Final: Celtics 134, Spurs 101 - C's dominate San Antonio

BOSTON CELTICS at SAN ANTONIO SPURS

7:00 p.m. - NBC Sports Boston

Line: Boston -14.5

INJURIES

Boston: Jrue Holiday (OUT, left ankle sprain)

San Antonio: Keldon Johnson (OUT, back), Charles Bassey (OUT, ACL), Zach Collins (OUT, ankle)

THINGS I’M LOOKING FOR

1. Playing fast (but at their own pace): The Spurs love to run, so this isn't about getting into an up-and-down with them. But as Eddie House loves to say, teams that love to run hate to get run against. So get out there at a Celtics pace, kick the ball ahead, and make a bad defensive team have to make decisions on the fly. 

2. Turn them over: The Spurs turn it over a lot, so ramp up the defensive pressure and see if some of that pace can be handled with fastbreak points. 

3. Victor Wembanyama vs. Kristaps Porzingis: He’s still a sporadic shooter*, and Boston is one of the few teams with a defender who can actually challenge Wemby’s shots. I want to see how that battle goes.

*I’m not ruling out a weird defensive matchup where a smaller guy draws the Wembanyama assignment in an effort to test the veracity of his jumper tonight. Holiday is out, so maybe this is a Jaylen Brown assignment to take advantage of his strength and to dare Wemby to shoot over the top and be effective that way. 

Follow along with my thoughts as the game goes on. They’ll show up below and in the comments section, so hop in and share your opinion as well.