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Gametime 7 pm Pacific Time
Good news! Everyone gets to see this game. It will be broadcast locally on KGW TV Channel 8.
The last time these two teams met it was in Boston on December 5th. ESPN has a recap of the game here.The Blazers held their own for the first quarter of the game before the Celtics took over and dominated the game. Boston travels to Portland to play the Blazers tonight in a rematch the Blazers have been looking forward to.
After the game Brandon Roy told the press that the Celtics showed the Blazers how they want to be playing the game, and how a team sustains tough defensive play for a full 48 minutes. Roy said thats how our Blazer team has to play if we expect to compete against the top teams in this league and that our players are going to have to step up their efforts. For a look back at what happened in that game you can click here for a video recap and a look at the highlights, and a video of Kevin Garnett barking at Jerryd Bayless.
Not to minimize the importance of defense, but one thing seems certain to me about this game, and that is that we will be looking at pretty much the same result if the Blazers don't come up with some more imaginative offensive schemes. In the first game the Celtics closed down the interior and forced the Blazers into an outside game and running ISO's. They are probably the best defensive team in the league. And this strategy stopped Kobe and the Lakers in the NBA finals, and it will stop us again if we go to the one on one play or start jacking up a bunch of jumpers from outside. Time for Nate to get the old chalkboard out and come up with some new plays, some motion, and some new wrinkles on our pick and roll. If we try the same strategy we will be looking at the same results. We've been having this problem off and on since the game with Boston. They exposed some weaknesses and other teams have been taking advantage of them. Brandon Roy can not singlehandedly beat all these teams we play by going one on one during the last five minutes of each game. Guaranteed we will see the same results if we employ the same strategy.
We are going to have to get some stops against the Celtics too. Habitual defensive lapses and a lack of consitent perimeter defense has led to lots of easy inside scoring opportunites for our opponents. Once he gets beaten young Greg Oden has thus far been unable to resist the temptation to reach in and try to make a play. This has resulted in two or three fouls for Greg every night. If he doesn't pay attention to this against Boston he will wind up with another short night. He looked much better against the Raptors and hopefully he can have the same kind of game against the Celtics.
You can be pretty darn certain the Boston Celtics want to win this game. And you can be pretty darn certain they will go full speed all forty eight minutes of this game to make sure they do. Portland has shown less and less desire lately to put forth that kind of effort. I'm not counting on them being able to do so in this game either and the result will be that Boston will win by at least ten points.
Projected starters
Portland Trailblazers
Steve Blake -PG
Brandon Roy-SG
Nic Batum-SF
LaMarcus Aldridge-PF
Greg Oden-Center
Projected starters
Boston Celtics
Rajon Rondo-PG
Ray Allen-SG
Paul Pierce-SF
Kevin Garnett-PF
Kendrick Perkins-Center
Don't miss out on any of the pregame commentary, in game conversation, or post game results that you'll find here in the game thread.
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(got to stay optimistic)
