Game 68/82: C’s (44-24) @ Mavs (46-22)

Boston at Dallas
9:00 p.m. EST
TD Garden
CSN/WEEI

Opposing viewpoint: The Two Man Game

Offensive Efficiency:

Boston: 107.2 points/100 possessions (14th)

Dallas: 109.0 points/100 possessions (11th)

Defensive Efficiency:

Boston: 102.2 points allowed/100 possessions (1st)

Dallas: 106.6 points allowed/100 possessions (13th)

Probable Dallas Starters:

Caron Butler, Dirk Nowitzki, Brendan Haywood, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion

Injury Report

Dallas: OUT: Tim Thomas (personal)

Thumbnail: The C’s continue their road trip, trying to build on their 3 game winning streak, with the 2nd half of a back to back against the Mavs, winners of 13 of their last 14. While the C’s will be coming off of short rest, the Mavs will be playing just their 2nd game in the last week., so they will be just shaking off rust more than anything else.

WHAT THE MAVS DO WELL:

Take Care of the Ball

The Mavericks are a run of the mill offensive team (12th in FG% and 3pt shooting percentage), when you look at their overall shooting numbers, but one thing they take care of the little things quite well when they have the ball and that includes not turning over the ball. They rank 2nd in the league in turnover percentage with no one in their rotation averaging more than 2 a game. A strong contingent of guards with Jason Kidd, J.J Barea, and Jason Terry help a lot in this area. Kidd though, has been struggling with the ball recently, averaging 3.5 turnovers in his last 10 games.

Keeping Opponents off the line

Dallas has been deceptively strong on the defensive end this year and one of the main reasons why is their ability to keep their opponents off the charity stripe. Ranking 5th in the league in fewest Free Throws allowed per FG attempt for their opponent. Given the C’s success in this department offensively (9th in the league) will be very interesting to see what gives tonight.

Shoot Free Throws

Dallas shoots 81 percent from the line, good for tops in the NBA. Given the C’s recent foul prone ways as Zach Lowe wrote about last week, it would certainly be in their best interest to be a bit more disciplined in keeping Dallas off he line tonight, as it’s evident they will pay for it, if they don’t.

WHAT THE MAVS DO POORLY

Offensive Rebounding

Their one major flaw as a team numbers wise, they rank 25th in the league in offensive rebounding percentage. That number could be somewhat misleading with the recent addition of Brendan Haywood, one of the best rebounders in the league, but he and Dampier are really the only guys willing to do any dirty work down low.  Defending the glass was a chore against scrappy Houston last night, so the C’s should have an easier time this evening.

PLAYER WHO MAKES ME WORRY

Dirk

This doesn’t deserve much discussion……it is worth noting however, Dirk is struggling from deep, (for him) in last 10 games, shooting just 33 percent from downtown. Always a tough assignment for KG, but the power forward will be best served to push the German out towards the arc. It will be nice to have KG back for this one, as he missed the team’s first meeting this year when Dallas ran the C’s out of the Garden in the 2nd half.

PLAYERS WHO DO NOT MAKE ME WORRY

Brendan Haywood

With the reemergence of Perk down low, I don’t see Haywood being much a factor tonight, as long as Perk stays disciplined in keeping him off the glass.

WHAT WE WANT TO SEE FROM THE C’S TONIGHT

Paul Pierce staying out of foul trouble

Okay, I’m reaching here, but the guy has been forced to the bench early in the 1st and 3rd quarters in three of his last four games. It hasn’t hurt the team thus far, as Pierce has been incredibly efficient when he’s been in there, with the additional benefit of having his minutes kept down. However, against an elite opponent like Dallas, the team will need him out there for his standard minutes in order to compete. Pierce needs to splay smart and keep himself in position to stay in the game.

PREDICTION

I’m going to write on this a bit more in-depthly later today, but I just have to say I’m fully back on board with this team right now. They aren’t all the way back, but they are well on their way, with all notable signs pointing them in the right direction. Pierce and Allen are clicking, Perk is back doing the little things down low, the bench is building chemistry and providing chemistry, and hell Sheed is even rebounding.

Something finally clicked with this team in the past week in their blowouts at home. Yes, they were inferior opponents, but they found a bit of their swagger and confidence again in those matchups. Everyone seemed to be finally fed up with the inconsistency and this team is putting in the effort, top to bottom, to change it to an extra gear down the stretch, while Doc is pushing the right buttons from the bench, not overextending the key pieces and their minutes, not now anyway.

So what does this all boil down to? I think the C’s go on a run here and take the next step in beating an “elite” opponent, for the first time in about a month. Dallas has won 13 of 14, but a lot of those W’s have come against the bottom of the league, with the Mavs struggling to get by the likes of New Jersey and Minnesota in a couple of those. Sounds pretty familiar to me.

C’s are on a mission right now on this road trip and come into town looking for revenge from the embarrassing Garden loss earlier this year. The Green take care of business and head to Utah looking for a sweep.

Celtics 102, Mavericks 95

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