December 29, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the ball during the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics at ORACLE Arena. The Warriors defeated the Celtics 101-83. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celticcs will take on the Golden State Warriors  and try to tie the season series against them tonight. The Warriors have been shooting the lights out in their last three games the Warriors shot 52.3% from three point range.

The Warriors have been scorching in the past three games. The only problem is that they haven’t been able to defend anyone. Over the past three games they’ve scored 106 points per 100 possessions but they’ve also allowed 108 points per 100 possessions on the defensive end. That’s why they haven’t been able to win.

Luckily for the C’s they’re catching the Warriors in the midst of this defensive slump. The Warriors are always better defensively at home, but tonight they’ll be in the Garden. The Celtics should have no problem scoring against these guys.

Shooting One: The Three Keys

The keys for the Celtics tonight are on the defensive part of the floor. They’ll have to stop these guys if they want to win. They aren’t keeping up with Curry and the Warriors offensively. Now, lets get into the keys:

• The Celtics have to stay with Stephen Curry at all times. The Knicks learned this lesson the hard way when Curry embarrassed them for 54 points. They were letting him shoot the three ball and then he caught fire. If Curry catches fire from deep, you aren’t stopping him. Let him take the ball to the rim. Curry is only shooting 58% at the rim. That’s down from the league average.
• The Celtics have to watch out for the Warriors pick and role attack. The Warriors are going to kill them if they don’t guard the role man while fighting over the screen. That means that the help is often going to have to come from off the wing or from the side. The Celtics have to be judicious with who they leave because the most of the Warriors squad lights things up from deep.
• The Celtics are going to have to watch out for Jarrett Jack coming off of the bench. He’s a leading candidate in the sixth man of the year conversation and he’s going to be hard to stop. The Warriors are going to throw him out there with two shooters in Curry and Klay Thompson–the C’s have to do everything in their power to stop that lineup.

 With the 58th pick in the 2009 NBA draft, the Boston Celtics select Lester Hudson from the University of Tennessee-Martin. These were the words said when the Boston Celtics turn came up during the 2009 NBA draft. The Boston Celtics used their only pick in the draft to pick up Lester Hudson, a young guard who made history in college by recording the NCAA’s first ever quadruple-double.

Since being drafted that day Hudson has signed a contract with the Boston Celtics and wears the green uniform proudly. The sad thing is that he is usually wearing it proudly on the bench while watching his teammates win basketball games.

It is very hard for a unproven young play like Lester to get quality minutes on a team as deep as the Celtics. I do think however that there is room on the team for Lester to get more minutes. The recent injury to Marquis Daniels (hand) really got my hopes up for seeing this young gun play some quality minutes. So far Doc has not chosen to go with Lester off the bench except for in garbage time, like in last night’s blowout win over Chicago.

Instead of bringing the rookie into the game when it matters, Doc has chosen to go with the recently activated Tony Allen and knock-down shooter Eddie House. The problem I have with this is that neither one of these guys are true point guards, and to take it to another level, Marquis Daniels isn’t a true point guard.

If Doc could start working Lester into the rotation with the guards it would allow both Eddie House and Marquis Daniels to play their true positions. Eddie at the shooting guard getting open for shots off the pass, and Marquis Daniels at small forward helping to limit Paul Pierce’s minutes.

It all seems like a perfect scenario but I still think Doc questions whether Lester could handle the quality minutes at guard, being a rookie and all. The problem that I have with all this is that Lester is just sitting on the bench, and for lack of better words, rusting away. This kid is young, he needs to play, he needs to build his confidence, and he needs to get accustomed to the flow of NBA games. The way Doc is using him right now is doing no good for this kid’s future.

My plan: Send him to Portland. For those of you not familiar the Celtics now have a D-League team, the Maine Red Claws, which is located in Portland, Maine. Celtics forward Bill Walker is currently averaging 29.4 minutes a game,  19 points and 7.6 rebounds a game for the Red Claws. Walker is getting quality playing time and reminding himself that he still has it when it comes to the game of basketball.

So why not let young Lester Hudson go there and get those kind of minutes every game? To me it only makes sense, considering he hasn’t played more than ten minutes in a game since his college days. Let him go up to Portland and get back into game shape, then bring him back to Boston when he’s needed. If Doc is going to play him that is one thing, but it’s another if he’s just going to sit there and warm the bench.

Photos via Dave Eggen/NBAE/Getty Images and nba.com

Bill Walker shows his athleticism by getting above the rim for a dunk.

As a native of the great state of Maine I was excited to hear about a NBA developmental league team hitting the Portland area. Before we had the Portland Seadogs (Boston Red Sox minor league double AA team) and Portland Pirates (Buffalo Sabres minor league hockey team) but basketball is my sport and I wanted a team close to home. As talks went on about the team I soon learned that the team was going to be an affiliate of my beloved Boston Celtics. The fact that we could see some Celtics players at times, even if they are bench warmers, excited me.

Today the  Boston Celtics announced that second year forward Bill Walker will be assigned to the Maine Red Claws. Walker is a second year player out of Kansas State who exhibits a electrifying style of play. When in a game he can win the crowd over with high flying dunks and athletic plays. This is very good news for the Red Claws organization as it should boost ticket sales and give the crowd a high caliber basketball player to watch. If Walker stays on the team for a long period of time I know I will soon be getting tickets to a game.

As far as from a Celtics standpoint, I also see this as a smart move. Walker is recently coming off a nagging injury that sidelined him for the preseason and the start of the regular season. So far this year he has played in one game, this was against Utah, where he totaled two minutes of playing time. Getting Walker back into the flow of a game is very important to continuing his development, sitting on the bench at the TD Garden does not help him with this. Going to Portland and being able to play a large quanity of minutes will help him repolish his game back to where it was during his time at Kansas State.

I wish all the best for Bill and hope one day he will be a great asset to the Celtics. After all we all know the talent and athleticism is there, we just need him to stay healthy and build back some confidence in his game.