POST GAME TORONTO - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Raptors Pull Away Late To Hand Boston 113-101 Loss

NESN by Adam London on Fri, Oct 19, 2018 at 10:31PM

If Friday night is any indication, the race for Eastern Conference supremacy this season could be very interesting. In a back-and-forth affair between Atlantic Division rivals, the Toronto Raptors narrowly topped the Boston Celtics 113-101 at Scotiabank Arena. Although the Celtics featured five scorers in double figures, led by Kyrie Irving’s 21 points, the Raptors hung tough in the second half to earn the win. Kawhi Leonard turned in a game-high 31 points to go along with 10 rebounds, while Serge Ibaka impressed with 21 points. With the loss, the Celtics fall to 1-1, while the Raptors improve to 2-0. Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE PG: Kyrie Irving SG: Jaylen Brown SF: Jayson Tatum PF: Gordon Hayward C: Al Horford DÉJÀ VU The Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers went back-and-forth with some sloppy play Tuesday, and it was much of the same for Boston against Toronto on Friday. The two teams combined for 11 turnovers in the opening frame, but the C’s 9-1 run to close the quarter allowed the visitors to take a 25-18 lead into the second quarter. Horford led the way for the green with six points and three rebounds, while Tatum wasn’t far behind with five points and three boards. Both teams struggled mightily from deep as well, combining for a 6-for-24 mark on 3-pointers.

NOW THAT’S BETTER Both teams were much sharper in the second quarter, but Boston’s 52-percent mark from the field allowed it to take a 53-49 lead into the break. The C’s were particularly in sync in the closing minutes of the frame, connecting on five of its final six shots, including a trio of 3-pointers. Boston did a good job distributing the ball in the first half, as seven players logged five points or more, with Tatum’s and Irving’s nine spots serving as the team highs. Serge Ibaka led all scorers at halftime with 13 points.

KAWHI EFFECT It only was a matter of time before Leonard got into a groove. After being limited to nine first-half points, the star forward erupted for 15 in the third to help Toronto take an 82-79 lead into the final quarter. To put in perspective, all other Raptors combined to score 18 points in the frame. Brad Stevens made a noteworthy lineup change heading into the second half, as the Celtics coach opted to start Marcus Morris over Hayward. Hayward ended up providing a boost in the tail end of the quarter, though, scoring five points in the final minutes. Irving paced Boston in the third with six points.

RAPTORS HANG ON Toronto didn’t rest on its laurels heading into the fourth quarter with a lead, as it kept its foot on the gas en route to an impressive win. Irving and Horford helped keep things interesting combining for 11 points in the final frame, but the Raptors’ efficiency down the stretch effectively put the nail in the visitors’ coffin. PLAY OF THE GAME Some razzle dazzle from Fred VanVleet.

UP NEXT The Celtics return to action Saturday night against the New York Knicks. Tip-off from Madison Square Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

No rebounding.......No shooting = A Loss

So far not impressed with this squad!

112288

Remember when no one wanted Kawhi?

LOL, he looked like an MVP last night, but hey maybe that "injury" will flair up again

My take on last night -
Al Horford is still our best 2 way player.
Gordon Hayward is our second best player already. He showed me so much last night.
Jaylen could NOT guard Kawhi.
No one else could guard Kawhi either.

We have no rim protector.

Baynes cannot not jump for shxt!  How many second chances did they get last night because Baynes could not get off the floor.  Not saying that he does other things bad, he does some good things, but you have to get rebounds and he was horrible last night and last year in the playoffs in that department.

112288

There were some good things that came out of this game.

Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.  Kyrie shot 50% going 10-20 and Gordon score 14 points on 6-13 shooting to go along with 7 rebounds in 24 minutes.  Hayward scored in a variety of ways and really looked loose.

According to the Team Stats, Boston outrebounded the Raptors 59-57.

This game was as close as it gets as the final score does not reflect how close Boston came to winning.

Collectively Boston did a good job on Leonard as he shot only 10-25.  That is only 40%.  

The Celtics put up 99 FGA last night.  They played with pace.  The Raptors had 92 FGA.  The Raptors however won the fast break point battle 18-14.

So what stands out?  How did the Celtics lose a winnable game.

Check out the free throws.  The Raptors shot 14-19 and Boston went only 7-10 and Boston also got beat up in the paint 46-36.  There were a lot of mismatch situations in favor of the Raptors where one of our smaller guys was turned into a pigeon trying to cover a big.

The Celtics rarely double team but in this league you have to double team as a basic defensive strategy.

I also need to point out that our young stud Jason Tatum tried to do too much.  He was called for 2 offensive fouls (TO's) and a defensive foul and had blinders on, on a fast break where he dribbled into the teeth of the defense and had his shot blocked twice from behind.  Down the stretch these plays killed us.

I was also very surprised that Jaylen was not in the game.  Leonard scored a few buckets on him during the game.  The most glaring was a blow by and dunk when Jaylen took a bad angle and had no leverage to make the play but overall he played Leonard very tough.  Again Leonard put up 25 shots and only made 10 of them.

Jaylen by the way only played 24 minutes but shot the ball well 5-10 and 3-6 from behind the arc.  He is our best two way player and should be in the game as a finisher.

Tatum had some nice moments but overall he played poorly going 6-16 with a team leading 5 turnovers.  He did grab 9 rebounds.

Brad has a lot to figure out here.  I just don't think it is wise to play Tatum 37 minutes but limit Brown to 24 minutes.  

The stench of this loss can be washed clean tonight against the Knicks.

What we may have learned last night is that Toronto remains an excellent team and is an obstacle directly in the Celtics path.  When will Boston win a game in Toronto?

What I said a few days ago was confirmed last night. The way I see it Toronto, the team that had the best record during the regular season, is starting off the same way this season. They are the team that the Celtics will have to beat to advance. Kawhi is the best player in the Eastern Conference and will be in solid contention for MVP.

I like this team. I think they will be a much better, and more competitive team than last season. It was good to see Kyrie and Gordon have better games. I'm seeing the glimmer of real improvement in the game of the 2 Js. But I saw both make the same kinds of mistakes as last year. JT would dribble into traffic last year and lose the ball and look bad doing it. He still dribbles into traffic and loses the ball sometimes but he is under much more control when he does it. So he will still lose the ball at times but he has improved. He looks to be trying to reassert his mid range game. He missed a lot of shots but that will improve. He tries to do to much, make one move to many, and suffers for it. But at least he tries and he will have a much better and more efficient season.

Jaylen is still my favorite Celtic. Like Jason, he has improved his game as well but he still makes the same kind of mistakes that he did last year and the year before. He just doesn't make them as often nor look bad doing so and that's the kind of improvement that I look for.

TRo is going to have his best season as a pro. Minutes distribution has been singled out as a potential problem for this team. How can everyone who needs to play be able to do so when there is so much talent? Tatum played 36 minutes, Horford 33 and Kyrie 35. That's a little too much for my taste and a slight reduction might have enabled Theis to get in the game. He has to play, IMO. He can do a lot in 10 minutes as he plays himself back into NBA shape following his surgery. I like Smart at 20 minutes. It gives him a good opportunity to exert his special brand of hustle without giving him too many minutes that will result in missing more shots. That reach in, pin the ball, jump ball was special.

The good news is that we had no injuries and that we made it to our second game before the first loss.

The bad news is that there is no bad news. It's roundball time and the games are for real!

#17goingon18

Second game.

Didn’t expect everything to mesh off the bat.

It’s October

Fire Stevens................

Trade Everything

Once some shots drop a little more frequently we’ll be fine.


beat

beat wrote:Second game.

Didn’t expect everything to mesh off the bat.

It’s October

Fire Stevens................

Trade Everything

Once some shots drop a little more frequently we’ll be fine.  


beat

I think you summed it up. "Once some shots drop a little more frequently we'll be fine.'

At the same time I think Boston settles for too many 3 point shots. They actually shot the ball well from deep going 14-36 or 38.9%. The Celtics need more trips to the line and you are not going to get that unless there are more attempts at getting into the paint and going to the rim. 10 free throw attempts is pretty pathetic.

Now that Hayward is finding his range I think the wrinkles will iron themselves out and Boston will start putting up big numbers. I think it could take a dozen games for coach Steven to nail down the distribution of minutes unless he is fired before then...

I also think that the full depth and breath of our roster will not become a factor until Brad is comfortable integrating his top 9 in the rotation. That core group will be fined tuned to function efficiently. In the meantime guys like Theis, Semi, Yabusele and Wanamaker will see a lot of DNP's while the rookie Williams watches in street close before heading up to Maine. I think we will need Williams before all is said and done because we really need a rim protector.

112288 wrote:We have no rim protector.

Baynes cannot not jump for shxt!  How many second chances did they get last night because Baynes could not get off the floor.  Not saying that he does other things bad, he does some good things, but you have to get rebounds and he was horrible last night and last year in the playoffs in that department.

112288

The rebounding was even.

Smart stunk up the joint, they gave him open looks baiting him and was good strategy as he clanked a bunch of shots, we don’t rebound or defend well with Morris at the 4, wouldn’t mind seeing some Theis there or Al with Baynes at the 5 or the rook Williams. Like beat said only second game. Hate the defense when it ends up with Kyrie vs Kawhi, just make Kawhi’s primary wing defender fight thru the screen to stay on him. I’d still take Jaylen on him....

cowens/oldschool wrote:

112288 wrote:We have no rim protector.

Baynes cannot not jump for shxt!  How many second chances did they get last night because Baynes could not get off the floor.  Not saying that he does other things bad, he does some good things, but you have to get rebounds and he was horrible last night and last year in the playoffs in that department.

112288

The rebounding was even.

Celtics had 16 ORB to 12 for the Raptors. The guy that killed us was Serge. He had 4 Offensive rebounds and did a great job scoring. I thought the big surprise in this game was Serge Ibaka. He is not a 21 PPG guy.

Al Horford just missed a triple double by 1 assist (14 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists) Al just quietly goes about his work and his production is sometimes under the radar.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Smart stunk up the joint, they gave him open looks baiting him and was good strategy as he clanked a bunch of shots, we don’t rebound or defend well with Morris at the 4, wouldn’t mind seeing some Theis there or Al with Baynes at the 5 or the rook Williams. Like beat said only second game. Hate the defense when it ends up with Kyrie vs Kawhi, just make Kawhi’s primary wing defender fight thru the screen to stay on him. I’d still take Jaylen on him....

Guys need to fight through screens but guys are going to get picked off and that creates defensive mismatches.

I think the Celtics need to double team more. They rarely double team. Force them to make the right pass and be prepared for a quick rotation.

I saw Kyrie down on the block trying to defend Leonard and no one came to help. I saw Brown caught underneath on Valanciunas and he got no help. He had to foul him.

The Celtics have some really good individual defenders because they do a good job defending the 3 and staying in front of their man most of the time. But they will be screened off their man sometimes creating mismatches.

2 things I would like to see over previous years

More fast breaks
More Help defense

Hi,
To summarize last night.
There're 2 things - bad and good. Bad is that Raptors are ahead of Celtics, so far. Good is that there're 80 games left for us to catch up with them and get ahead. Can the Celtics do it - absolutely! (IMHO)
Oh, one more good thing - yesterday's refs crew could count to 3 (steps, seconds), unlike in the first game.
Also, look at other Boston teams - all started so-so.

AK

Shoot! There goes an 82-0 regular season record.

https://www.masslive.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/10/b5f2ebab749797/toronto-raptors-defeat-boston.html#incart_river_index

Toronto Raptors defeat Boston Celtics 113-101: Gordon Hayward's health, Kawhi Leonard, plus 10 things we learned
By Tom Westerholm | twesterh@masslive.com | Posted October 19, 2018 at 10:31 PM


TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors pulled away late against the Boston Celtics on Friday, claiming a 113-101 victory that dropped the Celtics to 1-1 on the season.

Here are 10 things we learned from an entertaining showdown.

1. The Celtics' defense was excellent.
When the Celtics get into a defensive groove, they are an absolute cement wall, except if a cement wall could move its feet, so this metaphor breaks down pretty quickly.

Boston's best defender was Al Horford, and we will get to the job he did on various players, but Boston's versatile, switchable lineups caused real problems for Toronto -- rotating at a level that belied how early in the season the teams met. Getting good looks both inside and outside was a real struggle all night.

The Celtics just have some deadly lineups. At one point, Kyrie Irving was surrounded by Marcus Morris, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Even with a minus defender like Irving on the floor, that group is essentially interchangeable with foot speed, length and agility.


2. Gordon Hayward looked healthy.
Very little from Friday's game will have a real impact late in the season, but perhaps the most impactful positive for the Celtics was how comfortable Gordon Hayward started to look. The question has always been "how long will it take Hayward to be good again," rather than "will Hayward ever be good again," and glimpses of Hayward's return were finally truly visible. He pulled up comfortably on the break in the first half, stopping on a dime, and he took Kyle Lowry to the basket off the bounce. In the pick-and-roll, he appeared considerably more self-assured as a decision-maker.

Defensively, Hayward hasn't been a stiff, even during the preseason. But the extra mobility makes a big difference, and his lineups could capably switch as well as any of the others.

Hayward is on his way. He will have good and bad days, but the good days will likely start to outweigh the bad ones increasingly over the next few months.

3. The 3-pointers will be there.
Particularly in the first half, the Celtics got good looks from deep. The Raptors collapsed onto ball-handlers, most notably Irving and Terry Rozier, and the Celtics brought pulled defenders in with post-up opportunities as well. That opened up triples on the rotations.

The only problem: The Celtics just couldn't consistently knock them down, which has been a problem in both preseason and regular-season games.

It's difficult to imagine these 3-point woes will continue -- the Celtics have way too many shooters who have been uncharacteristically cold. But to get the offense humming, some of the triples have to start falling.

4. Jayson Tatum's shot selection can be questionable.
Let's undermine this point immediately by pointing out that Jayson Tatum is a really good tough shot-maker, which begs the question whether his bad shots are actually bad shots.

But Tatum was happy to post and toss up step-away jumpers against mismatches who were much better defenders than Philadelphia's crew of potential mismatches. Pascal Siakam is a much tougher mismatch than JJ Redick.

But also, sometimes Tatum makes shots like this. Little column A, little column B.




5. Al Horford was an absolute monster vs. Kawhi Leonard.
Isolated against Kawhi Leonard repeatedly in the first half, Al Horford was phenomenal. He was able to withstand Leonard's strength, and he could nearly match Leonard's length around the basket. Leonard missed four consecutive shots in the second quarter, all four of which were contested successfully by Horford.



Horford hurt other players as well, including Kyle Lowry, who tried to score over him in the pick-and-roll and got rejected. He also bottled up Jonas Valanciunas so badly, Toronto was intentional about staggering minutes to keep them apart.

Few players can move as fluidly, find the right spots as effectively and read plays as quickly as Horford. He is the glue that holds Boston's defense together.

6. Toronto has a ton of options as well.
On multiple plays, the Celtics defended well and shut a play down, only to watch the Raptors get a big shot from Fred Van Vleet or a tough layup by Kawhi Leonard. Even on a relatively quiet night by Kyle Lowry, the Raptors have so many ways to inflict damage.

These teams are really good. This matchup is really good. More on this soon!

7. The Celtics can shred Jonas Valanciunas.
Valanciunas is an effective player who doesn't have much of a place against the Celtics. One-on-one, Horford tortures him. In the pick-and-roll, the Celtics can switch and blow by him. If these teams meet in the playoffs, Valanciunas' role might be somewhat limited.

8. Jaylen Brown was something of a mixed bag.
First, the positives: Brown was one of the few Celtics to consistently knock down his open spot-up triples, and he defended Kawhi Leonard well in the post when he was given the task. He makes his lineups more versatile, and versatility is key against a deep team like the Raptors.

There were negatives too, though. Brown picked up several tough fouls, he missed a pair of free throws that felt pretty important at the time, and his finishing around the rim left something to be desired.

Brown has shown flashes of real improvement in most of his problem areas so far, but Friday's game was a small regression. How consistent Brown can be as a finisher and free-throw shooter will be important to watch this year.

9. Leonard is fully healed, and it turns out he's good.
The Celtics played great defense against Leonard, and Horford consistently limited him. But Horford was the only player who did -- Leonard finished with 31 points and hurt the Celtics off the bounce, in the post and behind the arc. Whenever the Celtics put a smaller player on him, Leonard elevated over him. Given any space, Leonard was deadly. Off the bounce, Boston struggled to keep up.

Kawhi Leonard is healthy, and he's really good. The East is good.

10. This matchup is excellent.
The Raptors pulled away late, but any reasonable person watching this game knows it was a close game separated in the end by a few possessions.

Any reasonable person watching also knows the Raptors are a legitimate threat to win the East. Both teams have the defense, the athleticism and the offense to win a series. Both teams have the versatility to challenge if they get to the Finals.

These teams will play each other three more times during the regular season, and while nothing is guaranteed, this feels like a matchup with six or seven games coming afterward as well.

Strap in. Celtics/Raptors is going to be an awesome rivalry.

kdp59 wrote:Remember when no one wanted Kawhi?

LOL, he looked like an MVP last night, but hey maybe that "injury" will flair up again

Very brave position to take after 2 games.  If you want to stand out there on that limb, at least make sure you do not lead with a misrepresentation of the facts of the conversation.  

No one said they didnt want Kawhi.  They didnt want Kawhi because

A) the asking price was TOO HIGH and
B) He did not indicate he was willing to sign an extension.  

And when the Celtics beat the Raptors in the EC Finals and he walks away next summer, the Raptors will have given away DeRosen for zero.

Its a little early for the chicken little act people - it is TWO GAMES IN.

All is well