Game Thread SEEDING GAME# 2: BLAZERS @ CELTICS - AUGUST 2, 2020 - SUNDAY, 12:30, ABC & NBCSNW

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On a scale of 1-10, what's your excitement level for this Blazers season restart?

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    49
  • Poll closed .

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Darkwebs

Darkwebs

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2019-20 REGULAR SEASON RECORD
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
30 - 37
(11-23 Road)
BOSTON CELTICS
43 - 22
(23-9 Home)


_____________________________
---------PROBABLE STARTERS---------

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PG
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DAMIAN LILLARD VS MARCUS SMART

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SG
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C.J. McCOLLUM VS JAYLEN BROWN

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SF
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CARMELO ANTHONY VS GORDON HAYWARD

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PF
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ZACH COLLINS VS JAYSON TATUM

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C
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JUSUF NURKIC VS DANIEL THEIS


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------- JERSEYS -------
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---
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WHEN: 12:30 PM, SUNDAY, 8/2/2020

WHERE: The Arena at ESPN Wide World of Sports, Orlando, Florida
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TV BROADCAST:
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AND
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RADIO BROADCAST:
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​


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--------------BENCH--------------
- PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS -
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ADAMS , SIMONS , TRENT Jr.
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HEZONJA , LITTLE , HOARD
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GABRIEL , WHITESIDE , BROWN


----- BOSTON CELTICS-----
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WALKER , WATERS , EDWARDS
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WANAMAKER , GREEN , LANGFORD
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OJELEYE , G.WILLIAMS , R.WILLIAMS III
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KANTER , POIRIER , FALL

INJURIES
TRAIL BLAZERS
Jaylen Adams (back): QUESTIONABLE
Trevor Ariza (personal reasons): OUT
Caleb Swanigan (personal reasons): OUT
Rodney Hood (torn Achilles): OUT
CELTICS
None



HEAD COACHES
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- VS –
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TERRY STOTTS --- BRAD STEVENS

:reading:OFFICIAL CELTICS' GAME NOTES
:reading: OFFICIAL BLAZERS' GAME NOTES ​


• Sunday's game will be the second and final game between the Trail Blazers and the Celtics this season. Boston leads the season series, 1-0.
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• LAST MEETING: The Celtics defeated the Trail Blazers at Moda Center on Feb. 25, 118-106. Jayson Tatum scored 36 points (14-22 FG, 8-12 3-PT) to go with four rebounds, one assist and two blocks to lead the way for Boston. The Trail Blazers were paced by CJ McCollum who finished with 28 points (10-24 FG, 5-12 3-PT, 3-6 FT), four rebounds, 10 assists and three blocks. Damian Lillard missed the contest with a strained right groin.

• Hassan Whiteside recorded 18 points (8-12 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 1-3 FT), 19 rebounds, three assists and one block against the Celtics on Feb. 25.

• Carmelo Anthony had 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting (2-6 3-PT, 2-2 FT) to go with two rebounds, one assist and one steal against Boston on Feb. 25.

• Jayson Tatum has averaged 21.4 points (51.3% FG, 57.1% 3-PT, 92.9% FT), 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in six career games against Portland. His scoring average against the Trail Blazers is his third-highest against any opponent.

• HEAD-TO-HEAD HISTORY:
ALL TIME: Celtics lead, 68-47
IN PORTLAND: Celtics lead, 31-27
AT THE CELTICS: Celtics lead, 37-20
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Last edited:
kjironman1 said:
Next game for Memphis is against the Spurs who are also in the hunt. That might be a tough game. After that they play the Pelicans. If the Blazers can beat Boston i think i would be rooting for the Pelicans to beat the Griz.
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Especially if the Clippers can beat New Orleans before that game
 
The Celtics just lost to the Bucks. Then after the Blazers they play the Heat who they are in a race with for the 3rd seed. After that they play the Magic who are also in a fight for 7th or 8th seed.
Every game is important. The question for the Celtics is who do they really want play. The Pacers or the 76ers? If it was me i would be playing tough to hold onto the 3rd seed so i could draw the Pacers.
 
If Trevor Ariza does his personal time with his kid can he quarantine and be added to the team at a later date?
 
I'd think NBA would allow Ariza, but he'd have to quarantine full period 10ish days.

If the Blazers are still playing it means they did well... not sure you can incorporate Ariza back effectively on the fly to basically a new team. The Blazers might be better off setting up roles without him.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
I'd think NBA would allow Ariza, but he'd have to quarantine full period 10ish days.

If the Blazers are still playing it means they did well... not sure you can incorporate Ariza back effectively on the fly to basically a new team. The Blazers might be better off setting up roles without him.
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The other side to that is if the Blazers have played well enough to keep playing they will be playing even tougher opponents and could very well need his defensive abilities and veteran presence. Watching the end of the Grizzlies game and having the ability to pull Ariza off the bench in the last 2-3 minutes would have been very helpful. Melo and Mario did fine in that game but Ariza could have subbed in certain stretches and it would have paid off.
 
The idea was floated that it's going to take going 6-2 to make the play-in for the 8th seed. There's no way that any of these sub .500 teams are going to win 75% of there games against better competition than they played against to end up with a sub .500 record. The more likely situation is whoever (out of Memphis, us, NOLA, Sac and San Antonio) goes 5-3 will be a lock to be in that play-in situation. Most of these teams will go 4-4 or 3-5 because their records against worse competition were around those rates. I don't see us or any of the other teams in the race for the eighth seed going 6-2 or better... OK maybe us but no one else. Hell the two teams that were supposed to be our biggest competition both dropped their first games.

As for Boston... I think we can beat these guys. We'll just have to stay with all of those shooters on D and hammer them inside a lot on offense. I sincerely hope we run a lot of plays that start with a Dame/Nurk pick and roll. Also what are they going to do with Nurk, Zach, Melo or Hassan if we post those guys up or those guys back their defenders down. Each of our guys I just mentioned outweigh their likely defender by like 20 or more pounds. If they can't kill us with there offensive speed on the perimeter, they may have to take one of their best guys out and play Enes and Theis together.
 
https://www.espn.com/nba/preview?gameId=401224720
"The Portland Trail Blazers look to take another step toward chasing down a playoff spot when they face the Boston Celtics on Sunday near Orlando.

Ninth-place Portland (30-37) resides 2.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies (32-34) in the battle for the last available playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Trail Blazers look to ride the momentum of Friday's 140-135 overtime victory against Memphis into their encounter with Boston (43-22).

The Blazers are thrilled with the comeback of 7-foot center Jusuf Nurkic, who played his first official game since March 25, 2019. He recorded 18 points, nine rebounds, a career-high-tying six blocks and five assists in 33 minutes as a starter.

Starting power forward Zach Collins returned after being out since late October due to an injured left shoulder. He contributed nine rebounds, seven points and three assists in 37 minutes.

Portland received dominant games from its star guards. Damian Lillard had 29 points, nine assists and five rebounds in 45 minutes and C.J. McCollum had 33 points, six assists and three rebounds in 46 minutes. Combined, they shot 24-for-43 from the floor in a must-win game, and their skill could be trouble for the Celtics.

"This is playoff basketball from us," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said of this push for the postseason. "We have that pressure on us. You can't shy away from it when you are in our position."

Meanwhile, the Celtics are looking to slowly get guard Kemba Walker back into the flow. Walker, who had been out due to an injury to his left knee, played nine minutes in an exhibition scrimmage last week and 19 on Friday in a 119-112 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Walker scored 16 points against Milwaukee. However, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Walker will still be on a minutes restriction against Portland.

"I would love to be like, 'I don't care about (a) minutes restriction.' But I can't," Walker said. "I want to take steps forward, but I have to be smart about things. I want to be there for my teammates when we get to the playoffs.

"Hopefully, by then, the restrictions will be completely off."

Said Stevens: "This is all about strengthening his knee for the playoffs."

Another issue for Boston is the play of standout forward Jayson Tatum, who was named a 2020 All-Star and the Eastern Conference's Player of the Month in February.

On Friday, however, Tatum shot just 2-of-18 from the floor, including 0-for-4 on 3-pointers.

The good news for the Celtics -- who fell behind 17-2 to the Bucks on Friday -- is that guard Marcus Smart continues to provide energy off the bench. He had 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting versus Milwaukee."

--Field Level Media
 
Don’t see anyone with “World B Free” on their jersey? Or “World Peace”?
 
WesleyMatthews said:
I'd think NBA would allow Ariza, but he'd have to quarantine full period 10ish days.

If the Blazers are still playing it means they did well... not sure you can incorporate Ariza back effectively on the fly to basically a new team. The Blazers might be better off setting up roles without him.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the Blazers were only allowed to sign Jaylen Adams because Ariza opted out. I don't think he can opt back in.
 
B-Roy said:
Pretty sure the Blazers were only allowed to sign Jaylen Adams because Ariza opted out. I don't think he can opt back in.
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They did have a spot but you might be correct on that?
Edit- spot meaning roster spot. Didn’t Biggie opt out also?
 
Labinot41 said:
Dame/CJ/Trent/Melo (as a spot up shooter)/Nurk
should be the closing lineup
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Closing lineups change radically due to situational uses. If you are on defense and need Collins with Nurk you do that. If you need small ball you do that. Being flexible is the only way to close out games well. 4th OT insert Hoody! You do what you have to do.
 
B-Roy said:
Pretty sure the Blazers were only allowed to sign Jaylen Adams because Ariza opted out. I don't think he can opt back in.
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I think we could have signed two other players actually. The NBA expanded the amount of roster positions for the restart and we had the least amount of roster spots filled of all 22 restart teams and that was with Adams being signed but not counting Ariza (most other teams had two more players available than us some only one).
 
kjironman1 said:
The Celtics just lost to the Bucks. Then after the Blazers they play the Heat who they are in a race with for the 3rd seed. After that they play the Magic who are also in a fight for 7th or 8th seed.
Every game is important. The question for the Celtics is who do they really want play. The Pacers or the 76ers? If it was me i would be playing tough to hold onto the 3rd seed so i could draw the Pacers.
Click to expand...
But the Pacers might be 5 seed and they could draw the Sixers. Hard for Celtics to control their first round opponent with the 6th seed still up in the air.
 
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