Boston Celtics all set to host San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday: NBA Preview
San Antonio Spurs are looking pretty fragile on the offensive after another critical injury – Stephen Jackson- to their already depleted bench. They will be looking to kick off their 6 match road trip in Boston on a high note.
The Celtics on the other hand have had problems of their own. They had a pretty tight schedule last week in which played 4 games in 5 days, capped by an embarrassing loss to the Detroit Pistons. They will however be coming into
the game refreshed after a two day break.
Spurs come to Boston after losing two of their last three games; they were dropped by a spirited Clippers’ side the other night. That game could have gone any way but Chris Paul swept their hopes with a short jumper with 24.7 seconds
on the clock. In the first half, Stephen Jackson suffered a non-displaced fracture of the proximal phalanx of his right little finger and did not return. He is expected to be out for nearly a month and comes as a major blow to the famed Spurs’ bench as Kawhi
Leonard has already been sidelined with an injury to his left knee.
Although the Spurs have dropped only 3 games out of 11 so far this season, but losing is something that is not associated much with this team.
Their coach Gregg Popovich is certainly not impressed.
"Of all our games, this game was in the soft category," coach Gregg Popovich said. "We never had five guys that competed hard enough to win the basketball game. The Clippers took it with their aggressiveness and their toughness,
both mentally and physically. For a portion of that game, we were an embarrassment."
Tim Duncan will have to carry more responsibility now after the loss of Stephen Jackson. He is faring quite well so far this season, with an average of 18.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
The weary Celtics lost 103-88 on the road to Detroit on Sunday and they can blame the schedule partially for that as they had to play 7 games in 10 days.
"We can't use the schedule as an excuse - this is the NBA and you have to play stretches like this," forward Kevin Garnett said. "But when you see as many shots hit the front of the rim as we had tonight, you know that you don't
have your legs."
Rajon Rondo will be looking to extend his double digit assist streak to 35 games tonight, the third longest such streak in NBA history. He dished out 23 assists in their 105-103 win over the Spurs in January 2011, it is his career’s
second highest assist figures.
The Celtics will be hoping for a similar effort from him when they host the Spurs tonight. They do have the home advantage and can take inspiration from the fact that they have won 7 out of the last 10 games in the series. They
Spurs however are coming into this game after a hard loss to Clippers and Coach Popovich will be asking for nothing less than a victory to kick off their road run.
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