A frisky opponent: Bobcats-Celtics Preview
Posted by Brian Robb on Apr 1, 2009
Charlotte at Boston
7:30pm CSN
Celtics: 56-19 (30-6 at home);
Off. Efficiency 110.4 (5th);
Def. Efficiency 101.5 (1st)
Bobcats: 34-40 (12-23 on road);
Off. Efficiency 104.8 (27th);
Def. Efficiency 105.6 (7th)
Season Series: 3rd of 3 meetings.
Series tied 1-1
November 29th: BOS 89 CHA 84
January 6th: BOS 106 CHA 114 (OT)
Injury Report:
Celtics: OUT: Leon Powe (knee), Brian Scalabrine (concussions) Kevin Garnett (knee)
Bobcats: No Injuries
After a gloomy day of negative injury reports on Kevin Garnett’s knee, the Celtics received some positive news this afternoon with the surprising announcement that Tony Allen to action against the Bobcats this evening. The timing could not be better for the C’s as the Bobcats are on a roll lately winning 3 straight including a W last night at home against the Lakers. That win leaves them only 1 game behind Chicago for the 8th spot in the East and ensures that the Bobcats will be a motivated team this evening.
Even though the Bobcats are only one back of Chicago, they have an extremely tough schedule in their final 8 games, with 6 of those coming on the road, where they play miserably. (12-23) Larry Brown has likely instilled this harsh reality into this squad. They will come into Boston tonight, knowing they have little margin of error in this playoff race and will see a weakened Celtic team as a perfect opportunity to steal a road win in the Garden.
Despite not being a very good team, the Bobcats have been a tough matchup for the C’s in the past two years. They have beat Boston twice in six attempts, and should have won a third if it wasn’t for some last second heroics from Ray Allen in a nailbiter at the beginning of last season down in Charlotte.
Many of those contests were tough matchups for the Celtics, but this Bobcat squad is a different team. It is also a better team. After acquiring Boris Diaw and Raja Bell the Bobcats have been one of the better teams in the East having gone 28-24 over that stretch. Scoring remained a major problem for this roster despite those additions so the Bobcats unloaded a major disappointment in Adam Morrison to the Lakers for sharp shooting Vladmir Radmonovic, who had gone from a starter to completely falling out of the rotation in LA.
The Bobcats are still one of the worst offensive teams in the league (27th in offensive rating) but have been shooting better as a team since the addition of Radmonovic. They are sporting a 15-9 record once Vlad joined the ship. On the whole however, this team has been up and down all year with the exception of Gerald Wallace who has been playing some fantastic basketball in the past few weeks on both ends of the floor.
Wallace has turned the ball over only twice in the last 122 minutes of play and also has 11 blocks in the last four games. He has been a steady anchor for this team all year long so it will be important for Paul Pierce to limit him tonight offensively and make Wallace work hard on the defensive end of the floor as well. We might even see Tony Allen get some limited time trying to guard Wallace as well.
Ray Allen will also have his hands full tonight as Raja Bell will be pest following him all over the floor. Many have argued Bell had lost a step in Phoenix, but he has seen a spike in all of his offensive numbers since joining Charlotte and is still one of the best perimeter defender in the games. Last night he helped in limiting Kobe to 10/28 shooting on an evening, but here’s hoping that his legs will be hurting after that effort.
In order to win this one tonight, I think it is important that the Celtics try to get out and run on this team early. The Bobcats play at an extremely slow pace (26th in league) so it would serve the Celtics well to get them out of their comfort zone and get out in transition, rather than be roped into a half court battle, where Charlotte would prefer to execute.
In addition to a strong starting 5, the Bobcats have a solid bench unit as well with D.J Augustin, DeSagana Diop, along with Vlad providing very little drop off from the top 5. It will be essential for the C’s bench to limit their production and provide a boost of their own, like they did Sunday Night against the Thunder.
All in all, KG or no KG, this is still a game the Celtics should win. The Bobcats are playing a lot better, but still are an atrocious road team. If the C’s get a balanced effort from their starters, get Rondo and Perk involved in the offense and as always limit their turnovers, they should be able to take out a surging but likely tired Bobcats team.
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