Final: Celtics 146, Clippers 115 - Brown drops 50 to snap Clippers win streak

BOSTON CELTICS (21-12) at LA CLIPPERS (12-21)

Regular season game 34

Intuit Dome, 10:30 p.m. - NBCS Boston/NBA TV

SCHEDULE ADVANTAGE: The Clippers. Boston is wrapping up a long road trip. The Clippers have played their last three games at home.

The Clippers have won six in a row. Boston has won two in a row. 

INJURIES

Boston: Jayson Tatum (OUT-Achilles) 

LA: Bradley Beal (OUT-hip), Bogdan Bogdanovic (OUT-hamstring), Chris Paul (not with team).

OFFICIALS

Jacyn Goble (#68)    Dedric Taylor (#21)    CJ Washington (#12)

THINGS I’M LOOKING FOR

1. Ivica Zubac: The Clippers winning streak coincided with Zubac leaving the Lakers with a sprained ankle. He played 10 minutes in that game and missed the next five. In that time, the Clippers went from the fifth-worst defensive team to the best since December 19. They’ve also gone from the seventh-worst offense to the best. Is it all Zubac’s fault? Probably not. But it’s one hell of a coincidence. So I say test him and see how it goes. Will he throw off any timing?

2. RUN! The Clippers are still the slowest team in the league. They might be playing great, but they aren't playing fast. The Clippers aren’t much of a crashing team, so the Celtics might be able to rebound and run, but they have to focus on clearing the boards and getting those stops. 

3. Go small and switch: This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the last point. This might be the game where Joe Mazzulla breaks from the Luka Garza plan and goes back to the Josh Minott plan. This would play Brook Lopez off the floor because there’d be no way he could keep up. It might also work in some of the Zubac minutes because it would encourage post-ups instead of Kawhi Leonard shots. Kawhi is on a big-time heater, so anything to disrupt his flow is welcome. 

Follow along with my thoughts as the game goes on. They’ll show up below and in the comments section, so hop in and share your opinion as well.