By DJ Harding
The Boston Celtics travel to Orlando in the final game of their season series. Orlando leads the season series 2-1 as Boston loses their last 2 matchups. Despite those 2 losses, Boston still holds the best record in the league and the Eastern Conference with a 35-12 record. Orlando, on the other hand, is 26th in the league and 13th in the conference with a record of 17-29.
Boston will be looking to reach 10 wins in a row tonight and hopefully tying the season series for the year. Reaching that 10 win mark would break the tie for the longest win streak this season, with another win streak of 9 achieved in November from the 4th through the 18th. Working in their favor is the return of Jayson Tatum, who missed the last game with left wrist soreness. Boston will also get Robert Williams III and Marcus Smart, who both left the previous game versus the Toronto Raptors with injuries. The only person on today’s injury report was Danilo Galinari who’s been there all season due to a Torn ACL.
This game is the second in a 3 game road trip that started Saturday in Toronto. This is also the first game in a back to back playing Miami tomorrow, ending the 3 game road trip and the back to back. This will be their 8th back to back of the season of the 13 scheduled. Boston this season has done very well in back to backs with a record of 13-1. The one loss to the Clippers in the beginning of the 6th back to back was made up for the next day with an overtime win against the Lakers.
Someone to look out for in tonight’s game is Jayson Tatum back from injury. Tatum is averaging a career high, 31.2 points per game 3rd in the league, and is second in total points with 1,371. Tatum also recently crossed the 9,000 point mark for his entire career and is currently 489 points away from 9,500. The Celtics star also recently became the record holder for most 50-point games in Celtics franchise history with a 51-point performance against the Charlotte Hornets. For the Magic, the attention will be on Paolo Banchero, who had a 31 points performance last time he played the Celtics. The Magic Rookie and fellow Duke Alumni with Jayson Tatum is the odds on favorite for Rookie of the Year, averaging 20.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assist per game.
The Celtics will tip off at 7pm Eastern time as they try to improve to 36-12 and hit double-digit consecutive wins.
NewsTalk New England 