The Portland Trail Blazers are staying right here at home as they host the reportedly-about-to-be-sold Boston Celtics at the Moda Center.
Late March and April in the NBA can whip up quite a bit of funny business from teams as the regular season wraps up. Tonight will be no exception. Three of the Celtics’ best players – Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis – are all on the injury report, and it will be a surprise if any of them play. And while the Celtics like Portland have won four in a row, they are very firmly locked into their playoff standing sitting five games behind the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and seven games ahead of the third-place New York Knicks.
All to say: the Celtics have every incentive to rest their players and get them fresh for what they hope is another long playoff run.
Portland Trail Blazers (32-39, -2.8 Net Rating) vs. Boston Celtics (51-19, +8.9 Net Rating)
Sun. March 23 @ 3pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; NBA TV elsewhere (also available on streaming via NBA TV on League Pass)
Trail Blazers injuries: Anfernee Simons, Donovan Clingan, Jabari Walker, Rayan Rupert (questionable); Jerami Grant (doubtful); Robert Williams III, Deandre Ayton (out).
Celtics injuries: Jason Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, (questionable); Jaylen Brown, Xavier Tillman (out).
SBN Affiliate: Celtics Blog
For Portland, they will try to keep things moving as they find themselves just two games behind both the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks for 10th in the West and a play-in spot (though Portland would need to pass both teams to get in). That’s not only on the table, but for how badly Dallas has been floundering and the discombobulation in Phoenix, it might be there for the taking if the Blazers want it badly enough.
While he might not play today, Porzingis played with Blazers history-maker Deni Avdija while they were both on the Wizards, and both had a ton of respect for each other (shout out to BEdge reader Checksum23A9 for posting this video in the comments of another article):
Last Time They Played…
…Jabari Walker hit six threes (!), but Payton Pritchard and Derrick White hit ten and nine respectively, and the Celtics got the double digit win.
Reader Questions
Before most games, we ask you all to make our previews better by asking us questions! Keep your eyes peeled for posts just like this to add your questions and (possibly) have them answered right here in these very previews!
From dersuusula:
Is…. is Deni Him??? Like, the one?
He DID so something only Dame, Clyde, and Sidney Wicks have ever done… but it’s way too soon to tell. What Deni is doing is rad, but we need to be mindful we’re in that part of the season where teams are tanking or resting and things are just weird. Is it fun? Does it give me some hope? Heck yeah!
From BlazerTag:
With Jrue Holiday’s production and availability waning and Payton Pritchard getting better each season, how long before Holiday’s contract will be seen as an albatross?
It’s a bit of a funhouse mirror situation, because yes, Holiday is having a rough year… but even at his best he was going to be a funky offensive fit on a team that has such much other talent. Last year and this year his usage rates have been at career-lows. For someone who isn’t a lethal shooter in the best of times, the fact that his three-point attempt rate was at a career high last year, then even HIGHER this year tells you that he’s being used as a release valve and expected to hit those shots. If you have never played that way and you’re just a league average shooter from deep, that can be a bit rough.
So he might be overpaid, but I think the Celtics are banking on Holiday coming up big defensively when they need him to put on the clamps in a close game deep in the playoffs, maybe when other players are tired. To that point, Holiday averaged 38 minutes a game in the Finals last year, and we all know how that ended: with a ring on his finger.
From Blazerspinwheel:
Does the Blazers recent success and or the fact that the Celtics were just sold make it anymore likely that Jody Allen will sell the Blazers in the next off season ?
No to the first, yes to the second. Forbes estimated the Celtics to be worth $6B; they sold (reportedly) for $6.1B. And all available reporting suggests the NBA was waiting for this sale before deciding how and when to move forward on expansion. If the NBA expands to two more teams, ALL owners will get a cut, Allen included. To the extent that the Celtics went for a higher price, which in turn makes expansion slightly more likely, which would in return line Allen’s pockets… yes, the sale of the Blazers may be a bit closer.
From JuiloCan2 on BlueSky:
Pritchard and White went crazy from 3 last time we matched up. How good would the Blazers be right now, if we had two 3pt shooters like that, instead of just one?
83-0.
But seriously, yes: if you like Deni Avdija’s headfirst drives to the paint and want to see more of the same from Scoot Henderson, imagine how much easier their lives would be with another long-range threat or two. You can see the theory of this team if you squint, and while they are still missing a 1A star, the best iteration of THIS version of the Blazers could be a feisty playoff matchup if they did have those shooters.
About the Opponent:
Azad Rosay of Celtics Blog shared 10 takeaways from the Celtics’ recent win against the Utah Jazz:
Leaning into Porzingis passing
A few weeks ago in January, when the Celtics’ offense was struggling a little, I suggested in an article that Kristaps Porzingis’ passing could help the Celtics add some versatility to their offense. Indeed, because of his size and gravity, the space on the floor is different when he has the ball at the top or from the post-up. Last night, through various actions, the Celtics designed their offense to compensate for Jaylen Brown’s absence, and Porzingis’ passing was one of the keys. Using the Latvian as an offensive hub disrupts the defensive structure because he either drags the rim protector away from the paint, or the mismatch causes a double team and opens things up for his teammates.
Empty side pick-and-roll
As the Celtics tried to use scheme, they also worked on their usual plays. One of these plays is a pick-and-roll on an empty side. As no one is in the strong-side corner, the defensive help options are different. Next to the pick, the Celtics like to place a player at the top so the ball can be swung to him before he passes it to the player down in the paint. This is the play the Celtics used to take a big lead against the Lakers in the third quarter a few weeks ago. Last night, the Celtics did it again against the Jazz with Horford and Porzingis moving in space. The structure of this play call can take different forms, as the ball-handler could be anyone between Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, or Jayson Tatum here; and the screener could be literally any of the players on the court, as the Celtics love to mix the matchups. The Celtics’ half-court offense is number two in efficiency this season, and Joe Mazzulla’s innovative playbook is one of the reasons why.
Tim Bontemps of ESPN gave detail on the Celtics’ recent reported sale to a new owner for just over $6B, a move that may provide more clarity on whether the NBA will expand by adding two more teams:
A group led by Bill Chisholm, managing partner at Symphony Technology Group, has agreed to purchase the Boston Celtics for a valuation of $6.1 billion, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania. That price would surpass the $6.05 billion price a group led by Josh Harris paid to buy the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2023 as the most paid for a franchise in North American sports history, and it would easily surpass the record number for the control stake of an NBA team, which was set two years ago when Mat Ishbia bought the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion…
…The Celtics’ sale also could have an impact on the potential timeline for NBA expansion. For months, sources have said that process wouldn’t move forward until there was clarity on Boston’s situation, and where this sale price wound up. Now that there is clarity — and at this kind of number — the league could revisit that timeline, sources said.
