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The defending NBA champion Boston Celtics close out the first-half portion of their schedule with a home contest against the San Antonio Spurs tonight at 7 PM ET on ESPN.
The Celtics are 38-16 and sit in second place in the East, 5.5 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and 2.5 games ahead of the New York Knicks. San Antonio is 23-28 and three games out of the last play-in slot in the West. This is the first of two meetings between the two teams this season.
Boston has been surprisingly average at home this campaign, posting a 16-10 record after going 45-6 at TD Garden last season, including the playoffs. The Celtics are 3-4 in Boston and 11-3 away from home since the calendar flipped to 2025. The team has gotten back on track lately, however, winning 6-of-7. Jayson Tatum was recently selected to his fifth All-Star game, and teammate Jaylen Brown is an All-Star for the third time.
The Spurs are 2-3 on their current seven-game road trip, marking their longest of the season. Reigning Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, the Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner, is set to make his debut All-Star appearance this weekend in San Francisco.
Let’s review each team’s recent performance while previewing this matchup and making a Spurs vs Celtics NBA pick.
The Spurs recently acquired De’Aaron Fox in a three-team trade that involved sending Zach LaVine to Sacramento. Fox, who’s averaging 25.0 points and 6.1 assists this season, has performed up to par in his first four games with San Antonio. He is averaging 21 points and 8.5 points.
Wembanyama, meanwhile, is averaging 24.4 points and 11 rebounds per contest. He had 31 and 15 in a 131-121 victory over the Washington Wizards on Monday night. Fox had 30 points and six assists, and rookie guard Stephon Castle had 16 points.
Castle, who won an NCAA championship last April with Connecticut, is averaging 12.7 points this season but is earning his stripes of late, averaging 17.2 points over the last 10 games, including a career-high 33 points in a 117-116 loss against the Charlotte Hornets last Friday.
Tatum averaged 36.5 points as the Celtics won their last two contests, both on the road. He had 33 points and 8 rebounds in a 103-85 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday. All five Boston starters were in double figures, with veterans Al Horford adding 16 points and 10 rebounds and Kristaps Porzingis contributing 17 points and 9 rebounds as the team was missing Brown and Jrue Holiday, both out with injuries.
In a 131-104 victory over the Knicks on Saturday, Tatum tallied 40 points, his second-highest scoring output this season. Brown, who had 12 points against the Knicks, is questionable for tomorrow night’s game, while Holiday has already been scratched.
This is another contest the Celtics should win comfortably at home, even with Brown and Holiday sidelined. That’s the problem. They’ve already dropped several contests they should have won at TD Garden. It’s not Tatum. He’s averaging 26.9 points this season, sixth-best in the league, and he’s upped it the past five games, notching more than 29 points per game in those contests.
They’ll need more of that, especially if Brown is not available. Wembanyama and Fox won’t make it easy on the Celtics, but the Spurs aren’t anywhere near as deep as Boston. Those two can put up the stats, but look for the Celtics to head into the All-Star break on a winning note, and for Tatum to score 28 or more points.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.