The Boston Celtics will look to end a mini-slide and stop their current two-game losing streak Monday night when they face the Atlanta Hawks.
The Celtics, playing without Rajon Rondo who was held out to rest his hamstring, dropped Sunday's game in Toronto to the Raptors, 102-101. Coupled with Friday's loss to Oklahoma City, it's the first time the Celtics had lost back-to-back games since Games 6 and 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. Boston also lost the final two regular season games last year. They last lost three straight games Mar. 28-Apr. 2.
CelticsBlog reminds that "the Celtics have been beat up, and haven't had one single game with it's full cadre of rotation players all healthy, and like any older team, there are going to be nights when the enthusiasm isn't there." But Monday night in Atlanta will not be one of those nights.
The Hawks are on the list of 'kinda rivals even though its obvious that they take it more seriously than the Celtics do', along with the Bulls. The two teams are remarkably similar; both the Bulls and Hawks have taken the Celtics to a 7 game playoff series in the first round of the playoffs, both teams are young, athletic squads with emotional former University of Florida alumnus leaders, and neither team has won anything in the past 5 years.
As for the Celtics and their injuries, Rondo is still questionable but it's sounding like it won't be playing according to Doc Rivers: "If this was a playoff game, would he play? Yeah. But we have back-to-backs, and if we can probably not play him in both, we have three days off and it gives him a chance to get healthy."
Rondo sat out all of Sunday's game. Nate Robinson got the start in his place, playing 34 minutes while recording 22 points and two assists.