Celtics-Warriors: What to watch for

Oh, by the way, the Warriors still have plenty of games toplay, and the Celtics are coming to Oracle on Wednesday.While the trade of Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown tothe Bucks for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson is the big news, the remainingWarriors will have to deal with Boston, currently playing its third game of aneight-game road trip.The Warriors are coming off a surprising win on Tuesdaynight against the Kings in Sacramento, but they will likely be short offirepower for the rest of the season.
Theyve lost their best player and leading scorer in Ellisand their starting center in Udoh. In addition, Stephen Currys status remainsin limbo.Here are some things to watch for during the Celtics-Warriors game:Offense issues: Without Ellis, theWarriors are going to need other players to step up with their scoring, and itlikely starts with Dorell Wright and Nate Robinson.Wright has been in a shooting slump much of the season, butthere are signs hes coming out of it. As for Robinson, hell likely get moreplaying time now that Ellis is gone, and hell have more of a free reign thanbefore.The Celtics have been playing better of late, and theirdefense has picked up. It will be interesting to see how the Warriors scoreifwhen Boston really bears down on defense.Lets see about Klay: The player whostands to benefit most from the trade of Ellis is rookie shooting guard KlayThompson. It seems apparent that the Warriors believe he can be the two guardof the future, and the future starts now.RELATED: Klay Thompson game logssplitsnews
Thompson struggled from the field against the Kings onTuesday night, but righted himself some in the second half. It will be worthnoting how Thompson handles his extra minutesfor example, how will he bounceback against the Celtics after playing a career-high 42 minutes againstSacramento.Effort and energy: The Warriors obviouslygave up a lot of talent in this trade and Bogut doesnt figure on playing therest of this season. It alsoremains unclear what roleif anyJackson will have with theWarriors.Against the Kings, the Warriors got after it defensively andwon going away. Some of that was the Warriors effort level and some of it wasthe Kings being flat.If the Warriors want to have any hope of winning some gameson the way toward the end of the season, theyre going to have to getconscientious efforts from most of their players each and every night.