The Boston Celtics will be looking to extend their winning run in the NBA when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves at TD Garden on Sunday night.
The Celts are 13-3 and second in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Timberwolves are 8-7 and currently in 10th place in the West heading into this one.
Match preview
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The Boston Celtics have been on fire lately and will come into this match riding a wave of confidence after beating the Washington Wizards 108-96 on the road in the NBA Emirates Cup on Saturday morning.
Joe Mazzulla's side trailed by two points at half time, having been down by 11 earlier in the game, and it was not until the closing minutes of the fourth quarter that they managed to break away from the Wizards.
Jalen Brown led the C's with 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser scored 16 and 13 points respectively off the bench, while MVP candidate Jayson Tatum had a fairly quiet night, finishing with 16 points, though he did provide eight assists.
That result marked the Celts' fifth win on the bounce, but they still have work to do in the NBA Cup, currently second place in Eastern Conference Group C with a 2-1 record, trailing behind the Atlanta Hawks.
Boston are a top-10 team at both ends this season, second in the scoring charts averaging 120.7 PPG, and ninth on defence, allowing 110.8 points per game. However, they have only covered the spread in 43.8% of games this season (7-9-0).
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Meanwhile, matches involving the Minnesota Timberwolves this season have tended to be cliffhangers, and that turned out to be the case again when they edged the Suns 120-117 last week with a Julius Randle three at the death.
However, they were unable to deliver another 'clutch time' performance on Saturday when they were handed a 110-105 defeat by the Toronto Raptors, which took their record to a mediocre 8-7 for the season to date.
Anthony Edwards was the standout performer for the Timberwolves with 26 points in the defeat, while Randle and Jaden McDaniels added 23 and 22 respectively, and Rudy Gobert chipped in with 13 points.
What was most noticeable in the defeat to the Raps, though, was the growing tensions among the players in the Minnesota camp due to their out-of-sync play, especially between Randle and Gobert, while Edwards was left visibility annoyed more than once in the match.
Following that defeat, Chris Finch's side are now 15th in points scored per game (113.3), 10th in points allowed (111.0), and they have one of the worst cover rates in the NBA at 33.3% (5-10-0 ATS).
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Team News
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The Celtics will have to make do without the services of centre Kristaps Porzingis for this match, with the Latvian ruled out for the next few games due to a foot injury.
Additionally, Al Horford is listed as questionable owing to illness which saw him miss out the win against Washington, meaning that Neemias Queta will likely start at centre if Horford does not return in time for tip-off.
The Timberwolves could be without at least two players for this trip to Boston, with Mike Conley and Robert Dillingham both flagged as major doubts due to a toe and ankle injury respectively.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had a fairly poor outing against Toronto last time out, putting up just six points in 26 minutes on the court, and he could drop to the bench in this one potentially for Donte DiVincenzo.
Boston Celtics possible starting five:
Brown, Tatum, Queta, White, Holiday
Minnesota Timberwolves possible starting five:
McDaniels, Randle, Gobert, Edwards, DiVicenzo
We say: Boston Celtics to win by 2+ points
The last two matches between these these sides needed overtime to decide and we could be in for another close contest here given the short turnaround from the last match.
However, at home, and riding a five-match winning streak, we have to give the Celtics the upper hand in this one, and are expecting a big performance from Tatum after an off night last time out.
Devesh Jaganath
