NBA Matchups: March 5

POR @ BOS | MIN @ CHA | MIA @ CLE | UTA @ WAS | DAL @ MIL | SAC @ DEN | OKC @ MEM | DET @ LAC

Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics (front end)

Team Totals: Blazers 108, Celtics 117.5

Injury Report: Jerami Grant (Q, knee), Jaylen Brown (Q, illness), Kristaps Porzingis (D, illness), Jayson Tatum (Q, shoulder), Jrue Holiday (D, finger), Derrick White (P, back)

Blazers projected starters: Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan (Note: Could see Grant starting over Avdija)

Celtics projected starters: Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford

Billups quotes: Said it was an incredible team win with a road B2B, said Clingan was incredible with the plays he made on both ends, said they were really attacking on the offensive end, said Sharpe was disappointed he gave up so many baskets against the Cavs and he responded, said Sharpe hitting the boards was huge, said he pulled Deni out for a bit to calm him down through some struggles, said Toumani made it really hard on Maxey, said Clingan “is such a winner” and was better at being in a better position to not foul.

Mazzulla quotes: Said he liked how their rim defense limited the Nuggets, said he liked how Queta and Pritchard carried the second unit against the Nuggets, said Queta is OK with barely getting minutes on this winning team, said he doesn’t have to talk to Al Horford about playing him heavy minutes, said they care more about giving up easy shots to opponents than what kind of shots they get on offense, said they didn’t talk about Jokic in the game plan and they talked more about limiting cuts and off-ball scoring.

Stats and Notes: 

*Well, the Celtics aren’t messing around with Q tags with a national TV game tomorrow.

*The Blazers have been one of the better stories in the league over the last month and it resulted in Toumani Camara getting Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month. So good. Since the Deandre Ayton injury and after the stomping to the Nuggets, the Blazers have been second in defensive rating over those seven games. They’ve been second in the halfcourt and it starts with their thriving on-ball defenders, led by Toumani. They’ve been excellent at keeping rim scoring in check, but they aren’t as great with their transition defense over this span. They’ve also been lucky on giving up some C&S stuff, so that doesn’t set up great against the Celtics here. For the Celtics, they have a game tomorrow against a banged-up Philly team, and both are at home. When they have Kristaps Porzingis, their rim defense has been excellent to go with their fantastic C&S and transition defense. As great as the Blazers have been, this sets up quite poorly for them, especially if they don’t have Jerami Grant.

*Anfernee Simons gets an OK matchup here with the way the Celtics funnel on-ball scoring. Still, Derrick White is going to give him problems and Simons has struggled against high-end defenders this year (not great against McDaniels, Coulibaly, and Amen). He should play a lot and maybe he gets hot from deep.