The MATCHUP - Boston at Minnesota

Time: 7:00pm est

When: March 27, 2011

Where: Minnesota Court

The Storyline: Right now the Celtics are in a fight for at least the #2 seed in the EAST, and with a loss tonight, and a Miami win, they are sure to loose that position. They're coming off the heels of their worst home-loss of the season to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats was the first EC team to win in the Garden all year. They have won 2 straight on the road, and they go for 3 straight tonight. The Wolves could be with-out their rebounding machine Kevin Love. Maybe even for the remainder of the season, and thats a huge blow. Beasley is also battling hip injuries after a flagarant 2 foul from Andrew Bynum.

Last Time: It seemed nobody could box out the rebounding machine Kevin Love. He got rebound after rebound all game long. He went into halftime with a double double grabbing 14 rebounds in the first half, 8 in the first quarter. The Wolves led for most of this game, and The Celtics used a 4th quarter run to come back and win by 3, Beasley missed a game tying 3 to end the game, that could've sent us to OT. We were playing without KG, and D.West in this game also.

This time:

Gotta Stop: Michael Beasley

With Love shelved, and he being the only scoring threat, gotta believe he will come out ready to take over, if you can stop him, you can stop them.. Pierce got his hands full tonight

Get it To: Ray Allen

Ray found his shooting touch again Friday, hitting 3 3's out of 5 attempted. He should run his defender dry tonight and get free and look to score tonight. We will need his scoring and defense

X-Factor - KG

Last time we didnt have KG, and Kevin Love went into halftime with 14 rebounds. With Love not expected to play, and now they're missing size, KG should have a match-up that they may want to exploit in the paint.

My prediction: After getting publicly humiliated by their Coach these guys should come out with a ball of fire and ready to prove to their Coach, we still know how to play. They can either take the crticism as a way of motivation, or take the criticism and prove the Coach right. With the veteranship of this team, I suspect they use it as motivation, and come out and win 127-99

Injuries:

Boston:

Von Wafer - Out

Shaquille O'neal - Out

Troy Murphy - Out

Jermaine O'neal - Out

Delonte West - Probable

Minnesota:

Kevin Love - doubtful

Michael Beasley - probable