Celtics Knockout Raptors 92-87 In Game 7

This one turned into a last man standing affair.  They were center ring just throwing haymakers at each other.  It was truly a war of attrition.  The team with Marcus Smart won the war.  The x-factor was indeed the difference maker in a series between two teams that were evenly matched.

The Celtics are moving on after adding to the legacy of winning the 7th game.
 
There was little that was aesthetically pleasing.  The Raptors put up only 75 shots and made only 31 attempts  (41.3%)  Their 3 point shooting was 8-28, 28.6%.    The Celtics shot 40.7%  while going 35-86.  And our 3 point shooting, 9-38, was 23.7%.    Does going 13-23 or 56.5% from the line give you any discomfort?  Maybe this is why I spent most of the game sitting on the edge of my sofa and all I could do was keep saying WTF, WTF, WTF.

Someone still had to win a game that turned as ugly as a Donkey's ass.

The Celtics did it with grit.  They brought the 'grind it out' to the arena.  They turned them over 18 times and scored 31 points.

Jason Tatum led all scorers with 29 points.  He also had 12 rebounds and 7 assists.  He also made one of the 2 most important plays in the game when he was fouled after going in to grab an offensive rebound off of a second missed free throw by rookie Grant Williams.  What a huge play.  It was bigger than huge.
 
Jaylen Brown scored 21 points for us and had 8 rebounds and 4 steals and he shut Siakum down once again (13 points)  In between that work, he almost wishboned himself after coming down awkwardly from a fast break dunk,  My heart stopped.  I had to look away.  I had to leave the room. But he stayed in the game and moved well and I recalled some videos of him working out during the summer on some weird looking leg exercises.  The kid is flat out buffed.

Marcus was our 3rd top scorer with 16 points, 6 assists, 3 steals and THE BLOCK!  Norman Powell will have nightmares about this play the rest of his life.  What if.  Marcus gets another game ball and while we are at it lets give him the series game ball as well.  He is an unbelievable basketball player.  He refused to lose.  He refused to get outworked.  He refused to let his teammates get down on themselves.  He willed us to the win in a game that we should not forget.

Theis gutted it out and RW gave us some help off the bench.

Kemba Walker is blessed to be on a team where he can have multiple below par games and still win.

With that in Mind, It's on to Miami.  We will have a pre-series zoom session.

Congratulations to the Celtics.  They earned the right to keep playing.

Hi,
Yes, it was a tough game. Celtics out-willed Raptors.
And Defense ruled on both sides. Thankfully, we had a better one. With such atrocious 3pt shooting: JB 1-7, KW 1-7, MS 2-10. I'm scared to even mention FT - it was 56.5%. What's that - some kind of mental laps, loss of focus? I hope they re-charge for the next series.
I'm afraid that Kemba isn't 100% - he didn't always seem on the level of Cardiac Kemba. Also, I hope JB didn't pull groin muscle with that split last night.
Speaking of injuries, I wonder what's GH's status?

AK

Not the smoothest of wins, but what a great team effort!

This team is very much like the IT teams of several years ago in that they are so much fun to watch every night. Good solid coaching, great player leadership and performances, etc, etc.

Up way past my bedtime last night, but well worth every minute of lost sleep!

They had no answer for Jayson and Lowry was gassed. Both teams left everything on the court and gave us a great series with the last two games being near classics. On to Miami!

I was so traumatized by game 6 that I made a deal with my gal for game 7. We recorded it, watched a movie last night with phones off, went to bed, and agreed to find out what happened in the a.m. by reading the score. If the Celts won I was going to then watch the game. Weirdly, when I woke my first thought was that the Raptors had scored in the 80's, a propitious sign from the basketball gods. I use the word weirdly advisedly, because wyrd was the Druid word for destiny. Anyways, as you all know, we won! I knew we won while I was watching it, but I was still on the verge of a major anxiety attack right until the end!

Wow!  Not much to add.  But my original concerns going into G7 were answered loud and clear.

1.  Brad Stevens - Got Monkey #1 off his back.  I'm not counting the PHI series.  Getting off to a 2-0 lead then winning it in a G7 against the COY was a big deal.  Brad won the COY head-to-head battle but by the slimmest of margins.  Two more 4-game monkeys to go.  Also the calm demeanor of the team as things got tight at the end.  No panic.  THAT'S the intangible Brad brings more than all the other stuff.  Someone to stay calm, cool and collected reflects right down to every player on that team.    

2.  Kemba Walker - Not too bad but a great 4th quarter in a series that messed with his head more than anything.  Can't expect a lot of points in a 92-97 defensive slugfest. The Box In One tripped him up.  Probably hasn't seen that since high school and to put it on him while baffling worked for TOR in this series.  What's great about this is MIA is so #$%$^ing cocky right now, they are going to try to double Kemba, not Box In One him because MIA ain't TOR.  Guess who that's going to leave open?  Everybody.  MIA is about to get punched in the mouth hopefully with a broom.  Grim Reaper coming for them as well.  Party's over  

3.  JT - Played like a superstar in a Celtic Game 7 of all places.  The future in Beantown is very bright.  

Intangibles goes to the Williams and the 2 blocks.  Bench help didn't go the way we thought it would.  It went better.  It was BOS points vs. BOS defense.  Not a lot of points off the bench last night or in this series.  Defense does win championships.
RWill put in some good minutes and GWill with the FVV 3-point block was just enough.  You know it was a clean block as FVV never even bitched about a no-call.  Marcus with the sequence before that and his block were the game and series winners.

We all had to pull together for this one.  Lots of us po'ed after G6 and ready to hang it up.  But our chances of winning G7's are very similar to our finals/Championship series record.  33-9 vs 17-5 respectively, right?  Should have known better.  But that's not the immediate task at hand.  MIA up next.  Cocky, arrogant bastards going down.    

db

A great summation by Dboss.

This series is an instant Classic, not because of its divine basketball beauty but because of its sheer grit shown by both teams.  Mad respect for the Toronto Raptors as well as our Boston Celtics.  A 7-game series where both teams won every one of their road games and none of their home games.  Ironically, since Toronto earned the higher seed by virtue of their better play during the regular season, that gave the Celtics that extra road game to win the series.  Hopefully we don't have to do this like this again next year.  Winning 4 in Jurassic Park is not something I'm looking forward to having to do.

Kyle Irving
@KyleIrv_
·
11h
There's no better picture to capture that series than Kyle Lowry and Marcus Smart peeling each other off the floor.

An absolute scrap that lived up to every bit of the hype.



Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
·
10h
In the final 44 games of the Toronto's phenomenal title defense season, the Raptors went 35-9.

35-9.

5 of the 9 losses to Boston.

That was not only the biggest win of the Brad Stevens' era, it was the Celtics biggest win in a decade.

The best team they've eliminated since.



Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
10 hours ago
Brad Stevens gives a roster self-assessment: "We have three 30-year-olds. We’re like basically a college team with a couple of guys."

The Celtics did not have a fgm in the last 5:20 and still won because of heart, defense, hustle and PRIDE.  Consider this carefully and you gain some insight into who this team is.

Marcus Smart.  I want to come up with ways to describe his game, his value, his contributions to this team and to this game and words simply fail me.  Name another Celtic player whose intangibles are as impactful as his.  Kevin Garnett?  That's pretty damn impressive company, and pretty damn good for us since we know what KG did to turn things around and bring us #17.  His block at the rim on Norman Powell with just 58 seconds left and the Celtics up only 2, was HUGE.  It would have been a tied game with < 1 minute left.  Absolutely game-saving.  His steals broke their hearts.  His overall defense was elite.  How elite?  Here's how elite.

Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
3 hours ago
Marcus Smart Game 7 defense, per NBA tracking:

2 points allowed, 1-4 FG, 3 TO, 1 BLK

Smart defended Lowry for 6:46 of matchup time, 25.2 possessions, and held him scoreless (0-1 FG) with a turnover

Only 9 of Lowry’s team-high 145 points in playoffs came against Smart


marcus smart
@smart_MS3
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Greatest City in the USA ShamrockJoined April 2012
933 Following
275.8K Followers

I read an article yesterday before the game in which the writer opined how GSW fans would be interested in trading Draymond Green for Marcus Smart.  Best laugh I had all day, and that's no disrespect to 3X Champion, 3X All-Star, DPOY and 3X NBA All-Defense First Teamer Green.  I just adore Marcus Smart.  It's weird, you know, how our destinies aren't always obvious to us until we're in the middle of them.  I'll bet it never occurred to Marcus, growing up in Flower Mound, TX and going to OK State, that he had actually been born to wear Celtic green.


Boston Celtics
@celtics
Irreplaceable

9:32 PM · Sep 11, 2020·

Tatum with a superstar game.  The kid is not a kid anymore, this was a "proving ground" series.  He averaged > 24ppg this series.  He averaged 23.4ppg during the season, so he upped his game.  That's what you need to have to win Championships, you need players to play above their regular season production because every team you are playing against now is good, and getting better with each round.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
8 hours ago
List of players in NBA history to average 25 ppg and 10 rpg on 40% deep shooting (min. 2 3FGAs pg) and advance out of the first round, per @Sportradar:

1. Dirk Nowitzki ('02, '03)
2. Jayson Tatum ('20)
3.

NO, the absence of a 3rd player listed is NOT an oversight, nor an incomplete cut-and-paste by me.  There are only two, and Dirk's the other.

Jaylen Brown said he told Jayson Tatum after the game that it is "an honor" to play with him.  That's leadership.  That also helps cement the bond between those two and, in my opinion, increases the odds of Tatum resigning with us.

Final Game 7 Tale of the Tape between All-Star Pascal Siakam and All-Star snub Jaylen Brown:
Siakam - 13 points on 5-12, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 TOs.  3-4 from the line.
Brown - 21 points on 10-17, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 TOs.  4 steals.

Bigger picture, the series numbers:
Siakam - 14.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.1 bpg, 41.6% fg%, 12.5% from 3, 23 assists and 15 TOs (1.5:1), 8 stls.
Brown -   20.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg, .57 bpg, 42.6% fg%, 28% from 3, 12 assists and 17 TOS (.7:1), 13 stls.

Brown didn't beat Siakam in every category, but he beat them in most of them.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
10 hours ago
Jaylen Brown tied a career-high with four steals in Game 7.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
10 hours ago
Jaylen Brown on his hurting his groin after dunk: "It started hurting and to be honest, adrenaline took over. I couldn't feel anything. I'm feeling it now but at the moment, I didn't feel shit. It hurt for a minute and then I heard my teammates and all the pain went away."

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
10 hours ago
Marcus Smart starts an answer about Grant Williams' play tonight with "Oh man, Grant Williams. Big shout out to Grant. The General. He’s not even a rookie anymore."

So I guess Grant's nickname is "The General"

Actually, that was GWill's nickname at Tennessee, because he was playing alongside Admiral Schofield.  Grant had trouble getting posted up, Siakam is too long for him, but he had that offensive rebound (missed the fritos, but kudos for getting the board) and then made up for it by getting enough of the VanVleet 3pt fga to salvage the lead.  Interesting that Brad put GWill in at center after Theis fouled out and not RWill.  Can't argue with the results, but it's odd.

I'm trying not to sour on Kemba, I really am, but he is underwhelming me like no other star has in my memory.  He was almost the goat (not "The G.O.A.T") of this series if we lost.  We need him to pull his head out of his ass and start taking over.  We're going to need his scoring to offset the gunners on Miami.

A Game 7 win is as sweet as they come but, if we look at the series in a bit more granularity, we should note that of the 3 games we lost one was on a Hail Mary 3ptr with .5 seconds left and another was a 2OT loss in which the refs hadn't, shall we say, brought their A game.  This series against the reigning World Champions, without Gordon Hayward, could easily have been over in 5 or 6.  That's how good we are right now.

We are now at the halfway point.  8 down, 8 more to go.  Go Celtics! 

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401241765




bob



.

I’m not expecting us to win it all this year, so if we do it’s all gravy. Actually as long as Lakers don’t win it I’ll be happy. We do have a bright future as we have 2 J’s as nucleus and GH and Kemba and Smart as heady essential vets and expect more/big improvements next year for the Williams brothers. Having said all that, never saw Brad figure out how to get Kemba going vs the box 1, that’s why on the Game On, I kept on saying to run the offense thru Tatum and Smart. Toronto also took away the RWill lobs that were great in first 2 games, can we get that back? Any scholars here know how they took that away? Thankfully our defense is really talented and good and controlled the game enough to offset a lot of bad shooting, especially from the line.

Great game by 2 J’s, they really showed me something by sticking to their strengths and not trying to do too much. Jaylen was cold from 3, so instead of shooting us out of it, like in his last game 7, he attacked
the rim at such a high level, which is his trademark and played great defense, doing another great job on their best front court player. Jayson eliminated a lot of mistakes, still had a couple or so, but was under much better control, loved the intangibles he’s showing, getting dirty with big rebounds and very strong timely defense. Came thru with big baskets when we needed it, they both did. Smart was essential, besides the big block, his defense on Lowry was great, always takes key charges textbook. Best 6’3” defender in the L by far. Can’t wait to see GH come back, he takes off so much pressure off everyone and makes the game easier for the whole team.

Bobh

A little adversity builds character.

This one turned into the series that would not go away until it was over. Those Raptors hung around the train station heading home with luggage in hand but they kept missing the all aboard call.

Finally they got on the last train heading home.

Time to get ready for some Heat.

myles brown
@mdotbrown
Marcus Smart is what Patrick Beverley thinks he is.
8:42 PM · Sep 11, 2020


https://twitter.com/i/status/1304634574475939840



Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
3 hours ago
Marcus Smart Game 7 defense, per NBA tracking:

2 points allowed, 1-4 FG, 3 TO, 1 BLK

Smart defended Lowry for 6:46 of matchup time, 25.2 possessions, and held him scoreless (0-1 FG) with a turnover

Only 9 of Lowry’s team-high 145 points in playoffs came against Smart


bob

.

cowens/oldschool wrote:I’m not expecting us to win it all this year, so if we do it’s all gravy. Actually as long as Lakers don’t win it I’ll be happy. We do have a bright future as we have 2 J’s as nucleus and GH and Kemba and Smart as heady essential vets and expect more/big improvements next year for the Williams brothers. Having said all that, never saw Brad figure out how to get Kemba going vs the box 1, that’s why on the Game On, I kept on saying to run the offense thru Tatum and Smart. Toronto also took away the RWill lobs that were great in first 2 games, can we get that back? Any scholars here know how they took that
away? Thankfully our defense is really talented and good and controlled the game enough to offset a lot of bad shooting, especially from the line.

Great game by 2 J’s, they really showed me something by sticking to their strengths and not trying to do too much. Jaylen was cold from 3, so instead of shooting us out of it, like in his last game 7, he attacked
the rim at such a high level, which is his trademark and played great defense, doing another great job on their best front court player. Jayson eliminated a lot of mistakes, still had a couple or so, but was under much better control, loved the intangibles he’s showing, getting dirty with big rebounds and very strong timely defense. Came thru with big baskets when we needed it, they both did. Smart was essential, besides the big block, his defense on Lowry was great, always takes key charges textbook. Best 6’3” defender in the L by far. Can’t wait to see GH come back, he takes off so much pressure off everyone and makes the game easier for the whole team.

cow

Their various zone defenses limited Kemba's ability to get into the paint in games. The other thing i will point out is that they did not actively try to run plays for getting Rob some lobs when Kemba was at the point. It seemed to me that Marcus was the main guy to search out those opportunities.

We won this series and I am happy about that but our offensive execution was lacking. The last 5 minutes or so of the game last night was characterized by ISO plays with either JT or KW dribbling out the shot clock. If you think about it the end of game play where Kemba burned seconds off the clock before driving to the rim and luckily finding Grant Williams buried underneath the basket was a high risk play. As a matter of fact it had turnover written all over it.

We did not win this game or series because of great coaching by Brad Stevens. We won this because of great players like Smart, Tatum and Brown. We have better talent than they do and better talent won this series.

dboss wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:I’m not expecting us to win it all this year, so if we do it’s all gravy. Actually as long as Lakers don’t win it I’ll be happy. We do have a bright future as we have 2 J’s as nucleus and GH and Kemba and Smart as heady essential vets and expect more/big improvements next year for the Williams brothers. Having said all that, never saw Brad figure out how to get Kemba going vs the box 1, that’s why on the Game On, I kept on saying to run the offense thru Tatum and Smart. Toronto also took away the RWill lobs that were great in first 2 games, can we get that back? Any scholars here know how they took that
away? Thankfully our defense is really talented and good and controlled the game enough to offset a lot of bad shooting, especially from the line.

Great game by 2 J’s, they really showed me something by sticking to their strengths and not trying to do too much. Jaylen was cold from 3, so instead of shooting us out of it, like in his last game 7, he attacked
the rim at such a high level, which is his trademark and played great defense, doing another great job on their best front court player. Jayson eliminated a lot of mistakes, still had a couple or so, but was under much better control, loved the intangibles he’s showing, getting dirty with big rebounds and very strong timely defense. Came thru with big baskets when we needed it, they both did. Smart was essential, besides the big block, his defense on Lowry was great, always takes key charges textbook. Best 6’3” defender in the L by far. Can’t wait to see GH come back, he takes off so much pressure off everyone and makes the game easier for the whole team.

cow

Their various zone defenses limited Kemba's ability to get into the paint in games.  The other thing i will point out is that they did not actively try to run plays for getting Rob some lobs when Kemba was at the point.    It seemed to me that Marcus was the main guy to search out those opportunities.  

We won this series and I am happy about that but our offensive execution was lacking.  The last 5 minutes or so of the game last night was characterized by ISO plays with either JT or KW dribbling out the shot clock.  If you think about it the end of game play where Kemba burned seconds off the clock before driving to the rim and luckily finding Grant Williams buried underneath the basket was a high risk play.  As a matter of fact it had turnover written all over it.

We did not win this game or series because of great coaching by Brad Stevens.  We won this because of great players like Smart, Tatum and Brown.  We have better talent than they do and better talent won this series.

Agree completely we did not win this series because of brilliant coaching, it was the grit of the players, our core of 2 J’s, Smart and Theis played great defense throughout, if anything Stevens should have figured out ways to keep Smart on Lowry more, I hated some of the switching. Well if was no systematic defense to stop RWill receiving lobs, Stevens should have went to that more, another mistake. I believe Rob was 10-11 FG first 2 games, why not keep using that? Not going up 3-0 when it was right there came so close to biting us back in the ass and easily could have cost us the series, hope Brad coaches a lot better the next round.

Dboss and Cow: 100% agree.

Cow, time for you to put the psychic hex on Kelly O, the man we drafted ahead of Giannis,
for the series.

Bob H, thanks for another great wrap up with excellent analysis and pix.

dbrown, keep those positive vibes going for the ECF. We'll need all of them. I'd love to see Jaylen completely shut down that guy who played for Philly, Minny, Chicago, and wherever.

One thing I want to mention is how many times I saw JT give up a chance to take a shot to make a pass instead. Yeah, he passed the ball to the other team's coach one of those times. Big picture though is he is really starting to see the game. If he can add passing to his game, he could be a true super star.

Shamrock1000 wrote:One thing I want to mention is how many times I saw JT give up a chance to take a shot to make a pass instead. Yeah, he passed the ball to the other team's coach one of those times. Big picture though is he is really starting to see the game. If he can add passing to his game, he could be a true super star.

Agree

Tatum has already taken the next step to become a facilitator as well as a top end scorer, rebounder and defender.

Let the record show that JT averaged 25.3 PPG, 10.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists during the 11 games playoffs so far. Throw in his 1.2 blocks and what you have is a guy at 22 playing at an elite level. Those are crazy good numbers.

dboss wrote:

Shamrock1000 wrote:One thing I want to mention is how many times I saw JT give up a chance to take a shot to make a pass instead. Yeah, he passed the ball to the other team's coach one of those times. Big picture though is he is really starting to see the game. If he can add passing to his game, he could be a true super star.

Agree

Tatum has already taken the next step to become a facilitator as well as a top end scorer, rebounder and defender.

Let the record show that JT averaged 25.3 PPG, 10.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists  during the 11 games playoffs so far.  Throw in his 1.2 blocks and what you have is a guy at 22 playing at an elite level.  Those are crazy good numbers.

He played great/good no question, maybe I expect too much, but when your such a talented player, the length, reach, handle, shooting/scoring touch....he can take it up another notch. I am expecting big things going forward in the next series in these playoffs from Tatum and Brown. I don’t think Jaylen was given enough credit for outplaying his primary match up Siakim, the way he did. Smart may be our best defender and his big intangible plays speak for themselves, but Jaylen always takes on the best offensive player, usually an all star or MVP caliber type and his defensive ability, strength and length and competiveness is easily deserving of all NBA defensive recognition. No way he should not have been on the 2nd team....

Mike Gorman
@celticsvoice
What better way to get ready for a game 7 than spending the morning talking with Tommy and the Cooz. Bob is 92, Tommy is 86 and both are going strong. They think the C’s win if they defend for all 48 and take the ball to the hoop. Oh yeah, Tommy says “you gotta run!!!” #Celtics
10:04 AM · Sep 11, 2020


bob


.

[quote="dboss"]

cowens/oldschool wrote:
We won this series and I am happy about that but our offensive execution was lacking.  The last 5 minutes or so of the game last night was characterized by ISO plays with either JT or KW dribbling out the shot clock.  If you think about it the end of game play where Kemba burned seconds off the clock before driving to the rim and luckily finding Grant Williams buried underneath the basket was a high risk play.  As a matter of fact it had turnover written all over it.

We did not win this game or series because of great coaching by Brad Stevens.  We won this because of great players like Smart, Tatum and Brown.  We have better talent than they do and better talent won this series.

Totally agree. It drives me nuts - why on earth do the teams just dribble away 20 seconds at the end of games before taking a low percentage shot or driving and dishing to someone who then has to take a low percentage shot? The laws of physics don't change during the last 24 seconds of a game. Nor do mathematical facts. Do what is known to work. It's mind boggling. To be fair though, its not just the Celtics, most teams seem to go to this at the end of close games.

worcester wrote:Dboss and Cow: 100% agree.

Cow, time for you to put the psychic hex on Kelly O, the man we drafted ahead of Giannis,
for the series.

Bob H, thanks for another great wrap up with excellent analysis and pix.

dbrown, keep those positive vibes going for the ECF. We'll need all of them. I'd love to see Jaylen completely shut down that guy who played for Philly, Minny, Chicago, and wherever.

I consider him a defensive liability, so am rooting for as much PT for him as possible lol