Every game is a fight in the NBA, to some degree, and especially so when you aren’t at full health. The Raptors played host to the Celtics, looking to nab a win at the front end of what is, more or less, a stretch of the schedule against the class of the East, night in and out. No Scottie Barnes. No Kawhi Leonard. No Paul George on the other side of things.
The first instinct for the Raptors was to hunt the 3-point line. Test the boundaries of Collin Murray-Boyles’ outside jumper while you start him next to Jakob Poeltl. Some of it came in open flow, some of it came as a result of set actions. Murray-Boyles wasn’t accurate, but he was intentional. Ja’Kobe Walter was both – banging in 3 early triples. RJ Barrett was stirring the pot as he plunged repeatedly into the Celtics defense before laying off the ball to teammates for buckets. Intentional and accurate as a passer, sprinting out to 5 assists in nearly as many minutes. That led the first rush of blows, but it was a smattering of makes from Jamison Battle, Alijah Martin, and Allen Graves that allowed the Raptors, and Jamal Shead to keep the offense humming after the starting back court had subbed off. The Raptors young guns wanted to burn this thing down.
1st quarter points from downtown: Ja’Kobe (12), Jamison (6), Alijah (6) – en fuego. 10/18 as a team from downtown and they took three quarters of their attempts from deep. A 38-29 lead for the good guys after one frame. They’d grow the lead to 16 in the early minutes of the second. Then they took it to 21. A tidal wave of threes came first. Then a tidal wave of misses for the Celtics and run outs for the Raptors.
In some sense, the Celtics designed this style of play. They were tagging and crowding the Raptors rollers with great deal of intention. They wanted to crowd the drivers and the rollers. They wanted the Raptors to ping the ball out and unload from downtown. Now, I’m sure they wanted to get out to the ball a little quicker and provide better contests, but they definitely weren’t expecting this level of shot making from the Raptors. Credit to the Raptors for playing with pace, purpose – and not being afraid to let it fly. No freebies for the Celtics either, as the Raptors took great care of the ball.
The Celtics mounted their comeback, though. They were the 3rd ranked defense coming into this one, they know how to lock up. They put together a string of stops that led to run outs that got the Celtics in motion. One play in particular though, a flagrant foul by Murray-Boyles on a triple by Tatum led to a 7-point possession for the Celtics in what was part of a larger 16-0 run. A mad dash by the Celtics to pull within a couple possessions of the Raptors, and a horrendous run of play from the Raptors – one that undid a lot of the work they put in over the majority of the first half. What looked like it was going to be a very healthy lead heading into halftime, a deficit that would be hard to come back from, it was whittled down to 7. Well within striking distance for the Celtics.
Toronto set itself up for a dog fight.
It took about 5 minutes for the Raptors to lose the lead. A bit of isolation prowess from Derrick White to get to his spots. A bit of overloading on Tatum, falling behind the ball and giving up catch and shoot looks. A whole lot of aimless offensive possessions. The Raptors would need something good, something material to find a win from behind. Especially when they were getting so little from their starting back court. Barrett had cooled significantly from his hot start. Quickley had never been warm. A truly disastrous stretch of missed shots, missed passing reads, and missed opportunities.
On the other side of things the Celtics continued to use Tatum as a cudgel to open up opportunities on offense. He was a lot to deal with.
Believe it or not, it was Graves who swung the Raptors into the positive to close out the 3rd quarter. When he’s on the floor he’s a playmaker. He has his faults, but he’s got a keen sniffer when it comes to smelling out opportunity. A genuinely fantastic intuition of how to get after rebounds and loose balls led him to a put back. The triples he banged from the corner were a huge boost to the Raptors offense. However, he was instrumental in putting some size into the Raptors defense as they scrambled around trying to contain the Celtics. The Raptors took a 5-point deficit and found a 5-point lead by the end of the third quarter.
Scraping, clawing, both teams seesawed back and forth. The most important player missing from the early stretch? Tatum. The best player in the game? Tatum. The Raptors had to hold serve, of course, but they had to be looking for a bigger cushion before the Celtics put their star back in the game. The unfortunate thing was while the Celtics’ star was driving them forward, the Raptors were, honestly, actively hurt by their starting back court. Quickley & Barrett were a disaster. You can withstand some missed shots, but the shot selection and overdribbling was a nightmare.
The Raptors went to battle up by 1 (89-88) with Quickley-Barrett-Walter-Shead-Poeltl. 2 minutes left.
A couple of Barrett buckets kept the Raptors churning forward, but Tatum’s downhill pressure pushed the Celtics up by 1 (94-93) with 25 seconds left.
An empty-side pick n’ roll between Barrett & Quickley was drawn up. Barrett rejected the screen and took White 1-on-1 before getting the edge via spin, but missing a layup (by a lot) while trying to navigate a rotating Queta. They fouled Queta, and the big man made both his free throws to send his team up by 3 with 15 seconds left. Sam Hauser picked off the Raptors entry pass. Battle triggered it too early, not expecting the Celtics defense to switch. The Raptors fouled. People started pouring out of the building. The Raptors lost one they needed, and one they should have had.
The worst part is that the Raptors were let down, largely, by their veteran, starting back court. Poor decision making. Poor execution.
Have a blessed day.
