Returning to Eastern Conference play after going 4-2 across a tough stretch of Western Conference matchups, the Boston Celtics found tougher sledding than they might have expected on Wednesday evening against the Toronto Raptors. The Celtics struggled out of the gate and found themselves a step behind the Raptors all night, and ultimately lost 110-97, snapping a 10-game winning streak against Toronto.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown struggled to find their marks tonight. The star duo combined to shoot just 9-of-31 from the field, tallying just 26 points. Kristaps Porzingis was the best player on the court for Boston tonight, scoring 18 points and shooting 7-of-11 from the field (4-of-5 from three). Payton Pritchard added 20 in an efficient night off the bench, but no other Celtic managed to find much consistency as a scorer. For the Raptors, RJ Barrett had another big performance against Boston, leading the Raptors with 22 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. All five of Toronto’s starters scored in double digits, supplemented by 32 points from their bench.
The Celtics found themselves on their heels in the early minutes of tonight’s game. Toronto rattled off a quick 15-5 run to open play, prompting Joe Mazzulla to take an early timeout less than four minutes into the game. Seven of nine Raptors to take the court in the first quarter recorded at least one basket, and the Celtics found themselves lagging behind from deep in the early going. They were able to rebound, though, led by a quick eight points from Porzingis. Boston closed out the first quarter on a 7-0, and entered the second with a 29-25 lead.
Toronto broke a four-minute scoreless streak early in the second quarter on a jumper from Chris Boucher. After a couple of Celtics baskets, the Raptors launched into a 12-0 run of their own to surge back into command of the proceedings. Behind another strong performance from Barrett (12 first half points), Toronto had the Celtics reeling again. They racked up fast break points and shot efficiently inside the arc, and after Payton Pritchard hit a three before the buzzer, the Celtics entered the halftime break trailing by two, 55-53.
Boston would have been in a substantially worse position at the break without the efforts of Porzingis in the first half. He counterbalanced a poor-shooting offense — Tatum and Brown combined to shoot 4-of-17 from the field — by shooting 5-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from deep. The Unicorn compiled 13 points and stuffed the stat sheet with four rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocked shots, and helped keep the Celtics competitive in an otherwise uneven half.
Porzingis opened the scoring for Boston in the second half by connecting on his fourth triple of the night. Some early life offensively gave way to another Toronto surge, however, as the Raptors embarked on another run — 12-3 this time — to maintain their grip on the lead. The Celtics kept Toronto from running away with the game, but at the same time, they seemed incapable of pulling closer than a two- or three-score deficit. A late quarter sequence in which Boston grabbed three offensive rebounds but failed to generate any points felt emblematic of how the game had gone to that point. The Celtics lost ground in the quarter, trailing by six entering the final 12 minutes of regulation, 88-82.
After allowing the Raptors to shoot a blistering 77% from the field in the third quarter, the Celtics opened the fourth on a similarly sour note. Toronto expanded the lead in the opening minutes with yet another run, outscoring the Celtics 9-2 in the first four minutes of the quarter to establish a game-high 13-point lead. The clock melted away rapidly, and with half the quarter in the books, the Celtics had just four points to show for themselves.
Next up, the Celtics will return home to host an Orlando Magic team that is slowly getting getting back to full strength, this Friday at 7 PM on ESPN.
