Final: Celtics 132, Thunder 123 - Celtics stumble, but hold on to sweep road trip

GAME 73
Boston Celtics (44-28, 20-16 road, T-3rd East) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-51, 9-26 home, 14th West)
Paycom Center
8:00 PM - NBC Sports Boston 

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS 

Boston: Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams, Al Horford

OKC: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tre Mann, Aaron Wiggins, Aleksej Pokusevski, Isaiah Roby

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Marcus Smart is out tonight with an non-COVID illness.

“Just a little illness. It acted up late in the game,” Ime Udoka said. “Obviously he went out, but it’s something that should be short-term as well, just a flare-up of sinuses, or whatever you want to call it.”

- Robert Williams is out with right knee soreness.

“He had a flare up with some tendinitis, specifically on the lob play last night,” Udoka said. “I saw when it happened. Jumped off the wrong leg and I saw him rubbing it and it flared up a little bit, so, giving him the night off.”

This doesn’t appear to be a long-term issue, according to Udoka, who said it’s possible Williams could be back for the game against Utah. 

- Aaron Nesmith returns from injury.

“He went through his progression, he was up and down, so he’d be pain free one day and then be more sore the next day and he had a really good day today,” Udoka said of Nesmith’s recovery from a right ankle injury that cost him seven games. The coach says there's no minutes restriction on him tonight. “It's just a pain-tolerance thing. That's what it’s kind of been, him cutting certain directions, and now he feels comfortable with that, we’re good throwing him out there.”

- Al Horford will play.

I admit I’m a little surprised about this one, but Horford is a go. 

“No restriction for anybody that's healthy and playing,” Udoka said. “The thing we've said that we tried to get Theis and Derrick acclimated, we've tried to shave some minutes off those guys, so that's happened over the last week or so. And you can see Payton playing well, shave some of Marcus’ minutes down, so something that's naturally happening.”

- Boston is favored by 13

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. Stopping Shai: SGA is a bona fide star, and without Smart and Robert Williams, it will take some doing to slow him down. 

“Any time you got Gilgeous-Alexander out there, one of the top young players in the league … he's a guy you obviously focus on there,” Udoka said. “But they have other talented guys who have improved throughout the year. They play with a lot of freedom, getting up a lot of 3s, playing very fast. As we know, it happened to us against Indiana, some other games, guys can get hot if you let them get comfortable. So come out with the right mind frame, understanding what we want to do to finish off the trip.”

2. Early subs: Udoka can say there are no limits on these guys, but this is a clear opportunity to rest some guys before the Utah game. I’m watching for Udoka to mix in some different lineups and give Tatum, Brown, and Horford some extra time on the bench. Ideally, they’ll finish at about 25 minutes of play tonight.

3. Miami vs. Philadelphia: Sorry I just can’t muster up more than a couple of things against a team like OKC actively trying to lose games. So while this game is going on, we’ll keep an eye on the Heat-Sixers game, which won’t have James Harden or Joel Embiid. It seems like the Sixers are fine with wherever they land, especially if they drop into the third or fourth seed. Chicago (who just saw Lonzo Ball suffer an injury recovery setback), Cleveland, and Toronto are all in that mix of opponents in that range, so the Sixers probably feel good about getting their guys some extra rest. Remember, Boston moves into a tie for second either way if they win tonight, it’s just a matter of with which team.

GAME THREAD

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