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Game Preview: Heat at Celtics
 |
vs. |  |
|---|---|---|
| 24-24 | Record | 30-16 |
| 96.8 | PPG | 99.1 |
| 96.4 | PPGA | 93.7 |
| 45.5 | FG% | 48.5 |
| 45.1 | Opp. FG% | 44.2 |
| 40.9 | Rebounds | 38.8 |
| 18.6 | Assists | 23.4 |
| 12.8 | Turnovers | 15.6 |
| 7.2 | Steals | 8.7 |
| 5.5 | Blocks | 5.2 |
| Point Guard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Rafer Alston |
Rajon Rondo |
||
| Shooting Guard | |||
Dwyane Wade |
Ray Allen | ||
| Small Forward | |||
Quentin Richardson |
Tony Allen |
||
| Power Forward | |||
Michael Beasley |
Kevin Garnett |
||
| Center | |||
Jermaine O'Neal |
Kendrick Perkins | ||
| Sixth Man | |||
Mario Chalmers |
Rasheed Wallace | ||
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
TD Garden, 8:00 p.m.
TV: CSN New England / ESPN
RADIO: WEEI 850 AM
We're only in the third day of February, but the positive news of this month has already surpassed that of January in Boston. With a convincing win over the Wizards Monday night and an encouraging injury report on Paul Pierce, the C's are in great position to keep on trucking into the All-Star break.
Four games remain on the schedule prior to next weekend's festivities in Dallas and the first comes at 8 p.m. tonight against the Miami Heat in the TD Garden.
Tonight's game marks the beginning of a three-game homestand for the Celtics that will be followed by a quick one-game trek to New Orleans to wrap up their pre-All-Star break schedule. With the adversity Boston faced this past weekend, it would be a paramount victory for the team to head into the break having won all of those games in addition to Monday's win.
But it won't be easy, especially with the availability of Pierce being uncertain. It was announced Tuesday evening that Pierce suffered a strained left mid-foot and he is listed as day-to-day. After The Truth collided with Caron Butler Monday night and barely played in the second half, it was feared that the injury might have cost him at least a month of playing time. Instead, he'll take this injury day by day and could be on the floor for any of the next four games.
While he may play tonight, the Celtics will most likely prepare as if he won't be in the lineup. The good news is that Boston has gone through that routine already this season and has plenty of experience playing without Pierce on the floor.
Tony Allen is the player who will most likely hear his name called in place of Pierce if No. 34 can't go tonight. Allen has totalled for 24 points, nine boards, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots off of the bench for the Celtics in the past two games. He's playing some of the best basketball we've seen from him in years, so if there were ever a perfect time for him to be slotted into the starting lineup, this would have to be it.
If Allen is forced to start, Boston has to be thankful that it is not taking on a team with a premier small forward. The Heat do have Dwyane Wade, who is as dominate as anyone in the game, but his accompanying small forward is Quentin Richardson. Richardson is a good player, but Pierce, Allen and Ray Allen are all capable of defending him, so the C's should be in good shape no matter what the status is for Pierce tonight.
Miami enters the game at an even 24-24 on the season and have fallen all the way down to the seventh seed in the East. With Chicago coming on strong over the past month and a half, the Heat are in danger of falling into the bottom seed in the conference or out of the playoffs as a whole. They have lost four of their last five games and have scored more than 94 points in only one of those contests.
Wade ranks third in the league with 27.0 PPG, but he's not getting a whole lot of help at the offensive end of the court. Rafer Alston was acquired from New Jersey in early January in hopes of sparking the Heat's offense with a veteran guard who had played with Wade in the past. But shockingly, Alston's numbers as a starter in Miami are actually lower than those he was putting up as a reserve for the lowly Nets.
The good thing for Miami is that Alston is a very good defender and could have some success in slowing down Rajon Rondo, who has torched the Heat with 19.0 PPG and 9.5 APG in two games this season. Boston won both of those games and shot better than 52 percent in each contest. Rondo is the player who makes the Celtics' offense tick, so slowing him down could mean slowing Boston down as a whole.
Tonight will be a matchup of one of the best players in the game against one of the best teams in the game. Usually the better team comes out on top, and that's why Boston is 2-0 against the Heat this season, but Miami has a chance to pull out a win. Both teams are jockeying for position in the conference standings and want to head into the All-Star break on a high note, so tonight's game will be important to both to propel them through the next week of games.
Batman and...
One of Wade's most frustrating games of the season took place on Jan. 6 in Miami against the Celtics. All he did in that game was drop 44 points, five rebounds and seven assists on the C's, only to see his team lose 112-106 in devastating fashion in overtime. He made a steal and basket with 0.6 seconds remaining, which most thought sealed the victory for Miami, but Rondo followed that up with a game-tying alley-oop at the buzzer. Boston took it from there in overtime.
Clearly, that game made a statement that he can carry his team, but he can't beat the Celtics by himself. He needs a partner in crime; a Robin to his Batman performance, if you will.
There hasn't been a player not named Wade who has scored at least 20 points for the Heat in a Miami-Boston game this season, and if they want to win tonight, that's probably going to need to change.
Bench contributions
Boston was able to come within seconds of knocking off the Lakers and then knock off the Wizards in back-to-back games because of the team's bench play. Tony Allen and Rasheed Wallace have both played well and sparked the team during important stretches of those games.
Against Miami this season, though, the Celtics bench has made a total of only 10 field goals, and that kind of production usually won't cut it. With Pierce possibly not playing tonight, Eddie House's shooting off the bench will be very important. If he can nail a few shots and Sheed has a normal game, Boston should be in good shape.
On the flip side, Miami's bench will need to perform as well. Udonis Haslem poured in 19 points off of the bench in the last meeting between these two teams and was the only reason outside of Wade that that game was even close. The Heat don't need another incredible performance like that from its bench, but having an overall solid game from its reserves would go a long way toward helping them notch a first victory over Boston this season.
Assists
The Celtics are one of the best assist teams in the league (second only to Utah) and the Heat are one of the worst assist teams in the league (better than only Washington, New Jersey and Detroit).
If Miami wants to hang in this game, they're going to need to move the ball well and finish the game with at least a few more assists than their average of 18.6. The offense works off of Wade, and he's more than capable of finding the open man, but the point guards will need to rack up some assists tonight as well.
Moving the ball will be a key for both teams, but if Miami is going to pull off the upset they're going to need to need to do it drastically better than they have all season long.
