Boston Celtics

Worth noting for this game: The Celtics went into double overtime on Sunday against the New York Knicks and then flew immediately to Cleveland. It's possible ...

This is an opportunity to turn that around and get the ship back on course. This will be the second time they’ve played since their loss last Wednesday to the Celtics. The Cavs will have have the rest advantage in this one. Al Horford was able to make the Cavs pay for leaving him on the perimeter repeatedly in their last matchup. The Celtics were able to get whatever they wanted from deep on Wednesday night. It’s possible they rest many of their key guys and the Cavs have an opening to pick up a win here.

Boston dropped another tough game against the Knicks on Sunday night.

After a hot offensive start to the season, the Celtics have struggled with consistency on that side of the floor. “This is the second time that we kind of have had a lead, we feel good about it, a team makes a run, and we just kind of let him back in the game. And the character of our group, the kind of guys that we have, I feel pretty confident that we’ll figure it out. We have to learn from it so that we can use it later in the year.” And in what should have been a convincing victory, the [Cleveland Cavaliers](https://www.fearthesword.com/) made a surge at the end of regulation to cast some doubt about Boston’s ability to close. With the playoffs just over a month away, the Celtics should be gearing up for a huge run, but instead, they’re dealing with quintessential on-court issues. They broke down in multiple facets of the game, with Mazzulla pointing to “empty possessions on the offensive end, and then transition and fouling.” We’ve played pretty good basketball most of the year, and this is a time where you tighten up, you fix some of these things, some of these issues, or it goes the other way. To make matters worse, on the first night of a back-to-back with a road game against the [Cleveland Cavaliers](https://www.fearthesword.com) staring them in the face on Monday night, four Celtics logged 40+ minutes in the loss. Immanuel Quickley stepped up in a big way, pouring a career-high 38 points to go along with eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals, and two blocks. It was a tough battle between two East playoff teams, but the Knicks found an edge. “In a game like this, two great teams playing against each other, they made a couple more plays than we did,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said.

The Celtics visit the Cavaliers on Monday as we continue our NBA odds series with a Celtics-Cavaliers prediction, pick, and how to watch.

In addition to his 22.0 PPG, Garland ranks seventh in the NBA with 7.9 APG. Assuming they end up resting people, I actually like the Celtics if the spread creeps toward 10. If the Cavaliers are going to cover tonight they are going to need to score. Assuming he is able to go, Mitchell should provide a huge baseline of production considering he averages 36.7 PPG against the Celtics this season. The stars of the show the last time Boston had a mass resting of players were their guards. Mitchell leads the team with 27.4 PPG in addition to 4.8 AG and 1.5 SPG. They will need their offense to be clicking as Boston sports a top-ten defense themselves. That being said, the Celtics are an incredibly deep roster and have already shown the ability to cover without their stars. Despite eventually losing the game 126-131, Boston’s bench proved its worth and they have a great chance to cover again tonight in Cleveland. The Celtics covered 52% of their games while 51% went over the projected point total. The Cavaliers covered 56% of their games while 53% went under. [Boston Celtics](/nba/boston-celtics) (45-20) visit the [Cleveland Cavaliers](/nba/cleveland-cavaliers) (40-26) on Monday night!

The Celtics will be missing several key players for Monday night's game against the Cavaliers in Cleveland. Here's the latest injury report for Boston.

[out seven to 10 days](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/joe-mazzulla-shares-update-robert-williams-hamstring-injury) with right hamstring soreness. The Cavs are in fourth place and sit 5.5 games behind the Celtics. Tatum played a team-high 49 minutes in [Sunday night's double overtime loss](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/celtics-vs-knicks-takeaways-immanuel-quickley-takes-over-double-ot-thriller) to the New York Knicks at TD Garden. Monday's matchup in Cleveland concludes Boston's season series with the Cavs. [beating the Cavs 117-113](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/celtics-vs-cavaliers-takeaways-jayson-tatum-snaps-out-slump-cs-win) at the Garden last week. [Jayson Tatum](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/jayson-tatum), [Al Horford](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/al-horford) and [Robert Williams III](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/robert-williams-iii) all won't play versus the Cavs.

Provided by Field Level Media. The Cleveland Cavaliers will host the Boston Celtics on Monday night in the second meeting between the teams in March, ...

Boston is fourth in the league in scoring (117.5 points per game). "The only thing you can control is to try to win the games," Mazzulla said in reference to playoff seeding. "We put ourself in the best possible chance to win. The loss marked Boston's second straight and third in the last four games. A by-product is the Cavaliers giving up the third-lowest amount of field-goal attempts per game at 83.6. The Cavaliers rebounded from the loss with a 114-90 blowout of Detroit on Saturday.

On Monday night, the Boston Celtics will be in Ohio to face off with the Cleveland Cavaliers. For the game, they will have one of their best players in the ...