Celtics look to sweep 6-game road trip, take on struggling Grizzlies
The Boston Celtics appear to be in peak form as they prepare to wrap up a six-game road trip with a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night.
Boston has won eight games in a row overall, 13 of its past 14 and seven straight on the road. Their 121-11 victory on Saturday over the San Antonio Spurs gave the Celtics (55-19) an NBA-best 31-7 record in road games.
"It just builds habits," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. "We haven't changed our approach and our process throughout the entire season. We just continue to build habits and the proper mindset, but it's the guys. They're competitive guys that want to win and do what it takes to win. There's nothing more important than everything that goes into the process of winning and we have a chance to do that every night."
Things haven't been as smooth for Memphis (44-30) recently. Although the Grizzlies are fifth in the Western Conference standings, they have lost five of their past six. That includes a 134-127 setback on Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers in the team's first game since it fired head coach Taylor Jenkins and made Tuomas Iisalo interim head coach.
"I thought the difference was our start to the game," Iisalo said following the loss. "Unfortunately, the first half was not at the quality that we need in order to beat a team of this quality. That's something we have to work on. We got to get better. We know time is of the essence. ... Very simple. A lot of times you don't know what happened in the game really before watching the video, but I can already say we failed at the basics in the first half. So got to do a better job with those."
Memphis guard Ja Morant missed six straight games before returning to action against the Lakers. He collected 22 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the loss.
The Grizzlies also had a recent in-house flap, providing a viral moment when Desmond Bane shoved teammate Santi Aldama during a timeout in a win over Utah on March 25. Aldama returned to his feet and walked toward Bane before teammates separated them.
"Little disagreement," Aldama told The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. "Definitely not a good look. Not going to sit here and act like it's nothing, but we talked about it. ... It would be worse if we had a bunch of guys that just sat down, twiddled their thumbs and just acted like they were just fine with the situation. We want to win. We're competitive. We just said what we said and then moved on."
He added: "Just got to find a way to win games now. If that's a wake-up call, then so be it."
Boston has been using a lineup that has 7-foot-1 Luke Kornet and 7-foot-2 Kristaps Porzingis on the floor at the same time, and that resulted in a 54-35 rebounding edge against San Antonio. Kornet had 15 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in the win.
"It just gives us a different identity," Mazzulla said. "It gives us a presence offensively and forces the other team to match up with us differently than they would have if only one of them was out there. They're both dynamic defensively in their own way: KP's rim protection, Luke's ability to navigate different matchups and different coverages."
--Field Level Media
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