Boston Celtics vs. Portland Trail Blazers GAMEDAY Preview

THE Portland Trail Blazers And Boston Celtics couldn’t be at more different times in their franchise life cycle.

THE Celticswith a differential of +11 points per 100 possessions, is on a pace of 65 victories according to Clean the glasstheir best since the 2007-08 Garnett-Pierce-Allen years where they won 66 games and the title.

The Blazers, on the other hand, have a -9.2 point differential and are slightly exceeding their 20-win expectations according to those same stats. This is a futility not seen in the Pink City since 2005-2006, when we were honored every night with the greatness of Darius Miles, Martell Webster, Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake.

If these teams were both complete, there would be no competition.

The saving grace for Portland, if you want to call it that, is the injury report. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are listed as questionable and Kristaps Porzingis is out. If neither of these players play, Portland absolutely has a chance, especially if Deandre Ayton continues his hot streak, averaging 19 pints, 12 rebounds, a block and a steal on 63 percent shooting over his last 14 matches. While Boston’s Al Horford is a cerebral defender (and less than a year ago effectively guarded a great MVP level in Joel Embiid), this guy is almost as old as me, and the time spent with fathers ends up making us all look foolish.

For Portland, it’s another opportunity to re-acclimate Scoot Henderson, see if Dalano Banton can continue to look like a player worthy of a spot on the team in the next few years, and instill good habits and muscle memory that will lay the foundation for the winning team that the Blazers hope to one day become.

Boston Celtics (49-14) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (18-45) – Mon. March 11 – 7:30 p.m. Pacific

How to watch on TV: Root Sports, NBA League Pass

Celtics Injuries: Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White (questionable); Kristaps Porzingis, Svi Mykhailiuk (out).

Trail Blazers Injuries: Jerami Grant, Ibou Badji, Justin Minaya, Ashton Hagans (questionable), Malcolm Brogdon, Shaedon Sharpe, Jabari Walker, Robert Williams III, (outgoing).

SBN Affiliate: Celtics Blog

Questions from Blazer’s Edge readers

As has been Blazer’s Edge tradition since Bill Walton scored 11 and 8 with SEVEN (7) blocks in just 16 minutes during his 1986 Sixth Man of the Year campaign with the same Boston Celtics, we asked your questions for tonight’s game! Seek messages like this the day before the game, and we plan to pick one or two (or more!) for each game and answer them as best we can.

From Corvid:

In honor of the Big Dig, what kind of hole will the Blazers find themselves in? At what start of the game?

For context: The “Big Dig” was a major transportation infrastructure project that took 15 years to complete in Boston that transformed a highway through downtown into a tunnel, reclaiming acres of land for public use.

I have news for you: if Porzingis and Brown AND Tatum are all on the bench, this game won’t be a Big Dig. At best, it will be a “plug a small portion of I-5 crossing the east side of Portland.”

Strange highway reclamation analogies aside, the Blazers will have a chance to spit in this game if Boston sits its best players. Uh. I would still caution those looking for a Blazers win that even an injured contending team has tons of other advantages – chief among them in coaching – that could trump even when the talent on the court is closer.

From akimbonautilus:

sorry, no question but the image statmuse chose for this post is hilarious:

It’s been a horrible last two games for Banton’s enemies, and it’s making us all look a little like Jimmy Butler guarding the state border.

From I_Move_With_Love:

Are Boston fans mostly happy with the Jrue Holiday trade at this point?

Two answers: 1) I don’t know because I barely have the capacity to follow one team and its fans, and VERY vaguely a second with the Bucks, for reasons that I hope are obvious. 2) they should be, because the team’s results speak for themselves, and being somewhere between “contender” and “title favorite” is about all you can ask of the during a given season. Although Holiday is being used individually differently on offense than in previous years – with usage and assist levels near his career low – he’s still as effective as he’s ever been (especially in depth) while providing defense that very few perimeter guards can. And while Boston’s success is due to many different things rather than just one trade, Holiday is absolutely one of them.

About the opponent:

Adam Taylor of the Celtics Blog offers 10 takeaways from Boston’s last game, including how they missed big man Kristaps Porzingis:

The Suns finished the game shooting 77.3% around the rim. On the season, the Celtics are holding teams to 62.5% shooting within four feet of the basket, ranking them 3rd in the NBA. The difference? Kristaps Porzingis was not in the rotation. Thus, the lack of length and mobility in the restricted area allowed the Suns to regain some success. We often talk about Porzingis as the team’s X-factor, mainly because of his three-point shooting and the way he unlocked offensive spacing. However, he also unlocked the defensive system and is a reliable and impactful rim protector. Porzingis’ absence may not have been missed too much on the offensive end in this game, but the Suns’ success in pressuring the rim and converting their looks indicates that his absence was a factor on the defensive end.

Conor Ryan Boston.com brings a story on Charles Barkley’s thoughts on the Celtics’ need to change their rotations by bringing the aforementioned Porzingis off the bench:

“They can solve their bench problems very easily,” Barkley said Thursday on TNT’s pregame show before Boston’s eventual 115-109 road loss to the Nuggets. “I honestly think they should bring Porzingis off the bench. Personally, this is just my personal opinion. You have Jrue Holiday, Tatum, Brown and Derrick White. Jayson and Jaylen are going to take all the photos. If I needed to score off the bench, I would bring Porzingis off the bench. He’s going to finish the game.”

Jared Weiss with The Athletic (subscription required) wrote about how Jayson Tatum’s presence has helped Boston, even when he’s not dominating:

How can the Celtics win games when their best player doesn’t really have it? How does Tatum stay relevant in games where he’s not swinging an iron? The beauty of having a star player is that even when he struggles, the defense still fears he could catch fire at any moment. That’s kind of Tatum’s thing. He’ll be a mason for 20 minutes, suddenly hit a series of daggers and Boston will regain momentum. This means he usually gets the coverage he wants at different points in the match. Tatum will often operate from the elbow in these moments, where he can extend a one-on-one match and dribble between his legs until he inevitably takes a step-back 3 and buries it. Teams usually don’t want to take that risk, so they often hit him against the sideline to get the ball out of his hands. It was a problem for him, but now it’s his comfort zone.