Tip: 6:00pm Court: TD Garden Watch it: CSN/NBA TV Hear it: WEEI
The Matchup
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| Record: 46-17 (1st Atlantic, T-1st East) | Record: 26-38 (3rd Central, 10th East) |
| At Home: 27-6 | On The Road: 9-22 |
| Streak: Lost 2 | Streak: Won 3 |
| Leaders | Leaders |
| Buckets: Pierce (19.0 ppg) | Buckets: Brandon Jennings (15.9 ppg) |
| Boards: KG (9.2 rpg) | Boards: Andrew Bogut (11.4 rpg) |
| Dimes: Rondo (12.0 apg) | Dimes: Brandon Jennings (4.7 apg) |
| For the Stat Geeks | For the Stat Geeks |
| Offensive Rating: 107.3 (15th NBA) | Offensive Rating: 101.4 (30th NBA) |
| Defensive Rating: 100.4 (2nd NBA) | Defensive Rating: 102.1 (3rd NBA) |
| Pace: 91.0 (21st NBA) | Pace: 90.0 (24th NBA) |
Last Time
Last week the C's went into Milwaukee, played like total crap (especially Rajon Rondo and his 8 turnovers) but did enough to come away with an 89-93 win. Luckily Paul Pierce was awesome enough to carry the C's to the win.
This Time
Get it to: Paul Pierce
Why not continue to get it to the guy who torched them the last time? Prior to Pierce's (and the rest of the Celtics') letdown vs. Philly, he was on fire. And even with that game, he's still averaging 21.2 ppg over his last 10. Let the captain carry the team as it continues to find itself post-trade and signings.
Gotta stop: Brandon Jennings
Jennings has only cracked the 40% shooting mark six times in Bucks losses. He's done it 13 times in Bucks wins, including two 50% shooting performances and a couple of 70%+ games. Get it? Jennings is a shoot first guy and if you can stay in front of him (Rondo? Hello?) and force him to take jumpers, he's toast. He's shooting 50.6% at the rim, about 35% from 3-15 feet away, and 30% from 16-23. Amazingly, the number jumps to 49% from 3, so the best thing to do is stop him as he's trying to drive, cut off the passing lanes, and force him to pull up.
Wild Card: Glen Davis
Baby is coming back from that patellar tendon strain but that will be one of those things that bugs him for a while. If he can manage the pain and contribute down the stretch, he'll bring stability to a C's team that has been making it up as they've gone along lately in the 4th quarters. Familiarity will be a huge help in late game situations.
How we see it goin' down:
The Bucks are coming off a huge win at home over the 76'ers. After that game, they hopped on a plane, flew to Boston, lost and hour of sleep and then play a game that tips off an hour earlier than usual. If you don't think those are factors, you're nuts.
This is going to be a sluggish team that already plays at a ploddingly-slow pace. They're already a bad offensive team, not to mention a terrible road team, and all those factors, along with playing one of the best defensive teams in the game, are going to make this an ugly one for the Bucks.
The C's, meanwhile, have no excuses. Even with the new players, the starters can still drop the hammer on the Bucks early on and make sure that the second unit has plenty of pad. Maybe this is as much wishful thinking as it is analysis of an upcoming matchup… but a rested C's team coming off two losses should be pissed off enough to look at a weary Bucks team and throttle them early. Yes, I'm ignoring history that shows the C's see opportunities like this and typically let down… especially on Sunday games… but this is a special circumstance.
Gino dances tonight as the C's win by 20.
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