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Your starting lineup
With Ronnie P out and Deron likely out, Eric Maynor will get his first career start. He'll be going up against one of the best in the league in Rajon Rondo.
After a relatively good pre-season, Maynor is off to a bit of a rocky start. He's only played in 16 minutes total all season. He'll get quite a bit more than that tonight. But I will venture a guess that we'll be seeing all kinds of funky lineups like we did early in the season last year.
So who spells Maynor? Sounds like a lot of that will be with Brewer and AK. Ronnie B can bring the ball up, but the whole dynamic of the game is changed when you have to run the pick and roll with a non-PG. I imagine we'll see a lot of sagging on Boozer/Millsap/AK by both defenders letting whoever is at the point shoot it.
One thing we know though is that backup PGs can do well in the Sloan system. The Jazz are going to have to be moving a lot tonight. Maynor got into the lane a lot during summer and pre-season. It will be a little tougher to do so against one of the best defensive teams in the league. That could be made even more difficult should the Celtics go to a zone now that everyone in the league knows that those kill the Jazz.
Like I mentioned earlier, I hope we get a little of the team vibe that the Jazz had during the 2004 season. The offense will work against most defenses. It's just the cliche of executing that will decide if the Jazz are going to be in this.
The Jazz have one of the best front-courts in the league. Unfortunately, so do the Celtics. The back court for the Cs is better right now. It will take a lot of scrappiness to compete with Perkins, Wallace, and KG.
If there's one thing though, it seems like Rondo can be a hothead. Too bad we don't have Harp to get on that. We really don't have anyone else that could get him frustrated. The rest of the Cs are vets that are immune to such Jedi-mind tricks.
Tough game tonight for sure. I'd be worried about this one enough even with a full roster. The Celtics should come out and take care of business.
The Jazz can win if a few things happen. One, they have to run the offense to near perfection. Get good shots. Low turnovers. And make free throws. Next, they have to hope one of the main players for Boston gets into foul trouble early. And finally, they need to get off to a good start on the road. They've actually been pretty good in this regard this season. It has been an issue in the past. The reason I bring it up now is because this game could get out of hand early and I don't think the Jazz are going to be able to come back from a double-digit deficit.
I would love to see AK play all 5 positions tonight.
Game thread at 5.
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