The Boston Celtics will take on the Portland Trail Blazers in their second of eight ‘seeding’ games being held at the Disney-hosted NBA restart at the Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Celtics fans are likely getting antsy for a win after dropping a winnable game to the Milwaukee Bucks in their restart opener Friday and their last of three exhibition scrimmages to the Houston Rockets as well, but it should be noted that Boston is still prioritizing postseason readiness over regular season wins.
What does that mean vs. the Trail Blazers?
Firstly, All-Star point guard Kemba Walker will remain on a minutes restriction, and will likely be pulled even if he could help the team’s winning percentage late in the game, as he was against the Bucks.
It also means we could see experimental lineups to test them against bigger teams Boston could face in the playoffs, most notably the Philadelphia 76ers.
With Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back in the fold and Hassan Whiteside and Carmelo Anthony on this team, it’ll be one of the biggest frontlines the Celtics will face in the restarted regular season, and they won’t be an easy out.
Portland will be without small forward Rodney Hood and reserve guard Jaylen Adams is questionable, joining Caleb Swanigan and Trevor Ariza, who opted out of the restart.
Boston has a full roster available, a rare occurrence this ‘late’ in the season facilitated in part by the COVID-19 hiatus.
Online sportsbooks are granting the Celtics a solid line of -4.5 on average, but there’s a good chance the Celtics drop another to this hungry Blazers squad.
Prediction: a relatively high-scoring affair Boston wins 127-118.
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