Charlotte Bobcats at Boston Celtics
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Charlotte Bobcats will try and win their fifth straight game when they visit the Boston Celtics tonight. Charlotte was able to hold on for a 96-91 win at home over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, and are now 6-2 under interim head coach Paul Silas.
The Celtics snapped a two game losing streak with a 119-95 win over the Sacramento Kings, and have completely dominated the Bobcats, winning each of the last five meetings, including a 93-62 win at Charlotte back on Dec. 11.
Our NBA spreads have the Celtics favored by 9-points over the Bobcats at home.
With the Bobcats recent surge they have moved into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference, and for a team that was once 9-19 and didn’t look like they had a chance at making the postseason, they all the sudden look like a team that could be a threat.
With the change in coaches came a big change in the productivity from many of the Bobcats players. One of the players who has benefited the most from the switch is point guard D.J. Augustin, who is averaging 19.9 points and seven assists in his last eight games. Augustin is coming off arguably his best game of the season, scoring 22 points, dishing out 12 assists, and turning the ball over just once against the Bulls.
Charlotte is also getting improved play out of Stephen Jackson, and just got back Gerald Wallace in their last game. Charlotte however has had a really tough time scoring against the Celtics, and it will be interesting to see if they can continue to play well offensively against Boston.
The Celtics will be without All-Star power forward Kevin Garnett for a ninth consecutive game, but expect Garnett to be back in action next week against the Magic.
Without Garnett the Celtics are thin in the frontcourt, but it might not be a huge factor against the Bobcats, who really don’t have a consistent inside presence.
Paul Pierce led eight Celtics who scored in double figures with 25 points, and Rajon Rondo had 10 points and 13 assists. None of the Celtics starters had to play more than than 29 minutes against the Kings, and should have plenty of energy left in the tank for Charlotte.
While the Celtics have done a great job of shutting down the Bobcats in their recent matchups, they haven’t been the force defensively lately that we are use to seeing from this team, and a big reason for that is the loss of Garnett. Boston is allowing 98.5 points over their last six games. I think you take the Bobcats and the 9-points in this one.
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