Tonight the Celtics host the Portland Trailblazers in the first match-up of the season for two teams that are red hot. The Celtics gained control of the Eastern Conference 3-seed after posting a 9-3 record in February, while the Blazers have been on a similar pace since the start of the New Year (19-7 since January 1st.) Both head coaches, Brad Stevens and Terry Stotts, were named Coach of the Month for their respective conferences in February, and it will be interesting to see if this game comes down to a coaching chess match.
Beyond coaching, the primary on-court matchup will be on the perimeter. The Blazers boast the second-highest scoring backcourt duo in the NBA, as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum trail only Steph Curry / Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant / Russell Westbrook as top-scoring teammate combos in the NBA. Meanwhile, the Celtics have several of the league's best perimeter defenders (including the best one in the league, if you agree with Danny Ainge,) so this figures to be a good "strength vs strength" battle to watch throughout the night.
Granted, defending such a lethal offensive backcourt requires more than good individual defense, so don't be surprised to see Boston employ a handful of small-ball lineups with Crowder or Jerebko at the 4, allowing switch-heavy defensive rotations when guarding Lillard and/or McCollum.
Get to know your enemy the Blazers:
-
As mentioned, the Blazers are one of the few teams who are even hotter than the Celtics right now. Since a January 8th home loss to Golden State, the Blazers are 18-4, including a vengeful blowout win over the defending champs in which Dame dropped 51 points and launched a month-long tear that has earned him at least an honorable mention in the MVP discussion.
-
Portland's current position as the 7-seed in the Western Conference has surprised some pundits, many of whom projected the team to miss the playoffs after losing perennial all-star LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency last offseason. One reason they've been able to overcome the loss of Aldridge has been the continued evolution of Lillard, not only as a player, but as the leader of a young team.
-
Lillard's been a rising star for a couple of years (he's also the best rapper in the NBA, probably,) but the emergence of CJ McCollum (aka "3J") as a second go-to player has replaced much of the offensive production that Portland lost with the departures of Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, and Wes Matthews. Practically averaging 21-4-4 in 35 min/g, McCollum now has to be considered one of the best shooting guards in the league in just his third season.
-
Lillard and McCollum are the rare backcourt duo whose skills largely overlap but somehow don't clash (shout out to Starbury and Stevie Franchise, who were kinda like this only the exact opposite.) Part of this can be attributed to Lillard's "quiet and empowering" leadership style, which McCollum describes first hand in this Blazers' blog post:
-
Further keeping the Blazers competitive this year has been a handful of savvy personnel moves by GM Neil Olshey, who joined the team following the 2011-2012 season. Since then, he hired Stotts, picked Lillard and McCollum in consecutive drafts, then rebuilt a competitive team on the fly after Aldridge's FA departure. He did such a good job replicating the players he lost, you'd think he was casting an Unsolved Mysteries dramatization of last season: Nic Batum is played by another ~6'8" wing from another country (Aminu), while Robin Lopez is portrayed by another goofy replacement-level center with brothers in the NBA (our old friend "Plums" aka Mason Plumlee, formerly of the Nets.)
-
Coach Terry Stotts is receiving coach of the year buzz, and deservedly so. He's been downright Stevens-esque in getting the most out of a young and inexperienced team, especially one that was largely cobbled together during the offseason.
-
Might Only Matters to Locals Massachusetts native and 2014 1st round pick Noah Vonleh, who was drafted 3 picks after Marcus Smart, starts for the Blazers now after being traded from Charlotte in the Batum deal. Despite his role as a starter, Vonleh averages ~15 min/g.
What to Watch for Tonight:
-
Coach Brad Stevens had high praise for Damian Lillard in an interview this week, describing the star PG as one of the few players in the league who "doesn't get sped up." It will be interesting to see if that holds true against the uptempo Celtics, and if Boston's strong perimeter defenders can keep Lillard and McCollum in check regardless of the game's pace.
-
Despite Portland's record over the past two months, one thing working in the Celtics' favor is the schedule. The Celtics have had a day to prepare after defeating the Jazz at TD Garden on Monday night, while the Blazers are on the second night of a back-to-back halfway through a six-game Eastern Conference road trip. The Blazers have struggled on the backend of back-to-backs (2-9 this season,) and the Celtics likely won't make it easy for them to buck that trend.
Submitted March 02, 2016 at 07:06PM by Mahcus_Smaht