The NBA season tips of at 8:00 P.M. ET with the Cavs playing against the Celtics. Today I preview this game. Enjoy!
Celtics Overview:
The Celtics will win this game if Kyrie Irving can show he is an MVP candidate. He needs to dominate on offense and defense, because Isaiah Thomas will no be playing as he is injured. Avery Bradley is gone, which makes Smart the 2 Guard and a concern on if he can play well against Wade. Crowder will look to defend Hayward, which means Marcus Morris needs to step up. This is a hard task because he is against Lebron James, however something he needs to show if the Celtics have a chance. The depth chart should look like this:
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Gordon Hayward
PF: Marcus Morris
C: Al Horford
6th: Jaylen Brown
7th: Aron Baynes
8th: Jayson Tatum
9th: Terry Rozier
The lineup is balanced, but as I said before, the Shooting Guard is a place of improvement. After trading Bradley, they are weak at the position. It will be interesting to see how they fair today.
Cavaliers Overview:
The Cavs don’t have Isaiah Thomas due to injury, which means Derrick Rose is looking to start. Rose had a great Preseason, and you can’t forget last year he averaged 18 points for the Knicks. Lebron James teams up with Dwayne Wade on their 1st regular season reunion since they were both on the Heat. With the new addition of Jae Crowder, we get to see Kevin Love facing of against Al Horford at Center. They both will struggle to get rebounds, which cancel each other out. James and Crowder will most likely will be grabbing boards for the Cavs. Now let’s look at the Cavs potential Depth Chart:
PG: Derrick Rose
SG: Dwayne Wade
SF: Lebron James
PF: Jae Crowder
C: Kevin Love
6th: Tristan Thompson
7th: Kyle Korver
8th: J.R. Smith
9th: Jose Calderon
10th: Jeff Green
11th: Iman Shumpert
12th: Channing Frye
13th: Ante Zizic
14th: Cedi Osman
The amount of depth the Cavs have is crazy. Iman Shumpert is 11th in the rotation, as well as Frye being 12th. With the Celtics depth chart, I only went 9 spots deep on the lineup. Every player on the Cavs can be valuable.
Winner: Celtics
I am not picking the Celtics because they have more talent. I am picking the Celtics because I think Kyrie Irving wants to win, more then that he needs to win. If he doesn’t win, it is a fail in his mind. He needs to prove that he is now the leader of the Celtics, and if the Celtics don’t win, if he plays bad then the press will go crazy over how bad he is. There will be so many question marks in the media which makes it important for him to win. With the fact that they are in the stadium, there will be booing every time Kyrie touches the ball. I believe this will fuel Irving, and lead the Celtics to a win.
Four Foot Nuttin 