Here comes one of the best rivalries in US, The Beantown vs the Big Apple, Giants vs Patriots, Yankees vs Red Sox, Manhattan clam chowder vs New England clam chowder, The Italian Mafia vs the Irish Mafia and finally Boston Celtics vs New York Knicks. Both teams this year is all five stars teams, with the best players in the NLL. This is so much talent on the floor that we could call it an all-star game already.                Both teams are coming from a losing tough matchup against another division rival Philadelphia 76ers and are eager to beat a top opponent. Celtics is in best position and in the best moment of the season while the Knicks still trying to find themselves with the three… sorry four headers Tiamat.

                Boston Seconds, sorry, I mean Boston Celtics don’t even remember how bad they were in the first week in the season and now sits on the second place of the league. They are collecting Ws since December 1 and just lost 6 loses since, against Cavs, Sixers, Bucks, Clips, Hornets and the Knicks. They are 1-1 against their division rival Knicks and this week we are going to have a tie break.

Kevin Durant is their best player and this season is a decision season for him. I don’t believe he is going anywhere (does any allstar goes anywhere?) this offseason but I guess his gm will have to spent gm points if something goes wrong. They already have a huge tax to pay this off season so they will probably sell their only two picks for some cash.

Inside the paint Celtics dominate the league as the fifth in rebounds per game.  Nikola Vucevic is a monster inside with 13 rebounds per game and a prolific post player with 14 points per game. He is yet to know the meaning of defense, he just can’t defend inside and it might be his major flaw. On the other post position is Al Horford. Another prolific post and middle range power forward and way better defensive player than Vucevic. He can play both power forward and center and he is the second most value player in this Celtics team.  Horford came this year to Celtics and already in his last year of contract, nothing Boston Celtics will care about with some money and record to support the re-sign.

The backcourt of Boston Celtics is also very solid.  Trevor Ariza is reported to play back in Shooting Guard position after spent one week on Small Forward position. Following the Cavs trend didn’t went so well for them against the Sixers when the obviously tried to escape from Kawhi Leonard defense. Ariza is a tough defender at shooting guard position. Length and strength is on his side to stop any shooting guard in this league. He is also able to score a tone of points from behind the arc and Boston relies on as much on his defense as on Durant offense.


     

    The maestro of this well-orchestrated starting lineup is the small man Ty Lawson. Another new guy for this season; (One of the 13 guys Boston acquires this year!!!!) Lawson was supposed to be playing on his prime this season but he had a tremendous set back early in the season, with police problems, he was caught driving under influence. Maybe after a happy party on Celtics’ yacht.  The suspension escalated quickly hurting his game a bit but yet not enough to hold him from starting job of this team . Away from alcohol he is a blur (haha!) on the floor leading the team in assists per game and second in the team tied with Ariza in points per game. Problem is, can he stay away from the booze?

    Boston’s bench improved a lot from first weeks to what we see now. The new comer Taj Gibson will play at the post for what was promised to him 25 minutes. He will come in both halves alongside the hustle white guy Hansbrough who will play only the first half. This strategy could work depending on the level of fatigue Al Horford can take in the second half. On the worst case Taj will play 18 minutes leaving the starting big men wishing a Gatorade gallon. Jeremy Lin a capable point guard. He loves to attack the basket and play pick and roll. In this Chinese year celebration Jeremy will try to show some work to the vast Chinese audience throughout the world. But in my honest opinion the best player in this bench is the underrated Gary Neal. Good shooter and amazing scorer, a true bench spark every team needs. He is the second in PER with 20(do you really want to count Dawson?) in 13 minutes per game.

Now the Knicks. The four headed Tiamat is not so dangerous as we thought they would be after they acquired Dwight Howard. In the last 10 games the Knicks can’t get over 50%.They even fired Derek Fisher after loses against the Sixers and Cavs. Not good enough! Knicks is in a decisive week hanging around the 6^th position, they are two loses away from the 8^th position Indiana which they will confront three times this week. And I’m sure they have 70% of chance to beat the Pacers. But the Celtics? They will need to fight a lot.



    Superman or Bizarro?

The key player in this matchup is the new comer Dwight Howard. The Superman landed in Manhattan giving hope to the citizens of New York. But the Superman seems to be more like the Bizarro in last 8 games the Knicks lost 5! Not only for the big dogs but against Wolves and Nets. Howard is a question mark indeed but he can be a massive force inside the paint no doubt. Averaging 16 points and 13 rebounds in these 8 games in Big Apple Howard will be the key of the game for the Knicks.

Long time Knicks Paul Millsap (since 2006, a second round pick!!!) is not having a good season. Overshadowed by super high scorers teammates Millsap is still trying to find his way this season. He is being a service player for the Knicks and will finish his carrier with the blue orange uniform. On his side in the front court is the young new comer Wesley Johnson. Not so fancy from what you expect of a 4^th  pick but yet a good shooter. The best signing in this off season by the Knicks, Wesley is doing ok with 12 points per game and a solid defense as well. His challenge this week is, how he can stop Durant.

The back court is amazing. James Harden is the league leader in points per game. The beard came from a trade that gave Rudy Gay to Utah in 2010. Harden after 3 years turns out into a superstar. He will not have much trouble to beat counterpart Trevor Ariza in this contest. The another super star to command the Knicks backcourt is  Ma…Mario Chalmers? Wait?! Irving benched? Oh. There we go again. New Coach Ramble benched Irving to score off the bench. It can work. Irving was very good coming off the bench with 19 points and +12 against weak defenders bench players. In other hand Mario Chalmers will play decent minutes in the starting lineup passing the ball to either Harden or Howard. Problem is, Irving will not be there in the last 2 minutes making completely useless the Closer factor he has.

Along side Irving we have the newcomer JJ Hickson recently acquired from Wizards. A rebound machine! Unlike to score more the 6 points but still can rebound 10 balls off the bench on his best day. The rookie Bobby Portis, Dudley, Sloan and Orlando Johnson will play some garbage time and will try to produce for the knicks in the first half.

Who is going to win? Both team are playing the same average all around strategy most part of the season. Which don’t give any edge on this category. Is there any surprise? If they play the same way, all what left is the matchups and in this category Boston can get the edge in 3-2. If the Knicks bench doesn’t respond the strategy they might lose this game.