The Toronto Raptors defeat the Boston Celtics 110 to 97. RJ Barrett lead the Raptors with 22 points, 8 assists and 11 rebounds. Scottie Barnes also had a strong game with 18 points, and 9 assists. Jakob Poeltl had another steady game with 16 points, 11 rebounds and Davion Mitchell chipped in with 10 points and Gradey Dick with 12 points. So how did the Raptors defeat the Boston Celtics after losing to them by 54 points in their previous match up? Two words, pace and defense.
Toronto Raptors Defeat Boston Celtics – Pace was the key!
The Boston Celtics love to shoot 3 point shots and are the league leaders in this. Tonight they took 46 of them but only making 16. This team will live and die by the three! However, they like to play at a fast pace and have their opponents play the same way. They love to be in shoot outs and outshoot their opponents! However, the Raptors did something interesting. They slowed the pace a bit and had less fast breaks. Instead they elected to play more in a half court setting which was great. They moved the ball around and forced the Celtics to play defense. It was obvious that the Celtics did not want to play defense in this setting and gave up a lot of points in the paint. The Raptors to their credit attacked the paint with RJ drives and Scottie mid range jumpers. The result was the Celtics were out of rhythm.
On Defense, the Raptors got back on defense which resulted in less transition opportunities for the Celtics. Also, the Celtics really wanted to get their 3 point shooting going and kept trying to look for these shots. There were times that they could have just went inside as Porzingis, Tatum and Brown are good post players. But they kept kicking it out as their philosophy is to keep shooting three point shots. The Raptors for the most part tried to take the three away. And even though the Celtics still shot a lot of threes, they were not in rhythm and it completely took them out of their game. As a result, the Raptors out worked them and imposed their will. Credit to Darko on making this adjustment as it was the key for the Raptors win!
Toronto Raptors Defeat Boston Celtics – Improved Defense!
The Toronto Raptors have played some pretty good defense the last two games but tonight in particularly was nice. Davion Mitchell got the start as Quickley is still out and he played very well. With Mitchell in the starting line up, you now have three players that can play good defense besides Barnes and Poeltl. However, the surprise for me is how well RJ Barrett played defense. He stayed in front of his man and had a steal. He even blocked Jaylen Brown! If he can keep improving and even become a slightly below average defender, it really tightens up the Raptors’ defense. Hopefully, he can keep this up.
One person whose defense was pretty brutal is Gradey Dick. At times he just looks so lost out there. He routinely misses players doing back cuts on him and players consistently attack him. There were times during the game that Darko had to take him out as the defense was leaking oil. It wasn’t all his fault but he was a major factor. Hopefully, as he gets more experience and gets stronger he can become a passable defender. Unfortunately, I have my doubts. Also, I worry that once Quickley comes back. that the defense takes a big nose dive again. It has become pretty obvious that you cannot for the long term have a starting line up with Dick, Quickley and Barrett as they are all bad defenders. So eventually, at some point either this year or next some changes will be need to be made.
Conclusion
A two game win streak! Who saw that coming? It is nice to see and it is enjoyable. I know many might be disappointed because they want to tank for Cooper Flagg. However, to have a quick rebuild, you need to develop winning habits and this was a step in the right direction. Also, even though they have won a couple games, they are squarely in the high lottery pick race. They will lose a lot more games but if they can be more competitive most games and occasionally pull out a nice win, we can all be happy with the process. So, nothing to worry about but let’s enjoy the win!