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Thomas leads Celtics to win over Lowry-less Raptors

CSNNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

About midway through the fourth quarter, the Boston Celtics were fading fast against the Toronto Raptors.

Isaiah Thomas hits a 3-pointer.

Thomas finds Amir Johnson for a dunk.

Thomas hits another 3-pointer.

Whether it’s scoring or setting others up for easy baskets, Thomas continues to give the Boston Celtics exactly what they need in some of the most critical games this season.

And Wednesday’s 91-79 win over Toronto was no exception as Thomas led the way with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting.

Boston also got a strong game from former Raptor Amir Johnson who tallied his seventh double-double this season with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

The Celtics (42-30) have secured a winning record this season, a first under third-year coach Brad Stevens. They beat the Toronto Raptors, playing without Kyle Lowry (elbow), for the first time this season after three previous defeats.

And the Celtics’ playoff position which remains very much in flux (Boston was one of four teams within a half game of the No. 3 seed going into Wednesday’s game), certainly got a boost from beating a Raptors squad that’s 48-22 this season which is the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Even without Lowry, the Raptors are a team whose depth doesn’t get much credit.

This game was very much up for grabs most of the night, but the Celtics began to pull away in the third quarter courtesy of Evan Turner going into full blown takeover mode.

The 6-foot-7 guard scored 13 of his 17 points in the third quarter, a key to Boston breaking open a 46-all game at the half to pull ahead by as many as 11 points (69-58) in the third quarter which ended with the Celtics on top 69-62.

Boston’s ability to pull away in the fourth was impressive against a Toronto team that’s among the league’s best defenses and seems to turn up the defensive pressure even more so in the fourth quarter.

The Raptors came into Wednesday’s game allowing 24.0 points in the fourth quarter which is the third-fewest points allowed in the fourth this season.

Not surprisingly the Celtics struggled early on, but Thomas finally broke through with a 3-pointer at the 7:47 mark and from there Boston took off towards their third straight win which is the kind of performance they certainly wanted as they embark on a five-game West coast trip beginning this weekend at Phoenix.
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CELTICS BEAT DIVISION-LEADING RAPTORS

WEEI

By Josue Pavon

Sure, All-Star guard Kyle Lowry wasn’t in action for the Raptors but a win’s a win, right?

The Celtics outscored the Raptors 45-33 in the second half and cruised to their third consecutive win, 91-79 on Wednesday night at TD Garden.

Isaiah Thomas scored a game-high 23 points, Evan Turner added 17 points and 7 rebounds, Avery Bradley scored 17 and Amir Johnson finished with his second straight double-double (11 points, 14 rebounds). DeMar DeRozan’s 21 points led three Raptors in double figures — Terrence Ross finished with 13 points and Jonas Valanciunas scored 10.

After both teams struggled to build a big lead in the first half, the Celtics distanced themselves from the Raptors at the start of the third quarter behind a 10-4 run. In that frame, Turner caught fire — scoring 13 of his 17 points and pushed the Celtics to a nine-point lead before Marcus Smart fouled DeRozan behind the 3-point arch with 0.1 second left in the quarter where the Raptors trimmed their deficit, 69-61 before the final frame.

However, the Celtics kept their poise throughout the final frame — outscoring the Raptors, 22-17, capped off by a 12-5 run in the final four minutes of play. The Celtics also took care of the basketball — limiting themselves to only 8 turnovers on the night and outscored the Raptors, 48-36 in the paint.

The Celtics (42-30) are now tied for fourth place with the Hawks in the Eastern Conference before their five-game road trip that starts in Phoenix against the Suns on Saturday.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Evan Turner

Only because I am tired of giving this honor to Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner is the Stud of the night. Turner dominated the third quarter — scoring 13 points while dishing two very fancy assists. The Logo even knocked down a corner three and is now shooting over 50% from deep since the All-Star Break.

DUD OF THE NIGHT. Marcus Smart

If given the proper currency, Smart would not be able to purchase a made basket. He finished with only 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting. He generally avoided the 3-point line, instead trying his hand at the mid-range game. Nothing worked. Too make matters worse, he committed a really stupid foul on Demar DeRozan — a three-point attempt at the end of the third quarter. It’s been a tough month for Smart.

WHINE OF THE NIGHT: Bench Unit Struggles Late

With Crowder out and ET in the starting lineup, the bench unit has really struggled to score points at the start of the second and fourth quarters. Tonight, they were able to sustain during the second, as Terry Rozier put together a solid five minutes, scoring five points in six minutes. In the fourth quarter though, the bench really struggled, giving up a seven-point lead in the first two minutes. Stevens was forced to take a quick timeout and put Isaiah Thomas back into the game to keep the lead.

STAT OF THE NIGHT:

The Celtics and Raptors played the entire first half as a one-possession game. Neither team led by more than 3. The teams changed leads ten times and were tied 14 different times.

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This is the first time in 30+ games where the Raptors held their opponent to under 100 points that they lost.

No Lowry, no Demarre Carroll, no Patrick Patterson.  Who cares?  Injuries are part of the game.  Besides, right now, we need the win.  We'll deal with what their return might mean later, if/when it is relevant again.

The 3rd quarter was Evan Turner's.  He did it all.  Every time I'm ready to cut Evan Turnover loose he has a game like this.  He was also guarding DeRozan some of the time too.  2 points on 1-4 and 1 assist at halftime, 15 points on 6-12 and 6 assists after 3.  That's a 13 point, 5-8, 5 assist 3rd quarter.  If you look at Turner's shot chart for the game only one of his fgas would be considered "from outside", a 14' miss.  The rest were all free throw line and in.

Bradley with the unenviable job of guarding DeRozan most of the game.  He was still 7-14 with two HUGE back breaking 3s late.  8 rebounds too.  That's a ton for a 6'2" guard.

Smart not so smart.  1-8 on his shooting is just awful.  He is now shooting 27% over his last 10 games.  He committed a totally brain dead foul just inside of half court with the buzzer about to go off for halftime on DeRozan, putting him on the line for 3 ftas with no time left.  One of the stupidest fouls I've seen in a while.

Rozier is playing well.  Playing very steady for a rook who barely played all season before a week or two ago.  A corner 3 and a layup.  He also missed a layup on a nice high post pass from Kelly after Rozier made a great cut to the basket baseline.  He's obsoleting Smart.

48 points in the paint vs 36 for them.  There are more ways of scoring in the paint than just pounding it in like a bunch of baby Brahma bulls.

Sully 3-12.  7 of his shots were 19' and out.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Obviously our points in the paint weren't from him.  He did board, though.

16-8 fast break points.  Still our bread-and-butter.

Toronto's color guy, Jack Armstrong, talked about how ESPN should be called the "Cleveland TV Show" because all they talk about are the Cavaliers and nothing else.  He's right.

The Suns beat the Lakers, putting Brooklyn in 3rd place.  The perfect to go on a roll, Phoenix.
Mavs lost, Utah beat Houston.  Our 2nd problem is rooting for Houston.  It's not enough for Dallas to lose, we need Utah AND Houston to win.  Utah and Dallas are tied, Dallas owns the tie breaker, and Houston is 1/2 game behind.

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/thomas-points-mark-wahlberg-after-3-pointer?guid=MarkyMark_032316i&t=29











bob


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Well if actually being there is 1/2 the fun I have no clue what the other half of fun is.

I'll defend Smart till the cows come home...seriously of the ball and fighting thru picks, i can deal with the slump on the offensive end, there were stupid moments yes...the foul at the end of the quarter but prior to that KO shot the ball way to soon for a last shot possession too.

Sully can take a slow boat to whereever as far as I am concerned, we were able to get inside at 5:30 and watch the pre game warm ups, Sully was shooting the ball from 3 point range and missing BUT it was the way he was doing it that bothered me, just virtually putting as much arc as he could, then as that wasn't working, he BACKED up to say 30 feet and did the same thing. Everyone else was actually shooting shot that they would shoot in a game. Even Smart was shooting 18-20 footers warming up and certainly made more than he missed from my count.

When the teams actually came out for the final warm up Sully did the same thing. To me you play the way you practice.............and Sully's practice effort was very poor. Even in the game he made blunders and just didn't play well.....wished Mickey had gotten in but that's another issue.

The ref's.......early offensive possession for Toronto Sully reaches in and appears to make a nice strip but gets called for a foul.......replay showed a very iffy call.  Later in the quarter Turner gets racked across the arms when driving and gets NO CALL. Stevens takes a timeout and spent the most of it jawing at the lead official.......and also what you could not see on TV was Turner and Crowder in street clothes out near 1/2 court laying it on the other official that actually made the non call.............and Turner got the T, my seats were in the premiere seating area section 111 right at midcourt several rows up and were close enough to hear Turner....all was great till the ref responded and Turner's reply was very audible..THAT"S BULLSHIT !.......then the T and I guess we were fortunate Crowder didn't get 1 too. Crowder did a little shooting before the game, looked to be moving OK but didn't play.

Another blown call was where Smart go an offensive defection as the shot clock was about the expire and was "smart" enough to catch and shoot in one motion.....and got completely undercut by a Raptor with no call made. Ref's sucked last evening period! Of all the professional sports NBA officiating has got to be the most inconsistent (thus the worst of all)


ALSO to add a stat... first time since November 4th 2015 the Raptors were held below 90 this year (and we held the to under 80) Also heard that Lowery could have played but was being "rested" hew was participating in pre game shooting so that appears to be a Raptor's decision, not an injury.

Long trip going to the game, left home at 7AM picked up Marcus from Syracuse at 8AM..... arrived at the federal center parking garage at 1PM.....did a little walking around eating ect till the gates opened at 5:30.......got on the road after the game at 10PM and headed back, 3AM drop off of Marcus at SU ( he had 5 classes today first at 9AM) and I hit the sack at 4AM, just got up a little bit ago.

As I mentioned the seats were great and FREE thanks to Marcus's friend who is doing an intership at Boston Scientific and acquired them thru his work there.  

On a final note there is Steven's .......just his calm demeanor even when bitching about poor calls, what you don't see off camera is he is usually standing and is out near 1/2 court pointing and directing, from where I was you can hear him shouting things out to the players regularly. Sort of reminded me of an orchestra director.  

Any way great time looking forward to at least making the trip to a playoff game too. Day off for me today from work and only 46 more work days before I hang it up for good!

beat

Smart is a kid, and in his second year. Bradly was no sharp shooter until he worked on his shooting game in his 3 rd and 4th season. Smart is still trying to figure the game out. He'll be there in a few years or less.

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From my seat

https://www.facebook.com/warren.shelmidine.5/videos/843515152461356/

It was nice to see Boston get a win over Toronto. I think that makes us 3-9

Toronto is a better team than Boston.

The Marcus Smart shooting issue continues from last year and before that at OK state.

He has a lot of work to do as he does not have a pure looking jump shot. I maintain that it has a lot to do with his mechanics. Franlky i do not know if he will develop into a reliable 3 pt shooter. I am going to use .333% as the bottom line number for shooting 3's.

I thought one of the more interesting things was the continuing in game development of Terry Rosier.

The Celtics need to win 6 more games to match my pre-season guess of 48 wins.

The other thing that I have noticed this year and with an ever increasing regularity is the play of Avery bradley. Not so much his shooting which has been a bit up and down but moreso his determination to take the ball to the rim. His much criticized handle is vastly improved as evidenced by that quick crossover.

dboss