Two teams from the muddy middle grounds of the Eastern Conference face each other in Boston. The home team has won two games in a row and five in a row at home, while Charlotte had lost five games in a row before beating the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
That might have been a crucial win for Charlotte, while they try to grasp a playoff spot. They needed to turn things around at some point after dropping out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference.
Charlotte has the same record as the Brooklyn Nets at eighth place and is only 1.5 games behind the Miami Heat who has lost Chris Bosh for the season. Yet, the Hornets are only one game ahead of the Boston Celtics who hold 12th place.
A must-win game for both teams
To say that this game is important for the two teams' playoff chances would be an understatement. Not only does a win almost count double, because the other team loses, but Charlotte can, with a win, clinch the season series between the two teams and thus the tie-breaker in case the two teams end with the same record.
The key to Charlotte's two previous victories against Boston this season was the Celtics' inability to contain the Hornets' leading scorers, Al Jefferson in the first game and Kemba Walker in the second one, in which Jefferson was out with a left groin injury. The second game was probably one of the Celtics' worst losses of the season, the last of seven in eight games shortly after the Rajon Rondo trade.
Key players are missing on both sides
Since then, both teams have held a win percentage close to .500 with the Celtics having a slight upswing as of late, while the Hornets have had a downswing since losing Kemba Walker to a knee surgery on January 28th. Walker is expected to be back in the middle of March.
Charlotte will most likely also be without backup center Bismack Biyombo, who's having a sort of quiet breakout season. Biyombo suffered a knee bruise a little over four weeks ago, and should be close to a return.
The Celtics will be without the best player on their roster, Jared Sullinger, who is out for the season with a foot fracture. This could be a signal to Sullinger, that he should lose some weight. GM Danny Ainge has already stated that Sullinger hasn't fulfilled his conditioning goals for the season.
His teammate Kelly Olynyk has been out for more than four weeks with a strained ankle, and his return should come within a week. No news about him for this game, though.
Jerebko was impressive in Celtics debut
This could mean more playing time for Tyler Zeller, Brandon Bass, and one of the new guys on the team, Jonas Jerebko, who was very impressive in Wednesday's win against the New York Knicks. Danny Ainge has long been in the market for a stretch four player, and Jerebko has been his target before, so this might be another small steal before the trade deadline by the Boston GM.
The key to the game could very well be how the Boston bigs handle Al Jefferson, but also reserve point guard Mo Williams has shown this season that he is not too old to go off, when he set a new franchise record for his former team the Minnesota Timberwolves with 52 points against the Indiana Pacers. In his three games for the Hornets, he has scored 24, 22, and 17 points.
For the Celtics, contributions seem to come from all over the roster in Coach Stevens' equal opportunity system, so it is very difficult to predict who to keep an eye on, though it's a safe bet that new reserve point guard Isaiah Thomas will bring some excitement and scoring to the game. Also, look out for the tenacious defense from Avery Bradley who, in the last four games, has averaged 20.8 points and 3.75 steals.
This game should go down to the wire, with a slight edge for the Celtics, since their nemesis Kemba Walker is out.