The Celtics have to come out strong from the start and play hard right up until the final buzzer. The Mavs are very capable of beating them if they don\u2019t play their best.<\/p>\n
Be Aggressive – The Celtics must be the more aggressive team. They have to be more 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 wants to win the game more. In most of their losses, including Wednesday\u2019s loss to the Hornets, they have allowed their opponents to play harder and be more aggressive. They absolutely can\u2019t let the Mavericks play harder than them if they want to win this game.<\/p>\n
X-Factors
At Home – The Mavericks will be on the road and playing on the second night of back to back games. They will have the distractions of travel and playing in front of a mostly hostile crowd,although I expect a lot of cheers for hometown Cooper Flagg. The Celtics need to get motivation from the home crowd and defend their home court with energy and effort.<\/p>\n
The Tatum Factor – With Jayson Tatum expected to make his season debut in this game, the Celtics have to be excited and hopefully that will give them a boost. Whether he comes off the bench or starts, he is likely to be rusty and there will be some growing pains as he gets used to playing and the team gets used to having him back.<\/p>\n
Officiating – The officiating can always be an x-factor. Every crew calls the game a little differently and teams need to adjust to how the game is being called. Will they call the game tight or will they let them play? The Celtics can\u2019t let the officiating take away their focus and they have to adjust to the way the refs are calling it. The Celtics need to play hard and build a lead and not allow the refs to take the game away on some bad calls at the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks (21-41) at Boston Celtics (41-21)Friday, March 6, 20267:00 PM ESTRegular Season Game #63 Home Game #31TV:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20696,102,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-193913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-celtics-game-previews","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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