POST GAME TORONTO - HOME

Thomas has another big 4th quarter, Celtics beat Raptors

ESPNBOSTON

BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas scored 19 of his 44 points in the final quarter to lift the Boston Celtics over the Toronto Raptors 109-104 on Wednesday night in a showdown for first place in the Atlantic Division.

It was the fifth straight win for Boston, which moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the Raptors in the division and holds the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed.

Jae Crowder scored 14 points for the Celtics and Al Horford had 11. Thomas had 18 of Boston's final 23 points.

Kyle Lowry led Toronto with 32 points, former Celtic Jared Sullinger had 13 and Norman Powell added 12. The Raptors have lost seven of nine.

In a final quarter that rivaled playoff intensity, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown was fouled on a breakaway attempt and walked over and had words with Lowry -- before a few others player joined in and had to be separated by the officials. Boston's Terry Rozier and the Raptors' DeMarre Carroll were each given a technical.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Celtics rally from 17-point deficit to escape with 109-104 win over Raptors

CSNNE

By A. Sherrod Blakely February 01, 2017 10:16 PM

BOSTON – For most of Wednesday’s game between Boston and Toronto, the Raptors were in control which was quite the role reversal from the first two meetings in which the Celtics gave away the lead in the fourth quarter before losing.

So it should not have come as a surprise to anyone that the Celtics, on the comeback trail most of the night, rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to escape with a 109-104 win in keeping with the narrative of the season series.

Al Horford intercepted a pass with 1.0 seconds to play and was immediately fouled. He went to the line and made both free throws to secure the victory.

But the man of the hour was Isaiah Thomas who finished with 44 points, 19 of which came in the fourth quarter. Kyle Lowry had a big game for Raptors, scoring 32 points with 12 points coming in the fourth.

Thomas’ late-game heroics were dimmed briefly when a video review overturned a 24-second violation against the Raptors and instead gave them the ball with 23 seconds on the shot clock.

They made the most of it, getting a jumper from Norman Powell that put the Raptors ahead 101-100.

But there was Thomas, drilling a go-ahead 3-pointer with 48.1 seconds to play.

And following a miss by Patrick Patterson that was rebounded by Al Horford, the Celtics called a time-out with 38.3 seconds to play.

Toronto got a last-second 3-pointer from Patterson, but free throws by Thomas and Horford sealed the Celtics victory.

Boston (31-18) extended its winning streak to five in a row while beating the Raptors (30-20) for the first time this season after dropping the first two matchups.

Even with the Raptors in control most of the night, Boston fought their way back with contributions coming from some obvious (Isaiah Thomas) and not-so-obvious sources.

Like Tyler Zeller, who was seeing playing time due to the last-minute scratch of Kelly Olynyk (left shoulder).

Zeller a powerful up-and-under dunk as part of his four-point, 5-rebound night. He also had one of the better assists when he connected with Jaylen Brown for an alley-oop dunk.

But this game was all about the point guards, Thomas and Lowry, a pair of All-Stars who have been at their best in the fourth quarter all season.

Thomas came into the game with an NBA-best 10.3 points scored in the fourth, while Lowry came in two spots behind him at 7.9 points per game.

Both delivered down the stretch for their respective teams, but the Celtics made just enough plays at both ends of the floor to squeak out one of their better wins this season.

112288

OFF NIGHT FOR IT ONLY 44 POINTS!

LOL

THIS GAME COULD BE THE NEEDED CONFIDENCE BUILDER FOR ALL THE PLAYERS THAT THEY CAN BEAT ANYONE.  I THINK THIS SETS THEM UP FOR A GREAT RUN INTO APRIL.  IT ALSO UPS THE ANTE FOR ANYONE WANTING TO DO A TRADE...DANNY SITS IN THE DRIVERS SEAT WITH 3 WEEKS TO GO BEFORE THE TRADE DEADLINE FEB 23RD.

GO CELTICS

112288

112288 wrote:OFF NIGHT FOR IT ONLY 44 POINTS!

LOL

GO CELTICS

112288

I agree at some point this guy has to start earning his paycheck.

MATTY,

YA GAIN IT PLAYING BELOW HIS PAY GRADE! DANNY SHOULD TIE THIS GUY UP NOW AND RIP HIS CURRENT CONTRACT UP!

112288

112288 wrote:MATTY,

YA GAIN IT PLAYING BELOW HIS PAY GRADE!  DANNY SHOULD TIE THIS GUY UP NOW AND RIP HIS CURRENT CONTRACT UP!

112288

112288,

It's too late in the season to sign players to extensions. Furthermore, we don't own IT's Bird Rights because Phoenix didn't have them and he hasn't been with us for 3 years. That means we can't go over the cap to sign him. Next year, when his contract expires, we will have Bird Rights. Danny won't want to gobble up his cap flexibility by signing IT before he is done signing free agents and he has IT's Bird Rights.

The question I have for anybody who can answer this is "if you are in your 3rd season with the same team can they sign you to an extension during that 3rd year and have it covered by Bird Rights, or does that year have to be completed before Bird Rights kick in?".


bob


.

Rondo was traded to the Celtics and then resigned somewhere through his original contract. Not sure if that is like comparison.


112288

What a GREAT game!  WOOHOO!!  I was a nervous wreck by the end but all's well that ends well.  We were down 18 points with 3 1/2 minutes gone in the 3rd.  Yeah, I know they were without DeRozan, but we were without Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk.  They were down an all-star and we were down a player who should be an all-star and a player who plays well with and against Canadian teams.  They were on the 2nd game of a back-to-back, but we've been there, and then some, too and that wasn't an excuse for us.  Lowry played 45 minutes the night before, but that's a coaching decision.  According to IT, Brad really ripped them a new asshole in the locker room at halftime, saying that "he has never seen Brad that mad before".  It worked.

Scott Souza @Scott_Souza
yesterday
#Celtics coach Brad Stevens: We don't have a problem responding to adversity ... We always pull ourselves off the mat.
reply retweet like


IT is unreal.  You start to become numb to what he has been doing night-in-night-out.  At the end they tried to foul him and as soon as he heard the contact he threw the ball towards the rim from 3pt land and it went in.  It didn't count, but that's how "in the zone" he is now.  I mean, c'mon!  19 points in a quarter?!  WHAT TIME IS IT?!  The Second Coming of Allen Iverson for Marcus Thornton and a #29 pick, neither of which cost us anything because Danny acquired them by assisting Cleveland to get LeBron.  Danny, you thief.  At about 2:05 of his Highlight video below you can see a half court 3 by IT, with a heel on the logo at mid-court. Un. Real.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 9 hours ago
Marcus Thornton and Skal Labissière have combined for 235 points this year. The man they were traded for has 247 in his last 7 games. #IT4
reply retweet like

Bill Doyle @BillDoyle15
yesterday
In his last 12 home games, Isaiah Thomas has scored 440 points in 433 minutes.
reply retweet like


The bad news is we are now a team that relies upon a single player to score 40% of our points and I do NOT like that.  On the other hand, whatever works, and it has been working very well since he came back from injury...

Jay King @ByJayKing
7 hours ago
Isaiah Thomas has a chance Friday, I believe, to become the first Boston Celtics player ever with 40-plus points in three straight games.
reply retweet like

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 6 hours ago
41 on Friday would also raise his scoring average to 30 points per game. Which, by the way, is something no Celtic has done...ever. twitter.com/ByJayKing/stat…
reply retweet like


Horford hit a big 3 that helped break their backs but he was 3-12 after 3.  Horford isn't at his best in big games or in big moments like IT.  Have you noticed?  Well, he still has one big fan, his sister Anna.

Anna Horford
‏@AnnaHorford

Follow
More
Please tell me why I still have Toronto fans @ ing me... Go pet a moose or bottle some maple syrup or whatever tf you do, lol.


IT carried us in the 1st quarter and the 4th, but the game started to turn around in the 3rd with Marcus Smart.  If he could only shoot!  Hell, if only he wasn't a brickmeister.  There is SO much to love about his game other than that.  The guy has ganas enough for an entire team.  His energy made the tide turn.  He played 10 minutes of the 3rd and 10 minutes of the 4th and every second of them you could see electricity jumping off him.  




He did it all, except shoot well.  He dove to the floor for a loose ball.  He won the tip on the jump ball from that loose ball tie-up.  You see he was 4-11 and you want to puke, but the rest of his game was amazing.  All we have to do is try to figure out how to make him stop shooting since I have given up hope that he will ever become a shooter.

Jaylen Brown flew around on defense, closing out shooters.  That's the stuff that will get you minutes, young man, Brad wants to see you closing out on shooters on defense.  Both he and Rozier are just sucking up ganas and grit from Marcus Smart like a couple of gas siphons.  Brown went in for a dunk, got fouled by Kyle Lowry and took exception to it.  Marcus Smart, of all people, played the peacemaker.

Adam HimmelsbachVerified account
‏@AdamHimmelsbach

Follow
More
Crowder on angry Jaylen: "That’s who we want to see. We see kid Jaylen, smiling at everything Jaylen..You’ve got to have a little nastiness"


Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
yesterday
Jaylen Brown learned to scrap, and Isaiah Thomas learned to flop. Marcus Smart’s fingerprints are all over this team.
reply retweet like



Credit to the bench, especially Zeller, Rozier and Brown for energy.  They were kicking our ass in the 1st half and then those guys, and Smart of course, came in and closed the gap.  We blew a 16 point lead in Toronto, but rallied to win from 18 down last night and it wasn't because of 4-13 Al Horford or 2 rebounds Amir Johnson.  Brad had Jaylen and Rozier in during crunch time.  What a great opportunity for growth for the young'uns!

Of concern, though, is our defense.  They shot 52.6% for the game, and that is actually down from the 60+% they were shooting earlier in the game.  We shot a pathetic 41.4%.  Everybody not named Thomas stunk the place up on offense or had little impact (Amir, 2-2), but we gave up almost 53%!  We hit 4 more 3s than them (having DeRozan would not have changed that) and they had 6 more TOs.  What saved us was their frito shooting.  They took 25 ftas, but only hit 14 and we hit 25 of 30.  Not a big difference in ftas, but a BIG difference in ftm.  Those 11 points, plus our higher 3pt fg%, pulled our bacon out of the fire.

Kyle Lowry is also unreal.  He was hitting some really sick shots too.  He played all 12 minutes of the 4th, 38 for the game, after playing 45 minutes the night before and scored 12 points in the 4th quarter.  That's pretty damn impressive, he just had the misfortune of having to do it against the King in the Fourth, who had 19 in the 4th.  I like Norman Powell a lot too.  Lucas Nogueira is a very good, and long, rim protector, he had 4 blocks.  He was the 16th pick in the 2013 draft.  In other words, he was the pick that Boston used for Atlanta in the draft day trade that let Danny move up to 13 to pick Kelly.  Atlanta traded his rights to Toronto.  He can't shoot for shit, he's one of those all-defense, inept on offense dinosaurs we have in the league.  They have their place and I think Nogueira is in a good place.  He comes off the bench, does what he does, and nobody expects him to contribute to the offense for very long or on a sustained basis/minute.  In a league that is trending strongly towards scoring those players have diminished value except as bench players, in my opinion.

The magic number for Brad and the Celtics coaching staff coaching the All-Star game is 1.  Any combination of Celtic wins or Raptor losses totaling 1 and they are in.  I care nothing for the all-star game, I can't even remember the last time I watched one (I occasionally watch the MLB All-Star game) but Brad being the All-Star game coach means 1.  We are winning and 2.  that every quality player in the league will see that and the top players in the league will get a chance to see what it is like to be in a locker room with him or have him on the sidelines and that can only help Danny with his job.

Brooklyn blew a 10 point lead in the 4th to lose the the Knicks.  At this point we are in great shape and putting the basketball gods on notice that we will know the fix is in if we don't get the #1 pick, but what is also great is that if Brooklyn can blow a 10 point lead to the disheveled Knicks this year, what will make them so much better next year?  Not their draft pick.  heheheh.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899391





















bob


.

This was a signature win for the Celtics as they have struggled to beat the Raptors.  Of course DeRozan was not playing and he usually is part of their 1, 2 punch.  On our end Bradly and KO did not play.

This was a blood and guts game and Marcus Smart once again set the tone.  

Some other observations.

Crowder was rock solid again

I do not know what criteria Brad uses to determine if Zeller is going to be part of the rotation.  He only played 16 minutes last night scoring only 4 points but he did have 5 boards and made a significant block.  I was shocked at how quickly he went after the layup.  It was a great defensive play and a key that helped us win.  His points came from a contested layup (left hand hook or jump hook after fighting for space at the rim and that wonderful reverse dunk where he faked and drove the baseline.  Zeller is our ONLY legit center and should be part of the rotation.  Size does matter

Jalen and Terry played hard.  The time they are getting during crucial periods in the game can only enhance their confidence and ability to get minutes in the playoffs.  Terry had 7 rebounds including one where he went as high as I can imagine for a 6' 1" guards.  This kid has unreal hops.

After being behind by 10 rebounds the Celtics closed the gap and finished with 39 while the Raptors had 41.  That was the real difference in this game.

Al Horford struggled again last night.  He missed layins and was 1-5 from behind the arc.  I like Al but I cannot help but wonder why the offense results in him taking 5 three point shots.

Once again the league MVP took the game over.  Even though we have seen him do this before his ability to score at will is an amazing feat.  

I think DA will tweak the team before the trade deadline.  I do not think he will be looking to add any high profile players.  He needs some rebounding and that will probably be the focus.  A more significant deal would be to add Serge if that deal can be done without too much interruption to the chemistry.  But Danny may not be ready to do the deal for a significant BIG.  We shall see.

dboss

i was so disappointed at the way the Celtics came out to start the game. This, even according to them, was a big game. They cannot continue to do this, at some point (playoffs) this could explode and they could lost these kind of games.

I know I may be in the minority here, but the first half was torture. Missed shots, no rebounds, no energy, only IT and Jae.

Everytime I read a rumor about a trade it includes Jae Crowder. I think it would be a big mistake to lose this guy. He works so hard on the floor and from what I read, is an important player in the locker room. I know these are only rumors, but alot of times where there is smoke there is fire.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:i was so disappointed at the way the Celtics came out to start the game. This, even according to them, was a big game. They cannot continue to do this, at some point (playoffs) this could explode and they could lost these kind of games.

I know I may be in the minority here, but the first half was torture. Missed shots, no rebounds, no energy, only IT and Jae.  

Everytime I read a rumor about a trade it includes Jae Crowder. I think it would be a big mistake to lose this guy. He works so hard on the floor and from what I read, is an important player in the locker room. I know these are only rumors, but alot of times where there is smoke there is fire.

Rosalie

You are so right. Jae is a tremendous asset for this team. Danny got him on the cheap so his value given his production is significant. These rumors drive me half mad but as you know everyone wants to play GM. I think that building a contender can only become a reality when you develop a solid core of players and then you add to that core to address any weaknesses. Jae is part of that Core. Danny has sufficient assets outside of that core group to still fill in some gaps.

dboss

IT is quickly getting into Allen Iverson territory. not only his stats, but his swagger is at AI territory.