Celtics (22-49) at Sixers (28-43) 3/30

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Boston Celtics (22-49) at Philadelphia 76ers (28-43)
Friday, March 30, 2007 • 7:00 PM ET
Regular Season Game #72 • Road Game #36
League Pass 751, FSN
Wachovia Center • Philadelphia, PA




Probable Starters
PG Rondo 5.4 points, 3.4 boards and 3.5 assists
SG West 4.2 points and 4.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists
SF Pierce 24.8 points, 5.9 boards and 4.1 assists
PF Jefferson 15.5 points, 11.0 boards and 1.51 blocks
C . Perkins 4.2 points and 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks

Off the Bench
Green/Gomes/Powe/Telfair/Ray

Injuries
Szczerbiak ankle
Allen knee
Ratliff back
Scalabrine hamstring
Olowokandi foot

Notes Pierce has been talking about shutting it down and after the last game sounded more serious than ever. But as of now he is still listed in the starting lineup but that may change if he ever does consult with the doctors.





Probable Starters
PG Miller 13.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 4.2 apg
SG Green 10.8 ppg, 1.5 apg, 2.1 rpg
SF Iguodala 18.2 ppg, 5.6 apg, 5.8 rpg
PF Hunter 6.1 ppg, 1.2 bpg, 4.6 rpg
C Dalembert 10.8 ppg, 2.04 bpg, 9.1 rpg

Off the Bench
Carney/Korver/Smith/Amundson/Williams

Injuries
Randolph Ankle

Player to Watch
Korver has the ability to come off the bench and beat us from beyond the arc. Someone needs to guard him and keep him from getting going.

Notes: What is there about guys with the name Miller and weird hair? The Sixers are 5 and 5 in their last 10 games and are coming off a loss.

Last Meeting 12/22/06. Celtics started Telfair, Allen, Green, Gomes, and Jefferson. Sixers started Ollie, Green, Iguodala, Henderson, and Dalembert. Sixers won 98-83. Al had 20 points and 14 rebounds. Gerald had 20 points 9 rebounds.

Key Match ups
vs
Perk has been playing great recently and his defense inside is going to be key once again.

vs
Pierce may or may not play. If he does, he will have all he can handle playing against Iguodala.

Keys to the Game
Hustle and Intensity We need to keep our intensity and focus for the whole game and not just one or two quarters.

Rebound When we crash the boards we give ourselves second chance points and keep the other team one and done.

Defense We have to get stops and disrupt the flow of their game. We won't outscore them and need to stop them from scoring. Perk has been setting the tone on defense and it has picked up the rest of the team's defense. We need to keep this up.

Share the ball When we share the ball and find the open man, we play very well. But when players try to take over the game themselves and try to do too much we have problems and usually lose.

The Sixers are IMO the most boring team in the NBA. They don't really have a set style of play, sometimes Iggy just runs with it and does whatever he wants, and other times they slow it down and feed the ball inside to Dalembert. They have some shooters, and a decent PG running the offense for them but with AI gone they don't have anyone they can turn to to take over the game. Iggy is a rising star and someday may be an all-star player, but right now he's nothing more then a more explosive Tony Allen type guy IMO. He's exciting to watch, he loves driving to the hoop, and he can explode on guys, but his shot is pretty ugly at times and he's still very inconsistent.

The talks of Pierce shutting it down for the season were talked about more in the media today and its not 100% whether Pierce will play or not so I look for Gerald to have a good game with some extra minutes.

I'm predicting a Celtics loss simply because the 76ers have more veteran leadership then the C's right now, but I still think the C's are the better team.

And please Doc...KEEP PLAYING POWE!

Paul should shut it down to make sure he's healthy enough to work out this summer and be 100% for the Fall.
let more of the young guys run and get experience.
keep perkins in there until his 6th foul.
have a powe/gomes frontcourt.
try a 3 gaurd set with bassy, rondo and west.

do whatever to narrowly lose and not creep up on Milwaukee and charlotte.

They have announced that Pierce won't play tonight. His elbow is too sore. But they aren't ruling out his playing in future games this season, possibly even Sunday in Cleveland. So, they aren't saying that he is shutting down but they did say he won't play tonight.

This should be an ugly game.

It was definitely an ugly game... Korver hanging a 26 spot on them is embarrassing.

Terrible....just terrible