by Thomas Quaynor for Wannamakeabet.com
The second half of the NBA season begins tonight with an interconference matchup of NBA elites — each team captured an NBA title within the last 4 seasons — as the Boston Celtics (35-19) visit the Golden State Warriors (29-26) on Prime video. This is the first of two regular season meetings between the Celtics and Warriors, they’ll face off for again on March 18 in Boston.
The last six matchups between Boston and Golden State have been split evenly at three with the teams alternating wins. The Celtics walloped the Warriors 125-85 at Golden State when the teams last met on Jan. 25, 2025, which may indicate its Golden State’s turn to win tonight’s contest.
Boston is a 4.5-point favorite and the total is 213.5.
WHAT BOTH TEAMS DID IN THEIR PREVIOUS GAME
Boston crushed the depleted Chicago Bulls (24-31) 124-105 at home in their final contest before the All-Star break on Feb. 11. The Celtics broke the game open in the second quarter, outscoring the Bulls 36-17. Boston led by 28 points (72-44) at halftime and cruised to an easy victory.
Payton Pritchard scored a game-high 26 points (11-18 FG, 3-8 3Pt, 1-2 FT) and added 8 assists in 34 minutes off the bench for Boston. All-Star guard Jaylen Brown registered 24 points (9-20 FG, 2-9 3Pt, 4-4 FT), 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 29 minutes, while newly-acquired center Nikola Vucevic posted 19 points (7-12 FG, 4-5 3Pt, 1-2 FT), 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in 26 minutes off the bench. Boston acquired the talented, double-double machine Vucevic from Chicago on Feb. 3.
Boston ended the first half of the season on fire, winning six of their final seven games. Tonight’s contest at Golden State begins a four-game, West Coast swing for the Celtics. They’ll go on to face the Lakers, Suns and Nuggets over the next six days.
The short-handed Warriors fell to the San Antonio Spurs (38-16) 126-113 at home on Feb. 11. Golden State played San Antonio without the services of superstar Steph Curry, who was sidelined with a right knee injury. Curry missed Golden State’s final five games before the break because of the injury.
The scrappy Warriors hung tough with the Spurs — holding a 67-63 lead at halftime and increasing the lead to 16 (86-70) in the third quarter — before the Spurs closed the third quarter on a 24-8 run to tie the game at 94. San Antonio pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring Golden State 32-19 to close out the game.
Draymond Green, De’Anthony Melton and Moses Moody each scored 17 points to lead the Warriors. Green also added team-highs of 12 rebounds and 8 assists across 30 minutes. Six of Golden State’s nine rotation players scored at least 10 points in the loss to San Antonio.
GAME STORYLINES: BOSTON
Last season, the Boston Celtics were looking to repeat as NBA champions. They won the 2024 NBA title in dominant fashion, going 16-3 in the playoffs en route to capturing the crown. Boston’s quest for a repeat came to a crashing halt when superstar forward Jayson Tatum tore his right Achilles tendon late in the fourth quarter of Game 4 against New York in the Conference Semifinals (2nd round). The Knicks went on to win that game 121-113 to go up 3-1. They proceeded to eliminate the defending champion Celtics 4-2.
The loss of Jayson Tatum to a torn right Achilles tendon on May 12, 2025 appeared to be catastrophic for Boston because not only was their quest for a repeat vanquished by the Knicks, it was feared that Tatum would miss the entire 2025-26 season. In his 8 seasons (2018-2025) with Boston, Tatum was selected as an All-Star six times and was named the 2024 NBA Finals MVP. Tatum established himself as a franchise player for Boston.
Boston was expected to take a precipitous drop in terms of wins and losses this year — they’ve averaged 61 wins per year over the last 3 seasons — with Jayson Tatum projected to miss the entire season. But quite the opposite has happened as Boston still remains one of the NBA’s top teams this season. The Celtics enter tonight’s game with an impressive 35-19 record. They are second in the Eastern Conference and own the fourth-best record in the NBA.
The Celtics are unlikely to approach last season’s 61-21 finish, but they could end up as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for a second straight season, which would be a remarkable feat for a team playing without its best player and an All-NBA performer in Jayson Tatum. Boston is on pace to finish with a 54-28 record.
The biggest reason Boston has remains amongst the NBA’s elite is the brilliance of All-Star Jaylen Brown. The 29-year-old, Cal product is amassing his best season to date as a pro in year 10. He’s averaging career-highs of 29.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists, along with 1 steal and 2.1 threes on 48.3 percent shooting from the floor and 34.8 percent shooting from long distance across 49 games. He was voted in as a starter in last Sunday’s All-Star game, and currently has the sixth-best (+10000) odds to win the 2026 MVP award.
The excellent play of mainstay guards Derrick White (17.2 ppg, 5.6 asts, 4.4 rebs, 1.4 blks, 1.2 stls, 2.9 threes in 52 gms) and Peyton Pritchard (career-high 17.2 ppg, 5.3 asts, 4.2 rebs, 2.6 threes, 46.2% from 2, 35.6% from 3 in 55 gms) along with much-improved center Neemias Queta (career-highs of 9.7 ppg, 8.3 rebs, 1.3 blks, 63.9% from 2 in 51 gms) has also been key to Boston’s fantastic season. The 26-year-old Queta went from a seldom-used reserve last year (5 ppg in 13.9 minutes) to a bona fide NBA starting center this season.
Boston made a significant addition at the trade deadline when they landed veteran center Nikola Vucevic from the Chicago Bulls. The 35-year-old, two-time All-Star has produced an outstanding 15-year NBA career as a stretch big man that grabs rebounds. Vucevic has career averages of 17.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1 three-pointer over his 15 NBA seasons with Philadelphia, Orlando and Chicago prior to joining Boston. The addition of Vucevic likely means less minutes for Neemias Queta.
With Boston looking like NBA championship contenders, there is speculation that Jayson Tatum could return this season. He did participate in a 5-on-5 practice with Boston’s G-League team, the Maine Celtics, on February 12. Tatum said he felt good after the practice. But both Tatum and the Celtics remain non-committal about whether he’ll return this season.
GAME STORYLINES: GOLDEN STATE
When the Golden State Warriors allowed Klay Thompson to leave as a free agent in July 2024, it marked the official end to Golden State’s ‘Big Three’ of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the aforementioned Thompson, who led the Warriors on a dynastic run for 12 seasons (2013-2024). The terrific trio won four NBA championships (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022) and finished with an NBA-record 73 wins during the 2015-16 season.
The absence of Klay Thompson, an overreliance on Steph Curry and an inconsistent group of young players was leading to a rudderless season last year in 2024-25. Everything changed for Golden State when they added temperamental superstar Jimmy Butler III via trade from Miami on Feb. 7. Butler wore out his welcome with Miami due to a contract dispute. He carried Miami to two improbable runs to the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023.
Golden State sat at just 25-26 when they traded for the 35-year-old Jimmy Butler III on Feb. 7, 2025. His addition made an immediate impact as Golden State finished the year 23-8 with him, and ended the 2024-25 season with a 48-34 record.
The Warriors earned the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, knocked off the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets (4-3) in the first-round of the playoffs before bowing out to the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (4-1) in the second round. Steph Curry suffering a left hamstring strain in Game 1 — which Golden State won 99-88 — that kept him out for the rest of the series doomed the Warriors as they never won another game.
Golden State had high expectations for the 2025-26 campaign as they’d have Jimmy Butler III for a full season. But chemistry issues and defensive woes doomed them for a lot of the season. They hovered around the .500 mark for most of the year, and appeared to be turning things around in early January when they won 6 of 7 contests which got them to a season-best 6 games over .500 at 25-19 on Jan. 19.
Unfortunately, Jimmy Butler suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his right knee on Jan. 19 during a 135-112 win against Miami. He was in the midst of another strong season in his 15th year, averaging 20 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.4 steals om 51.9 percent shooting from the floor in 38 games. Golden State has gone 4-7 since Butler’s injury.
Things got even worse for Golden State when ageless superstar Steph Curry experienced right knee soreness during a 131-124 loss to Detroit on Jan. 30. He has not played since, and will miss tonight’s game against Boston. Curry has now missed 6 straight games.
When healthy, 37-year-old, superstar Steph Curry has been as good as ever in year 17, averaging 27.2 points, 4.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 4.5 threes on 46.8 percent shooting from the floor and 39.1 percent shooting from long distance in 39 games. Curry was named an All-Star for the 12th time in his career this season.
Golden State acquired talented, but oft-injured center Kristaps Porzingis from Atlanta at the trade deadline on Feb. 5. The 30-year-old, former All-Star was averaging 17.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.8 threes while shooting 45.7 percent from the floor in 17 games with Atlanta.
Kristaps Porzingis has not played since Jan. 7 due to an illness and an Achilles injury. He is questionable for tonight’s game against Boston. If Porzingis can ever return to full health, he’d be a huge addition to Golden State with his multi-faceted scoring prowess, rebounding and defense.
THE PICK: CELTICS (-4.5)
Golden State comes into this game banged up as Steph Curry will miss his sixth straight game. I don’t think they’ll be able to keep pace with a Celtics squad that was surging prior to the All-Star break. Lay the Points and take the Celtics!