Final: Celtics 131, Nuggets 112 - Jayson Tatum's 34 leads Celtics to 5th straight win

Game 12: Celtics (-5) vs Denver Nuggets, 7:00 p.m., TD Garden, NBCS Boston/NBA TV

Injuries: Boston - Danilo Gallinari, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon (right hamstring tightness)  Denver: Ish Smith (calf), Collin Gillespie (leg)

Denver probable starters: Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter, Jr, Aaron Gordon

Refs: Curtis Blair (#74), Karl Lane (#77), John Butler (#30)

A little something about the game: This is the first meeting of the season between these teams. Boston is 3-1 vs. Jokic at TD Garden. Both teams have the same record and four-game winning streaks. The Celtics beat the Nuggets twice last season, both games coming after the infamous turnaround in late January. 

How Boston wins: The Action Network’s Matt Moore tweeted out a great preview thread today, highlighting that Denver has allowed the fourth-most spot-up opportunities this season, and Boston is the number one spot up team in the NBA. Offensively, keep doing what works, moving the ball, getting creative with multiple screening actions, and get those open shots Denver is allowing. Maybe go to Sam Hauser a little earlier and see if he can get going to really punish this tendency. 

Defensively, Jokic is always known to get frustrated with overly physical play, so hit him and make his life hell. Really test the limits of “they can’t call them all” and see if they can get him out of his game. His usage rate is six percent lower in Nuggets losses, so try to get him to sulk his way out of possessions. 

How Denver wins: The obvious answer is Jokic goes full Joker and picks Boston apart with his ridiculous vision. But a deeper issue could be the defense of Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, two guys I thought would make great additions in Boston over the summer. They  are two really good individual defenders who can make things tough on Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. If the Nuggets are able to frustrate the Jays, they might get Boston’s stars to eschew the ball movement and devolve into one-on-one battles. Boston’s strength is its ball movement, so I’d be doing everything I could with great wing defenders to try to sucker Tatum and Brown into isolation. 

Things I’m looking for:

- Derrick White in the Malcolm Brogdon role: Brogdon is out, and I’m betting Joe Mazzulla starts Grant Williams because of the Jokic/Gordon combination. So that means White will get to play the Brogdon distributor role. Can he get himself into the teeth of the defense like Brogdon does consistently and spray the ball out to the shooters? Can he buoy the second unit in a similar fashion as Brogdon. This is a real chance to see the true value of White and Boston’s perimeter depth. 

- Grant Williams more aggressive on offense: He’s been asked to do a lot defensively as a starter, and his offense has suffered some because of that and his tendency to defer a bit too much. 

“I think he's got to continue to have his confidence, can't pass up open shots. I believe in him as a shooter as much as anybody else,” Mazzulla said after the win over Detroit. “He puts his teammates first, So I think it's a matter of just finding his own rhythm amongst the team. And that's something that he thinks of and I want him to have the utmost confidence.”

Williams has to understand the value of him being a more active part of the offense. If he can be the reason why the defense collapses and opens up lanes for Tatum and Brown, then he becomes extraordinarily dangerous. 

- Horford staying hot: he’s 12-13 over his last two games and a perfect 4-4 from 3. After starting slow, it’s nice to see him pick it back up. If ever there was a bellwether for how well the ball is moving to create open 3-pointers, it’s Horford’s shooting numbers.

Follow along below or in the comments during the game, chime in, and let’s have fun.