The set-up: The Boston Celtics got a buzzer-beater to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 97-96 back on Feb. 4 at home. The teams were in very different positions compared to the ones they find themselves heading into Friday's matchup in Portland. The Celtics were a mostly healthy bunch in first place in the Eastern Conference after that triumph with a 39-15 record. However, the Celtics have gone just 9-8 since that game and are currently a battered second-place squad (4 1/2 games back of Toronto) and are entering a very challenging road-heavy portion of their schedule. The Blazers were just 29-24 after that Feb. 4 loss in Boston (in sixth place in the West ) but have since gone 15-3, a surge which has them 44-27 on the season, good enough for the No. 3 seed in the West. Portland is two games up on New Orleans and OKC, plus 2 1/2 games up on San Antonio

Boston: Chief among Boston's injury concerns is the status of All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, who will not travel with the team on this four-game road trip as he seeks a second opinion on a troublesome knee. With Irving (24.4 & 5.1 APG), Jaylen Brown (14.1 & 5.2) out with a concussion and Marcus Smart (10.2-3.5-4.8) sidelined with a thumb issue, Boston has been leaning on others to carry the torch. Jayson Tatum came up big turn on Wednesday with 23 points, 11 rebounds and got an assist on Marcus Morris' decisive three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left. Tatum (13.6 & 5.1) has back-to-back 23-point games, while Morris is averaging 16.6 points in March (12.90 & 5.6 on the season ). However, Horford (12.7-7.5-4.8), who hit the game-winner to defeat Portland last month, is averaging just 5.5 points while shooting 5-of-20 over the last two games!

Portland: The Trail Blazers are looking to bounce back from a 115-111 loss to Houston that snapped their 13-game winning streak. Star guards Damian Lillard (26.6-4.4-6.5) and CJ McCollum (21.5-3.9-3.2) combined to miss all 12 of their three-point attempts and shot a collective 9-for-32 overall in the loss to the Rockets. Center Jusuf Nurkic picked up some of the slack with 21 points while recording his second straight double-double, both of which came with four blocked shots. However, as noted often here, the team's dynamic backcourt duo and Nurkic (14.2 & 8.6) are the only Blazers averaging double digits. That's a problem!

The pick: This home contest will be followed by a stretch in which Portland will play seven of its next nine games on the road. Coming off that loss to the Rockets, Portland is still on a 14-2 ATS run in its last 15 games at the Moda Center. However, Boston is a money-making 23-10 ATS away from TD Garden. I'll make the Over an 8* playt.