Final: Jazz 105, Celtics 103 - Late comeback falls short

BOSTON CELTICS (3-4) vs UTAH JAZZ (2-4)

Regular season game 8

TD Garden, 7:30 p.m. - NBC Sports Boston

SCHEDULE ADVANTAGE: Boston. Utah is on the second night of a back-to-back, losing last night in Charlotte.

INJURIES

Boston: Jayson Tatum (OUT-Achilles)

Utah: Walker Kessler (OUT-shoulder), Georges Niang (OUT-foot)

OFFICIALS

Kevin Scott (#24)    Eric Dalen (#37)    Brent Haskill (#92)

THINGS I’M LOOKING FOR

1. Bounce back: Obviously, things didn’t go well for the Celtics against the Rockets. They’ve had a day to rest and recover, process the controllable things that went wrong, and fix a few things for this game. No one aside from Baylor Scheierman played well, so I want to see a return to form from Jaylen Brown and the crew. 

2. Derrick White: I don’t need to explain this. He’s been shooting horribly to start the season. This matchup against Utah is the first of a couple potential “get right” games against bad defensive teams, so this is a perfect night to relax, let the game come to him, and have some fun. 

3. Rebounding: I’m less concerned now that Kessler is out, but the Jazz are still the second-best offensive rebounding team in the league. The Celtics will still have work to do to clear the boards and end defensive stops. This game can go very well for Boston if they focus on early box-outs and running in transition. 

4. 3-point shooting: For the Celtics, it's as much about guys breaking out of slumps as it is anything else. For the Jazz, it's about capitalizing on the Celtics defensive scheme. There will be plenty of open, weak-side 3-pointers for them to take. However, they are 29th right now in catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, so if they have an outlier game where the shots are falling, this will be a tough one. If they miss the shots they're given, then the Celtics might have an easy one on their hands. 

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.