Celtics take on Fast and Furious Nuggets team in Boston tonight

Tonight, in a nationally televised game on ESPN, the Celtics take on the ball pushing Denver Nuggets who should be ready to play after their disappointing loss in Cleveland a couple nights ago.

As Steve Bulpett of BostonHerald.com reported yesterday:
The Celtics spent today preparing for a very strong Nuggets team that will be angry. Denver sits at 11-7 in the tough Western Conference and is coming off a 10-point loss in Cleveland to the now 6-12 Cavaliers last night.

"First of all, Cleveland played great last night," said Brad Stevens. "Cleveland’s played great two nights in a row and we caught Cleveland on one of those nights last week. But then they beat the Bulls and now beat the Nuggets yesterday, and they just played great.

"(Denver's Ty) Lawson is obviously not going to have that kind of game very often, but they play fast, they are very skilled, very aggressive, and (Kenneth) Faried’s been one of my favorite players to watch forever since he was at Morehead St. I could go through the laundry list of things we need to do well, but we’re going to have to play exceptionally well, maybe as well as any game we’ve played, to do what we want to do tomorrow night."

To get ready, the Celts worked on transition defense.

"Denver is a push-it team," said Jared Sullinger. "Between Nate (Robinson), Ty Lawson, Andre Miller, those guys like to push the tempo, force the tempo. So it was a lot of getting up and down and understanding that there's going to be a lot of team defense tomorrow."

Denver is the fifth leading scoring team in the league and their offensive catalyst is North Carolina product Ty Lawson.

Lawson is having an impressive statistical season averaging over 19 points and eight assists who should also serve as a model for any NBA scouts who think Arizona State University's ultra talented Jahii Carson is too small to play point guard in this league.

The game will probably be won and lost on the boards as well as with Boston's shot selection and percentage which will determine whether the Nuggets are able to routinely get out in transition.

For the Celtics another big factor will be whether Jeff Green can continue his stellar recent play.

This game is a veritable toss up but I will pick The C's mostly because they're at home:

My prediction:

Celts 101 Nuggets 98

Please leave your own thoughts and predictions on tonight's game in the comments below.

Follow Clint on Twitter @coolhandc