The Clippers will look to stretch their win streak to seven games against the surprisingly excellent Boston Celtics.
Game Information
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
When: 7:30 PM PT
How to Watch: NBA TV, FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected Starting Lineups
Celtics: Payton Pritchard – Derrick White – Jordan Walsh – Jaylen Brown – Neemias Queta
Clippers: James Harden – Kris Dunn – Kawhi Leonard – John Collins – Ivica Zubac
Injuries
Celtics: Jayson Tatum Out (Achilles)
Clippers: Bogdan Bogdanovic Out (Hamstring), Bradley Beal Out (Hip), Chris Paul Out (Not with team)
The Big Picture
The Clippers’ six-game win streak has pushed them into 11th place in the Western Conference and has them sitting just 1.5 games back of Portland for the last play-in spot. The Memphis Grizzlies are also within a reasonable distance (three games ahead), but after that the Warriors (5.5 games ahead) and Suns (7 games ahead) will require a longer, sustained stretch of excellence to run down. Thursday’s win over the Jazz was not encouraging in that regard, as the Clippers were basically dragged over the finish line against a depleted Utah squad by Kawhi Leonard’s superstar shotmaking and nothing more. If this is just who Kawhi is the rest of the season than the Clippers should continue to rise up the standings, but they’ll need more of the well-balanced efforts they’ve had at times in their win streak to truly get back into the thick of the playoff picture.
The Antagonist
To me, the Celtics are the most surprising team in the NBA this season. I thought they’d have enough veterans and desire to win to be competent, but pegged them for a play-in type team with around 35 wins or so. Au contraire. The Celtics are 21-12 with the 3rd best record in the Eastern Conference about 40% of the way through the season, and very little of their success seems like a fluke. In fact, the Celtics’ advanced metrics are even better than their record, as they boast the 4th best Net Rating behind only the Thunder, Rockets, and Nuggets (and they’re just a hair back of Denver). The Celtics are middling on defense (15th) but fantastic on offense (4th) and pretty good on the glass (11th), remarkable for a team missing their best player (Tatum) and that shed a bunch of good players this summer. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard have done the heavy lifting, but the Celts have gotten shocking contributions from Neemias Queta, rookie Hugo Gonzalez, and hitherto little-used young guys Josh Minott and Jordan Walsh. It’s been a stunning success.
Notes
Zu Back: Shams reported yesterday that Ivica Zubac is available to return today, marking just a two week absence for the big fella. Despite the Zu haters coming out of the woodwork during the Clippers’ winning streak, I would be stunned if he didn’t immediately start. There are two questions, however. The first is how much does he play/does he have a minutes restriction. The second is whether Brook Lopez or Yanic Konan Niederhauser will be his backup. As Zu’s injury was just an ankle sprain, I think he might not have a minutes restriction. And I’d lean Brook as the backup, though YKN getting the role wouldn’t shock me.
The Defensive Matchups: The Celtics’ three-headed dragon on offense poses some challenges for the Clippers on defense. Zu will guard Neemias Queta, probably, though the Clippers could try stashing him on Jordan Walsh. If Zu does take Queta, then Harden will almost certainly be on Walsh. That seems fine enough. The challenge is that means John Collins will have to guard one of Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, or Jaylen Brown, and he’s not ideally suited for any of those guys. Kawhi on Jaylen makes some sense, but Jaylen’s explosiveness could be a lot for Kawhi to deal with at this stage, where he’s better as a help and rotation player than on-ball. The Clippers normally put Kris Dunn on the other team’s best player, but he’s a bit undersized to be an ideal match on Brown. I really have no idea how the Clippers will line up on that end, and am curious to see what Ty Lue and Jeff Van Gundy have in store for the Celtics on defense.
