BOSTON- Tonight, the Celtics will host the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Garden. It's been a pretty quite day for the C's, but they're due for a loud night. Former Celtic Kendrick Perkins will return to Boston tonight wearing OKC blue, but there's nobody who looks at him as any kind of traitor. The Celtics have lost two straight and are just 6-6 on the year. Last year through twelve games, they were just 4-8 but finished 39-27 in a lockout-shortened season. This year, they have an extra 16 games and are at .500 instead of four games below. Tonight could be the inevitable turning point. Here are five things that they must to do to win tonight:

5. BETTER DEFENSIVE EFFORT:
The Celtics just didn't put up a great effort against the Spurs. The C's could've won that game with a bad defense instead of a pathetic one. San Antonio scored at will all night. They NEED to improve.

4. KEEP SULLINGER HOT:
Against the Toronto Raptors last Saturday, Sullinger had 10 rebounds. On Sunday against the Pistons, he had just five rebounds along with 16 points. On Wednesday, he went back up to 7 rebounds but just two points. He needs to keep playing hard and contributing. He is becoming a solid big man.

3. REBOUND:
The Celtics were out-rebounded 41-25 in their last game. That is unacceptable and needs to improve. Get more effort from the big men.

2. MULTIPLE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS:
Against the Spurs, the Celtics had ONE offensive rebound. You are not reading this wrong. The entire 48 minute game, they had ONE offensive rebound. C'mon! Can you at least get 2 in the game? Let's all hope that they decide to put up a better effort on the offensive boards.

1. OUTSCORE THE THUNDER:
If you score more points than the other team, you will win. If you get 0 offensive rebounds, but win because you shot 100% from the field, then I don't care. Just score at least one more point than the other team.

Tip-off for this one is at 7:30 pm ET. Coverage is available here at Celtics Green and from me at Panktics Blog.