Both teams are on a back-to-back, and Los Angeles will be sitting several of their players, the perfect opportunity for Boston to build some momentum
The Boston Celtics just handed the Golden State Warriors their biggest home loss since 1985 on their first game of their second West Coast road trip of the month, a 40-point rout. Golden State was without a few rotational players, but that doesn’t matter to the Celtics who are looking to start building some new momentum after sub-par play over the last two months. Tonight, they’ll be facing a similar situation as they head in to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers, and they’ll be looking to take advantage of it once again.
The Clippers will be without Kawhi Leanord, Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell, Kris Dunn, James Harden and Nicolas Batum. That leaves Derrick Jones Jr. as the lone healthy starter, the rest of the players likely just getting some rest on the front-end of a back-to-back. Boston is also on the front-end of their back-to-back against the two LA teams, and currently have Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis listed as questionable.
Do the Celtics stagger resting Porzingis and Horford?
It’s been the policy for the past two years now for Al and Kristaps to rest on back-to-backs. Both are starting caliber players, so we’ve often seen their rest days being staggered, one resting on the first night and the other resting on the second. Given that Ivica Zubac is out for tonight, along with several other key Clippers players, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Boston rest both Porzingis and Horford, especially considering that the team will be facing Anthony Davis and the Lakers tomorrow. Porzingis was a late addition to tonight’s injury report though, being listed as questionable due to an illness. That could mean that the team decided it was better to rest him and Al together, or that he’s actually sick and could possibly miss tonight, and maybe even tomorrow’s game.
How quickly will the Celtics take care of business, if at all?
After seeing the active roster that Los Angeles is rolling in to this game with, many Boston fans are looking at this game as a scheduled loss. The Celtics have been known to play down to their competition from time to time. Especially in this recent stretch, they’ve been finding ways to surprise us with the losses they fall into. They decimated the Warriors on Monday night, though, so I am choosing to believe that they’re ready to turn the corner again.
We’ll have to see if they manage to get back to their killer-whale offense, ramping up their aggression and attacking the weakest defenders to generate easy baskets. The Clippers hold the 3rd best defensive rating in the league, but that number shouldn’t hold tonight with several of their players out. This is Boston’s chance to have another explosive offensive output and earn themselves some rest towards the end of the game. East Coast Celtics fans often dread the West Coast trips for the damage they do to our sleep schedules. Here’s to hoping Boston gifts us with an early finish to tonight’s game.
Does Jrue Holiday become a regular in the back-to-back rest management plan?
Jrue missed 3 games towards the end of December with the same shoulder impingement as he is tonight. Since coming back from that injury he’s looked better as my colleague Jacob Issenberg wrote about recently.
While he doesn’t have a serious history of injury, it’s been a long year and a half of basketball for him, and it may be best to limit his workload to keep him fresh for the playoffs. We won’t get a definitive answer to this question tonight, but it is a trend worth monitoring.
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