Final: Celtics 108, Nuggets 102 - Defense clamps down in 2nd half, C's win 7th straight

GAME 57
Boston Celtics (31-25, 18-10 home, 7th East) vs. Denver Nuggets (30-24, 15-14 road, 6th West)
TD Garden
7:30 PM - NBC Sports Boston, NBA TV

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Boston: Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams

Denver: Austin Rivers, Will Barton, Jeff Green, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Newly acquired Derrick White is available. Luke Kornett will also be available after being signed for the rest of the season out of Maine. 

- Daniel Theis is not available. 

- Jamal Murray (ACL recovery) and Michael Porter, Jr. (back) are still out. The Nuggets do expect both to be back in the not-too-distant future. 

- Monte Morris is in concussion protocol

- Boston is favored by 6

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. White’s debut: White got the go-ahead to play about 30 minutes before the game. The beauty of him coming over from San Antonio is that White is already familiar with what his former assistant coach wants to do. 

“He speaks the language and all the things that we've tweaked or stuff that he's familiar with, so we're not worried about that,” Ime Udoka said. “Those are all beneficial to keep the consistency and continuity going with what we've been doing."

The Celtics will still need time to work on their timing with White, but good defense is good defense and hard work is hard work. Let’s see how much that can overcome. 

2. Making Jokic a shooter: The Nuggets have the league’s second-highest assist percentage, and Jokic is obviously a huge part of that. He’s one of the most uniquely talented big men we’ve ever seen, but we know that he loves to sling the rock more than anything. I’d rather see him drop 35 with 3 assists than 22 with 13 assists. The Celtics have to be sharp about limiting Jokic’s options and then rebound to clear misses and… 

3. … get out and run! Both the Celtics and Nuggets are in the bottom 10 when it comes to pace, but Boston has been better over the last few games. Jokic isn’t exactly thrilled about getting up and down the floor, so it’s better to get out and run when they can and try to defend with their offense as well. Make him try to keep up. 

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.