Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers
Team Totals: Celtics 101, Cavs 98.5
Injury Report: Al Horford (P, back), Josh Richardson (P, knee), Jaylen Brown (O, hamstring), Lauri Markkanen (O, reconditioning), Kevin Love (O, reconditioning), Lamar Stevens (O, ankle)
Celtics projected starters: Marcus Smart, Dennis Schroder, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams
Cavaliers projected starters: Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Udoka quotes: Said they were over-helping in the fourth against the Cavs, said some guys played too many minutes and it wore them down, has said multiple times Tatum missing shots can’t affect him on the defensive end.
Bickerstaff quotes: Continues to talk about the team’s spirit, said Evan Mobley just has a will to win and said they’ll put Mobley on the opponent’s best player, said they have Allen out there to put pressure on the rim and they want to dominate the paint on offense, said he pulled Okoro and they told Ricky they were going to play him the rest of the game because they were off tomorrow.
Stats and Notes:
*These guys just faced off on Saturday, but of course the big difference is Al Horford should be back. Overall, the Cavs are absolutely crushing on D as the No. 2 in halfcourt thanks in part to Evan Mobley going off. The Celtics have also been solid overall on the defensive end, and this game should be fairly slow.
*The usage was definitely there for Jayson Tatum in the loss against the Cavs on Saturday with a season-high 38.8, but Mobley locked him down in the 35 minutes. There’s upside on playing Tatum, but the Cavs playing so well makes him a tougher sell.
*The quotes from J.B. on Rubio are interesting, and it’s worth noting they are not on a back-to-back set to give him a huge minutes ceiling again. I’d be into him a little more than Garland in this spot with Garland set to look at Marcus Smart a bunch. Although, I wouldn’t be terrified of the matchup, though.
*Evan Mobley will likely have to deal with Horford here, which is somewhat bad news. Mobley did play 40 minutes for the third time in the last seven games, so obviously the minutes upside is just dumb. I’d say this is a bad matchup for him, but he still makes sense.
Sacramento Kings at Detroit Pistons
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