NBA Game of the week: The game of the week in the NBA will be the 9th seed Golden State Warriors travelling to the eastern seaboard to take on the 4th seed Boston Celtics on Saturday night April 17th at 8:30 pm EST.
Both of these teams are making major strides in their playoff push, the Celtics have won five games in a row and have catapulted into the fourth seed in the eastern conference with an overall record of 31-26.
The Warriors also have a winning streak of their own, winning five games in a row as well and cementing themselves right in the thick of the play-in tournament race as the ninth seed in the western conference with an overall record of 29-28.
The Warriors have won five games in a row and it has everything to do with the play of their unanimous MVP point guard Steph Curry. Over the past week Curry is averaging 40 points, six rebounds and six assists per game also to go along with five made three pointers a game in that span as well.
While Curry has been lightning it up from just about everywhere on the court his supporting cast has stepped up in a major way. Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre Jr were both averaging over 20 points before Oubre got sidelined with a sprained left wrist which is his shooting hand.
Draymond continues to be a non factor on the scoring end of things but he literally does everything else. Green only averages seven points, but makes up for it by going for eight rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals per game this season.
If it weren’t for the play-in tournament the NBA is doing because of the shortened season the Warriors would be fighting and clawing for that eighth seed but with the new rule they only have to fall within the 7-10 seed.
The Warriors are way past their days of dominating all the way to the Finals year after year but they still have their veteran core with some young stars and they’re not going away anytime soon and are right in the thick of the playoff race which is exactly what the Warriors fans are used to seeing.
The Boston Celtics have had a rocky season thus far. They dipped as far as the eighth seed and have now hit their peak, sitting comfortably in the fourth seed. They are the definition of that the season is a marathon not a sprint and it’s where you finish not where you start.
The dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been pivotal in their accent to the fourth seed with both players averaging over 25 points during their five game win streak including a 30 point performance from Brown and a 53 point performance from Tatum.
Since trading Center Daniel Theis to the Chicago Bulls the Celtics are 9-3. The Celtics have one thing very very few NBA teams do, have a solid bench you can trust with the starters out.
With Marcus Smart and rookie Payton Pritchard leading the bench in scoring with 14 and 7 points per game off the bench this season. The Celtics have a rough part of their schedule coming up with the Warriors, Bulls, Suna dna Nets all slated to be played in the next week this will be a telling stretch of games to see if they’re ready to face high level competition.
The last time these two teams played was all the way back in february but saw the Celtics take that game by a score of 111-107 but that was on the road at the Chase Center.
Check out this NBA game of the week on April 17th at 8:30 pm EST on your local NBC Sports channel, NBA League Pass or your local ABC channel as well.
