NBA schedule: Kobe comes up big in win over Blazers

That could be a hellaciously weird lineup with an obvious matchup advantage, or it could get bulldozed on the boards and overrun with backcourt pressure. No one really knows and what’s more, no one’s really all that worried about it. Que sera, sera and all that.

Some of this was by design thanks to injuries and proscribed rest to their two remaining stars. Garnett is back after missing two weeks with what the team was calling an ankle inflammation and Pierce has also been in and out of the lineup. Without Garnett, the Celtics looked ominously like that post blow-up disaster scenario everyone around town knows is coming eventually.

Yeah, Crawford may have pushed off Evans’s giant, glistening scalp just a bit. He couldn’t resist. He needed the assistance, anyway. It’s kinda like dunking tee-ball. And like I said, Evans didn’t exactly take the non-call in stride:

And you’ve gotta have the motorcycle rev for good measure.

Take a look at the injury reports, however, and those pictures become a bit less rosy. Both teams are banged up and trying to patch things back together going into Wednesday night’s game at the Pepsi Center.

Even though both the Spurs and Nuggets have over 50 wins, neither club has settled down for the rest of the season quite yet. San Antonio is still battling with OKC for the top seed in the conference, while Denver is in the midst of a tight race for home-court advantage.

Back in November, three players were ejected in a 95-83 Nets win. The chippy play continued in the team’s Christmas Day game, a 93-76 Celtics beatdown that included four technical fouls and a minor fight in the fourth quarter.

Both those games included Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, who has been out since February.

Here’s the full 10-game NBA schedule for Wednesday via SI.com (all times Eastern):

Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics, 8 p.m.