Here are five things to watch out for when the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks meet at 7:30 p.m. tonight at TD Garden.
These two teams are heading in different directions as they prepare for tonight's contest. For the Knicks, that's not good news.
New York has lost 11 of its last 13 games, while the Celtics have come out on top in 13 of their last 16. The Knicks' struggles on the court have caused drama behind the scenes, as a story was recently written questioning Carmelo Anthony's commitment to the franchise, which reportedly prompted a meeting between him and Phil Jackson.
Simply put, things aren't looking too good at the moment in New York. The Knicks had been having a solid season before this sudden drop-off, but right now they are caught in turmoil. Boston should be able to take advantage.
While Boston should take advantage of a struggling Knicks team, there are no givens in this league. As Terry Rozier put it at Tuesday's practice, “You just know playing in the NBA, you can lose on any given night.”
Brad Stevens, too, commented after practice as to why the Celtics cannot take the Knicks lightly.
“They're a team that can put you in a lot of bad spots,” he said after describing how the Knicks might play small tonight, with Anthony at power forward. “You've got to be really good and really tight against them at both ends of the floor.”
Additionally, Stevens isn't reading too much into New York's streak of losses.
“Just like I don't think we should overreact to anything we've done, because we've been fortunate to win some close games,” he said, “they've been unfortunate to not win some close games. This thing can all change really quickly.”
Let's hope that doesn't happen tonight.
Stevens did talk about his own team as well following Tuesday's practice. He backed up the numbers that say that the Celtics are heading in the right direction with their defense following multiple practices at their facility this month.
“We've got to get a little bit better,” he said, “but I think in the last couple of games we've put together some really good quarters of defensive play.”
NBA teams oftentimes see slippage in their defensive play when they are unable to practice. That's exactly what happened to the Celtics during late December and early January.
However, now that the team has strung together a few practices in a short period of time, and with another to come on Friday, they appear to be heading in the right direction after allowing their last two opponents to shoot a combined 43.8 percent from the field.
Isaiah Thomas continued his stretch of unbelievable play Monday night when he scored 35 points, including 17 during the final frame, during Boston's win over Charlotte. His high scoring total was surprising only because of the fact that he failed to get to the free-throw line a single time during the victory. Instead, he attempted 15 3-pointers.
Attempting zero free throws in a game is an anomaly for Thomas, who averages 8.4 free throw attempts per game this season. That number ranks seventh in the entire league.
The numbers suggest that both teams should expect Thomas to be back in attack mode tonight. He will knife his way into the paint, and he will get to the free-throw line.
There is no doubt that Anthony, at age 32, is still one of the premier scorers in the NBA. However, Boston has done a fantastic job of defending him and making him inefficient this season.
Anthony enters tonight's contest having hit just 43.8 percent of his 32 shots against the Celtics this season. That's a great percentage for the C's, who have thrown multiple defenders his way, from Jae Crowder to Marcus Smart to Jaylen Brown.
One would have to assume that Boston will use all of those players, and likely more, against Anthony yet again tonight. After all, it has worked to this point.
