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at 
Boston Celtics (2-4) at Miami Heat (4-2)
Saturday, November 9, 2013
7:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game #7, Road Game #5
TV: CSNNE, SunSpM, NBA-LP 755(DTV), 752(Xfinity)
Radio: WEEI, WAXY
American Airlines Arena
Referees: Bill Spooner, Derrick Collins, Haywoode Workman
Game Thread l Chat
CLNS Radio Post Game ShowCall into the Studio: 347-215-7771 | Listen Live
This is the first of 3 meetings between these two teams this season. The Heat won the series 3-1 last season but things have changed considerably since their last meeting. The Heat have returned the same team that won the championship last season while the Celtics have basically a whole new roster and coaching staff.
The Celtics have won 2 in a row against teams that are considered to be their rivals for a top lottery pick. The Heat have won 3 in a row but they did lose to the Philadelphia 76ers, another team that is believed to be in the hunt for a top lottery pick.
As for the feud with Ray Allen, only 3 Celtics who will be playing tonight played with Allen in Boston. The Celtics best hope in this game is that the Heat will take them for granted and expect to get a win without trying. One thing we have learned about the Celtics this season is that they are scrappy and they will play hard and never give up.
Be sure to tune into the CLNS Post Game show right after the game. Your broadcast crew is Matt Rury and Mike "The Scotsman" Munger. Nick Gelso will be stationed in the chatroom at CelticsBlog and manning the CLNS Radio social media outlets. As always, we will be taking your calls throughout the entire broadcast.
Probable Starting Lineups
Point Guard
vs 
Jordan Crawford vs Mario Chalmers
Shooting Guard
vs 
Avery Bradley vs Dwyane Wade
Small Forward
vs 
Jeff Green vs LeBron James
Power Forward
vs 
Brandon Bass vs Udonis Haslem
Center
vs 
Vitor Faverani vs Chris Bosh
Celtics Reserves
MarShon Brooks
Jordan Crawford
Kris Humphries
Kelly Olynyk
Phil Pressey
Jared Sullinger
Courtney Lee
Phil Pressey
Keith Bogans
Gerald Wallace
Injuries
Rajon Rondo (ACL)out
Heat Reserves
Ray Allen
Shane Battier
Chris Andersen
Norris Cole
Rashard Lewis
Joel Anthony
Michael Beasley
James Jones
Greg Oden
Roger Mason, Jr
Injuries
None
Key Matchups
vs
Avery Bradley vs Dwyane Wade
Avery Bradley does as good a job as anyone of hounding Wade and taking him off his game.
vs
Jeff Green vs LeBron James
Green has had big games against LeBron and has been able to defend him well in the past. The Celtics will need the aggressive Jeff Green to show up to have any chance of winning this game.
Keys to the Game
Defense
Both teams pride themselves on their defense and defense is always a key to winning. The Celtics are 2nd in the league in points allowed, giving up just 92.7 points per game. The Heat are 15th, giving up 99.2 points per game. The Celtics are holding teams to 44.1% shooting while the Heat are allowing opponents to shoot 46.5%. The Heat are shooting 50.7% from the field and the Celtics will need to play tough team defense in order to have a chance at this game.
Rebound
The Heat are dead last in the league in rebounding, pulling down just 33.5 rebounds per game. They are also last in offensive rebounding with 7 per game. The Celtics are doing better on the boards as the go, grabbing 41 rebounds per game and 11 on the offensive end. Crashing the boards will give the Celtics second chance points as well as keeping the Heat from getting out on the break and getting put backs.
Be Aggressive
The Celtics have to be aggressive in going to the basket and not settle for jumpers, especially if they aren't falling. They have to dive for loose balls and be aggressive in crashing the boards. The starters need to come out and play aggressively from the beginning and the second unit needs to come in and pick up where they leave off. They have to attack the basket and be aggressive on defense for the whole 48 minutes. No letting up.
Take Care of the Ball
The Celtics have averaged 18.3 turnovers per game. They limited their turnovers to 11 against the Magic and they will need to once again limit their turnovers in this game because the Heat will make them pay for every turnover.
X-Factors
Fatigue and Officiating
The Celtics are playing in back to back games while the Heat have been off since Thursday. The Celtics are young and should be able to handle back to back games, but back to backs on the road are tough.
The officiating in Heat games is almost always one sided in their favor. It's hard to play 5 on 8, which is what most Heat games end up being.
Official Report
Bill Spooner
Over the past 24 seasons, Bill Spooner has worked 1,305 regular
season games and 86 NBA playoff games.
In addition to his NBA experience, Spooner has seven years of collegiate officiating experience in
the Pac-10, Big West and West Coast Conferences. He also has eight years of high school officiating
experience in his home state of California.
Spooner played football at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Calif. Spooner’s interests include
playing golf and cooking.
Spooner is the ref who failed to call Kobe's elbow to the throat of Ron Artest a couple years back, even though he was the ref in position to call it. Artest's complaints resulted in his ejection but nothing was called on Kobe in the game. The league later admitted their error and assessed Kobe a flagrant 1 for the elbow. But that didn't help Houston who had to play without Artest the rest of the game. Spooner is also the ref that was caught by a reporter telling Kurt Rambis that he would make up for a bad call he made on the other end.
The Celtics are 4-6 in their last 10 games with Spooner. One loss last season was to Milwaukee where the Celtics took 21 free throws to 12 for the Bucks. The other loss was to the Grizzlies where the Celtics took 28 free throws to 24 for the Grizzlies and the officiating was pretty bad all the way around. The win was against Utah where the Celtics took 20 free throws to 24 for the Jazz and the officiating was good. The Heat are 10-0 in their last 10 games with Spooner on the court. His home W/L record this season is 2-2.
Derrick Collins
Derrick Collins has officiated 738 regular season games and 14
Playoff games in 12 NBA seasons. Prior to joining the NBA, he
officiated five seasons in the CBA where he worked two Finals and three seasons in the WNBA,
and three WNBA Playoffs and Finals.
He has seven years of collegiate officiating experience
in various conferences (Big 12, Sun Belt, Conference USA, Southland, SEC, TAAC, OVC and
SWAC), and the Southland Conference semifinal game. Collins also officiated at the high school
level in Louisiana. Collins was a member of the Xavier basketball team for four seasons, an honorable mention
All-American, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications.
Collins was a victim of both Hurricane Katrina and Rita and basically had to start all over in the aftermath.
The Celtics are 4-6 in their last 10 games with Collins. They were 2-1 last season with the loss being a preseason game with Philly in which the officiating was fairly even. One win was in OT vs the Mavs and the Celtics took 30 free throws to 17 for the Mavs. The final win was an OT win in game 3 against the Knicks and the officiating was good. The Heat are 9-2 in their last 10 games with Collins. His home W/L record this season is 0-5.
Haywoode Workman
Haywoode Workman has officiated 261 regular season games in
his first five NBA seasons. A second round draft pick by the Atlanta
Hawks in 1989, he played professionally for eight seasons in the NBA and overseas betweeen
1989 to 2000.
Workman spent four seasons officiating in the NBA Development League and also officiated in
the CBA before joining the NBA.
Workman joins Bernie Fryer and Leon Wood on the short list of NBA players who have made
the transition to officiating.
Workman was an All-State quarterback in North Carolina in 1983 and played in the NC/SC
Shrine Bowl. He played one year of football and basketball for the all time winnigest HBCU
coach, the late Clearence "Big House" Gaines, at Winston-Salem State University.
He was inducted into the Oral Roberts University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.
The Celtics are 4-6 over the last 10 games with Workman. There hasn't been a lot of controversy over his officiating. Unlike some of the NBA officials, he keeps a fairly low profile. The Heat are 8-2 in their last 10 with Workman. His home W/L record is 1-2 this season.