The Boston Celtics head to Intuit Dome to take on the LA Clippers on Saturday night, and it’s a weird-but-fun matchup: an elite East contender trying to stay sharp on the road, and a West team that’s been stacking wins lately and suddenly looks dangerous.
Record-wise, the Celtics come in at 21-12 (11-7 on the road), while the Clippers are 12-21 (8-8 at home). The Celtics won the first meeting of the season, 121-118 back on November 16, so this is the rematch, just flipped to the Clippers’ floor.
Star-wise, it’s a clean headline. Jaylen Brown has been playing like a full-on No. 1 option at 29.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game.
James Harden is right there as the engine, putting up 25.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 7.9 assists, while Kawhi Leonard has been straight-up vicious at 28.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game.
Injury Report
Clippers
Bradley Beal: Out (left hip fracture)
Bogdan Bogdanovic: Out (left hamstring injury management)
Chris Paul: Out (not with team)
Celtics
Jayson Tatum: Out (right Achilles repair)
Why The Clippers Have The Advantage
The Clippers’ advantage starts with the way they’ve been trending. They’re not just “hanging around” at home, they’ve been building real momentum, and they’re sitting on a six-game win streak right now.
They’re scoring 112.3 points per game, shooting 47.2% from the field and 36.4% from three, and they’re also generating 23.5 assists a night. The Celtics’ defense can get loud, but ball movement is how you survive it. If the Clippers keep the ball popping instead of turning it into “your turn, my turn,” they can create enough clean looks to punish the Celtics for loading up on Kawhi and Harden.
The other edge is the chaos factor. The Clippers are forcing action with 8.7 steals per game, and the Celtics’ biggest vulnerability without Tatum is that they can get a little too dependent on Brown creating something out of nothing late in the clock. If the Clippers win the possession battle with deflections, live-ball turnovers, and a couple quick run-outs, it’s the exact kind of game where the home team can land a real punch before the Celtics settle in.
Why The Celtics Have The Advantage
The Celtics’ advantage is still the simplest one: they’re just the better team, and the numbers back it up even with Tatum out.
They’re putting up 117.0 points per game while shooting 47.4% from the field and 36.4% from three. They also rebound better (43.8 boards per game) and take way better care of the ball, with only 11.4 turnovers per game. That last part is huge, because the Clippers need extra possessions when they’re facing a team that can score in waves. If the Celtics keep it clean and make the Clippers defend in the halfcourt every trip, the talent gap shows up fast.
And even without Tatum, the Celtics still defend at a high level. They’re allowing just 110.6 points per game on the season, and that’s the kind of baseline that travels. If they shrink the floor, take away easy paint touches, and force the Clippers into a steady diet of tough jumpers, they can turn this into a grind where their depth and discipline wins out.
Basically, the Celtics don’t need to “out-star” the Clippers to win. They just need to be themselves: protect the ball, win the math with threes, and make the Clippers earn every bucket.
X-Factors
Derrick White feels like the obvious swing piece for the Celtics, because he can do a little bit of everything without the offense dying. He’s averaging 18.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 5.2 assists, and when he’s aggressive, the Celtics stop looking like “Brown and prayers” late in possessions.
Payton Pritchard is the other one. He’s at 16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game, and his minutes are where the Celtics can steal the game. If he wins the non-star stretches with pace, pull-up shooting, and quick-hit playmaking, the Celtics can survive any cold Brown stretch without panicking.
For the Clippers, Kris Dunn matters more than people want to admit. He’s only at 8.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists, but he’s shooting 50.0% from the field, and he’s the kind of guard who can mess with timing, pressure the ball, and make life harder for Brown’s handle. That’s valuable when you’re trying to create turnovers and speed the Celtics up.
And keep an eye on Ivica Zubac, too. He’s averaging 17.4 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game, and his rim pressure plus offensive rebounding can change the entire possession battle.
Prediction
This feels like a “how real is the streak?” game for the Clippers. They’ve got the home momentum and the two-star punch, but the Celtics’ discipline is the kind of thing that crushes teams who rely on chaos.
I’m leaning Celtics because the ball security edge is massive, and I trust Brown plus the Celtics’ depth to survive the Harden-Kawhi runs over 48 minutes.
Prediction: Celtics 114, Clippers 109
