After a quick stop in Brooklyn and two days off, the Boston Celtics are back home to face off against the 2-11 Toronto Raptors. The Raptors are playing this game as the second half of a back to back and are ravaged by injures. Toronto will be without all-star Scottie Barnes, Celtics killer Immanuel Quickley, Massachusetts native Bruce Brown and former Celtic Kelly Olynyk. This means the Raptors are rolling out a starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, RJ Barrett, and Jacob Poeltl. Boston is also dealing with an injury to a big piece tonight as Jrue Holiday was ruled out of this game with left knee tendinopathy. Neemias Queta will take Holiday’s spot in the starting lineup with Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford.
Tonight is also the debut of the new “Action Green” City Jersey for Boston which has received some mixed emotions from fans, but overall is something new when it comes to a Celtics jersey. This could be a potential trap game for Boston as a big matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers looms large on Tuesday, so the Celtics still need to take care of business tonight.
1st Quarter
The Celtics were locked in from the start of this game, going on a 14-4 run to begin the contest as all five starters for Boston scored a point. RJ Barrett was the main contributor for the Raptors with a couple of steals and easy buckets at the rim. Toronto got back into game with Barrett’s contributions and two threes by Ochai Agbaji as the Celtics offense started to slow down.
Jordan Walsh got some early first quarter minuets with about three minutes to go as Jayson Tatum went nuclear. Tatum scored 11 straight points for the Celtics to end the quarter and 13 overall, shooting 4-7 from the field and 3-6 from three.
Even with Tatum going off the Raptors were able to make it a two point game at the end of the quarter as the Celtics led 28-26. Agbaji led the Raptors in scoring with 8 points and Tatum led the way for the Celtics. Something interesting to note was the Celtics shot 16 of their 20 1st quarter shots from three.
2nd Quarter
The second quarter started with another Queta alley-oop, putting a lot of pressure on the Raptors defense. Queta was setting some impressive screens as the Celtics used him a lot in the pick and roll, leading to some great results. Sam Hauser made history today as with an and-1, he shot his first career free throw vs the Raptors and first free throw of the season. Jakob Poeltl scored 8 straight points for Toronto but Jaylen Brown was there to answer every time. Brown made a crazy circus shot throwing it off the backboard to himself into a layup.
The Raptors took the lead with 5:37 on a 9-0 run but the Celtics answered back with another huge Jayson Tatum three, an Al Horford three, and finished off with a put back dunk by Queta.
After a flurry of bricks in the last two minutes of play, the Celtics only led the worst record in the league Toronto Raptors 56-54 going into the half. The Celtics weren’t playing bad necessarily but the three ball was working against them in the first half, shooting 8-27 (29.6%) from beyond the arc. Boston was also getting dominated when it came to the points in the paint battle, being outscored 32-20. Jakob Poeltl was the catalyst for the Raptors dominance in the paint, leading Toronto with 16 points and 6 rebounds on 7-9 shooting. Jayson Tatum continued to lead the Celtics with 16 points of his own going 5-11 from the field and 5-11 from three.
3rd Quarter
Jakob Poeltl continued his dominance in the paint as he started the 2nd half with a put back layup off of a miss and a 14 foot push shot over Horford. Toronto continued their 16-4 with two more easy layups at the basket and opened up a 6 point lead. The Celtics went ice cold from three, missing 9 in a row as Poeltl continued to hit shot after shot off of the short role.
The Celtics needed a spark and Payton Pritchard would answer the call, hitting back to back deep threes and finding “Flash Gordon” Luke Kornet in transition to help Boston regain the lead.
The Boston bench continued to show up big as Sam Hauser and Jordan Walsh joined the party and made three straight shots from beyond the arc. The Celtics found their range from three but the Raptors would not go away as Boston led 86-85 at the end of the 3rd quarter. After starting 1-8 from three in the quarter, the Celtics shot 5-8 which is a big reason as to why they continued to lead this game. The Raptors continued dominating the points in the paint battle leading 60-30.
4th Quarter
Queta continued doing his Robert Williams impression with his third alley-oop of the game but the Raptors continued to attack the Celtics in the paint. The Raptors and Celtics continued their dog fight of a game as there was 17 lead changes with 7:55 to go in the 4th quarter. Chris Boucher would give the Raptors two more lead changes hitting back to back corner threes but Derrick White would be right behind him to tie it up again.
With 5:18 to go Al Horford would make a running layup and get the foul for a huge and-1. After TD Garden got free chicken nuggets with RJ Barrett missing two free throws, Jayson Tatum would make a terrific pass to Al Horford who knocked down the three. RJ Barrett would then throw up a prayer at the shot clock for a lucky three and Jakob Poeltl would go to the line to make one of two. The Celtics would get away with a turnover and allowing a big offensive rebound but were not able to capitalize on the other end to extend the lead. The missed free throw bug continued as Derrick White would go one for two at the line and Davion Mitchell would make the Celtics pay with an and-1 layup on Tatum, making the free throw to give Toronto a 110-109 lead with two minutes to go.
The lead didn’t last long as Al Horford would hit another big three for a season high 18 points but Gradey Dick would tie it up again with 1:27 to go. After a missed Derrick White three, RJ Barrett made a tough and-1 layup but missed the free throw. That lead to Neemias Queta tying the game at 114 with a layup off of a nice pass by Brown, forcing a Raptors timeout.
Out of the timeout with 42.5 seconds to go, Barrett drove and was rejected by Jaylen Brown. It stayed Raptors ball but Tatum would pull the chair on Poeltl as he threw it out of bounds, Celtics ball. Tatum had the last shot, he made his defender fall down, he pulled up from the midrange for the win… and bricked it completely. Overtime.
Overtime
Jaylen Brown gave the Celtics a three point lead to start overtime and Poeltl would respond on the other end with another bucket and a career high 33 points. Brown turned it over on the next possession and Poeltl once again made an easy layup. White missed a three but would block Barrett on the other end to set up a tough Jayson Tatum layup and a 1 point lead. Sam Hauser put the clamps on RJ Barrett but would miss three on the other end, leading to an Abaji three. Tatum missed a prayer at the shot clock, White got the offensive rebound, Hauser missed a three but was fouled underneath the basket. After Davion Mitchell committed a foul before the inbounds pass Tatum made the free throw to cut the deficit to 1.
With 1:50 to go Queta had to shoot a three at the shot clock that missed but the Raptors turned it over. Jaylen Brown would knock down a hige three to take the lead but Barrett responded with a game tying layup. Horford missed a wide open three in the corner and then Toronto challenged the out of bounds call, winning it, making it Raptors with 33.3 seconds to go.
Out of the timeout the Raptors drew up a play that gave Barrett a free drive to the rim, but Neemias Queta sent it back, grabbed the rebound, and got the timeout with 20.2 seconds to go. Celtics bleed the clock, Tatum has the ball, isolates Agbaji, steps back from 30 feet… AND DRILLS THE THREE! JAYSON TATUM WITH THE GAME WINNER! WHAT A SHOT BY TATUM TO GIVE THE CELTICS THE WIN!
With Jayson Tatum finishes his spectacular night with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists including the game winner. Jaylen Brown would also be huge for the Celtics, leading Boston in scoring with 27 points along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Jakob Poeltl finished with 35 points and 12 rebounds and RJ Barrett finished with a 25 point, 15 assist, and 10 rebound triple double despite the loss.
The Celtics next game is on Tuesday November 18th against the (at this time) undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers at 7pm in Boston’s second NBA Cup game.
