Boston Celtics: 2 storylines that will impact important matchup vs Kings
By Zachary McMahon
The Boston Celtics will face off against the Sacramento Kings Tuesday night at 10 pm on the last game of their five-game road trip.
The Celtics and Kings are both third in their conferences, the Eastern and Western respectively.
The Celtics are coming off another choke against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night in Salt Lake City as this is also one of two embarrassing losses for the Celtics in this road trip as they lost to the Houston Rockets last Monday.
The Celtics won against the Sacramento Kings 122-104 on November 25 as Tatum went off for 30 and Jaylen Brown scored 25.
I believe that this is going to be an important game for the Celtics, because they’re a potential opponent for the NBA Finals this season, as the Kings are a surprise team in the Western Conference after a long time of failure as they’re the team with the longest playoff drought in all the major leagues (NBA, NHL, MLB, & NFL).
Boston Celtics will be at full strength again
Robert Williams III will be back in the lineup after missing the last eight games with a hamstring injury, which will be a big help on the boards. When Williams is the only guy out for the Celtics, Horford would be at center, Jayson Tatum would be at power forward and Brown would be at small forward and Derrick White would be at shooting guard.
However, both Smart and Horford missed the loss against the Utah Jazz. Horford missed the game due to it being a back-to-back and has not played a second game of a back-to-back this season due to back tightness, as the Celtics also played on Friday against the Trail Blazers.
Smart missed the game because of a left hip injury. Tatum and Brown moved to their usual positions as Grant Williams and Blake Griffin started down low against the Jazz. Derrick White will be back as the 6th man for the Celtics in the game against the Kings on Tuesday night.
Celtics simply have to finish games
I don’t know how many times I have to say that the Celtics choked until I’m blue in the face. These chokes are unacceptable for a team that was once the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference, and because of these bad losses they have fell to the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Despite the loss against the Jazz, the Green have clinched a playoff berth with 10 games left on the schedule in the regular season.
That being said, the C’s cannot go on like this because they will not win in the playoffs and will not repeat as the Eastern Conference champion and will lose the chance for the NBA Finals trophy. They can start to finish the season strong and be in a better position by winning against the Kings.
The Kings recently came back from a 16-point deficit against the Chicago Bulls when De-Aaron Fox hit the game-winning three for the Kings, so the Kings have an ability to come back from large margins as the Celtics tend to choke those kinds of leads.
I’m looking forward for this game and the rest of the schedule ahead as I’m excited to see if this team can go deep in the playoffs again.