This afternoon, the Dallas Mavericks will host the defending NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, in a game that tips at 4:30 CST at the American Airlines Center. A rematch of last year’s NBA Finals, the Mavericks are coming off of a huge upset win over the OKC Thunder on the road and have a little bit of momentum as they run into yet another title contender.

The Celtics have one of the best defensive backcourts in the entire league with Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, a duo that helped propel them to the NBA Finals last year by locking down opposing guards as well as contributing on the offensive end. White is one of the best three-and-D players in the NBA, and Holiday is a big-bodied off-guard that can help control opposing wings. It should be noted however that Derrick White is questionable for the game tonight; in his stead would be Payton Pritchard.

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Their stars are really in their wings, though – Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two elite players at their positions, with Brown playing the three and Tatum rotating between the three and the four. Their versatility at this position makes them an extremely dangerous team not just scoring the ball, but defensively as well, as Tatum’s ability to switch between perimeter and post defense forces the opponent to make lots of decisions with the ball in their hands on the offensive end.

At center is former Maverick Kristaps Porzingis, a 7-foot-3 sharpshooter whose offense and defense are both major factors for this Celtics team. As a player that has spent a good majority of his career injured, any opportunity they have to play with Porzingis on the floor makes them a much better team because of his ability to both protect the rim as well as hit shots from all over the floor, including beyond the arc.

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The bench unit for Boston is deep, and includes players like the aforementioned Pritchard as well as Sam Hauser, Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Jordan Walsh, all of whom bring different aspects to the versatility of the team. As the defending champions, it makes sense that Boston is a team that can win games in several different ways. They shoot the three-ball exceedingly well, but also defend as well as anybody in the NBA on the perimeter.

As well as Dallas played against the Thunder two nights ago, it is a bit of a long shot that they would be able to take down another top-notch team while being down both Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively II. If they are to pull it off, it’s going to require them to guard the perimeter well enough and prevent Boston from hitting the amount of threes they try to hit per game. Their only chance to win is to shoot hot themselves and hope for an off night from the Celtics as underdogs.

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