Post Game - Celtics at Raptors - Monday, January 15 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585191

Celtics-Raptors takeaways: Tatum's third-quarter heroics fuel C's win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-raptors-takeaways-tatums-third-033138900.html

Justin Leger
Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 10:31 PM EST·4 min read




Celtics-Raptors takeaways: Tatum's third-quarter heroics fuel C's win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

Tatum saves the day in third quarter
'The Stock Exchange' steps up
Celtics dominate from deep

For the second year in a row, the Boston Celtics have pulled off a season sweep of the Toronto Raptors.

The C's improved to 4-0 this season against Toronto with a hard-fought win on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Raptors gave them some trouble in the third quarter, erasing an 11-point deficit and taking a seven-point lead with a 20-3 run. Boston responded with a 20-4 run fueled by superstar Jayson Tatum and held on in the fourth quarter to escape Scotiabank Arena with a 105-96 victory.

With Jaylen Brown (right knee hyperextension) out, Celtics guards Jrue Holiday and Derrick White stepped up with 22 points apiece. All five C's starters scored in double figures.

The Raptors were led by their newest additions, former New York Knicks guards R.J. Barrett (game-high 24 points) and Immanuel Quickley (21 points).

The Celtics (31-9) will return home to take on rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama (7-32) and the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. First, here are three takeaways from Monday's game.

Jayson Tatum takes over in third quarter

The third quarter has been the Celtics' kryptonite this season. They've been outscored in the third quarter in eight of their nine losses.

It looked like that trend might continue when the Raptors jumped ahead with a 20-3 run in the frame. Then, Jayson Tatum happened.

Tatum took over to help the C's respond with a 20-4 run of their own. He scored or assisted on 14 of Boston's 23 total points in the third quarter. He also notched six rebounds in the quarter, one short of his career high.



It wasn't Tatum's most efficient shooting performance. The 25-year-old was 7-of-19 from the floor (1-6 3-PT) and finished with 19 points. Despite that, he still found a way to will his team to victory when the game started to slip away.

Tatum dominated the boards with a game-high 14 rebounds. He also notched six assists, a steal, and a block.

'The Stock Exchange' shines

Someone had to step up for Boston with Brown out. Both Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, a.k.a. "The Stock Exchange," were up for the task.

Holiday was aggressive off the bat on both ends of the floor, tallying 10 points with three assists, two rebounds, two blocks, and a steal in the first quarter. One of those blocks and the steal came within the first 42 seconds of the game.

This marked the second time this season that Holiday scored at least 10 points in the opening quarter. He finished with a season-high of 22 -- tying White for the team-high on Monday.



White's shooting slump appears to be over. He made five of his 11 3-point shots, including this clutch one late in the fourth quarter:



White's slump dated back to his appearance on former NBAer JJ Redick's podcast, "The Old Man & the Three on Jan. 5. It was dubbed the JJ Redick Curse by many, including NBC Sports Boston's play-by-play commentator Drew Carter, who mentioned it on Monday's broadcast.

Redick took notice:



Fortunately, it looks like we can officially put the curse talk to rest as White is 12-for-27 from the floor and 8-for-16 from beyond the arc in his last two games.

Celtics dominate from deep

The Raptors outscored the Celtics 60-28 in the paint and 30-15 in transition. They scored 15 points off Boston's 12 turnovers. Still, that wasn't enough to keep up with the C's raining 3s.

The Celtics hit 41 percent (16-for-39) of their shots from deep. That was the difference with Toronto shooting a dismal 12.5 percent (4-for-32) from long range.

Holiday and White accounted for nine of the Celtics' 16 3-pointers. Al Horford was 2-for-4 from 3. Interestingly, the Celtics shot a higher percentage from 3-point range than they did from the floor (40.2 percent).

Boston is now 27-2 this season when shooting at least 33.3 percent on 3-pointers. It's just 4-7 when shooting under that mark.

From another perspective:


Raptors' offence sputters to a halt during home loss to Celtics

Dreadful offensive stretch during third and fourth quarters dooms Toronto in 105-96 loss.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/raptors-offence-sputters-to-a-halt-during-home-loss-to-celtics/article_0f9cc72a-b2fb-11ee-8731-4f2e58bd089d.html

Doug SmithSports Reporter
Monday, January 15, 2024
2 min to read



Darko Rajakovic had hoped a measure of familiarity would aid the Raptors on Monday night.

They were facing the Boston Celtics for the fourth time in less than half an NBA season, had an idea of what they do and how well they do it and surely a Toronto team infused with the arrival of two new starters would figure things out.

‘We just really want to continue to learn what works and what doesn’t work and … with a championship contender how to compete against them,” Rajakovic had said.

Compete they did.

Win they did not.

A dreadful offensive stretch bridging the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth doomed the Raptors and cost them a 105-96 decision to the Celtics at the Scotiabank Arena.

Plagued by some simple bad shooting luck with a handful of almost unwatchable offensive possessions, the Raptors had just one basket in an eight-minute span.

The only basket they had in the last six minutes of the third quarter was a Pascal Siakam dunk with about three minutes left and the next one they scored was a Dennis Schröder layup about two minutes into the fourth.

They might be able to survive that kind of drought against even mid-level teams in the league but an elite team like the Celtics buried them.

Boston was down seven at the mid-way point of the third quarter and up by 10 by the time the fourth was two minutes old.

And while the Raptors got within four in the final minute — it is a team that does not go away — the damage had been done.

Jrue Holiday had 22 points and Derrick White also had 22 for Boston, which played without Jaylen Brown.

RJ Barrett, with 24, and Immanuel Quickley, with 21 led Toronto but the Raptors went 4-for-32 from three-point range.

With Jakob Poeltl still out with a sprained ankle and usual spot starter Gary Trent Jr. shelved by flu-like symptoms, Jontay Porter became the first two-way contract player to start a game for the Raptors in almost three years.

Jalen Harris was the last, starting a game in his hometown of Dallas in March, 2021 as the Raptors played out the string on the Tampa Tank season. The only other player on a two-way contract to start a game for the Raptors was Malcolm Miller, in 2019.

Porter has worked himself into the rotation because he’s just a steady presence who understands his role.

He sets screens, rebounds and can stretch defences as a legitimate three-point shooting threat.

Porter played 11 games with Memphis three seasons ago when Rajakovic was an assistant coach.

“I think he’s a rotational big in the NBA,” the Raptors coach said of Porter, who has been through two different ACL surgeries and a host of other injuries.

“I just think that he’s an all-around good player. He’s got good court vision, I think he’s really good three-point shooter and defensively he’s actually doing better than I expected.

“He’s really proving he belongs in this league.”

Porter and Thad Young, who has proved to be a valuable depth piece since Poeltl got hurt, gave the Raptors enough in the frontcourt against 7-foot-2 Boston centre Kristaps Porzingis to let Toronto stay in the game.

Porzingis finished with 15 points and six rebounds but Young, Porter and the rest of the Raptors held their own on the boards. That’s going to become increasingly important in the remaining weeks that Poeltl is out.

“I think the one big one for us in the absence of Jakob is defensive rebounding,” Rakakovic said. “And that's something (where) we had, (in the) last couple of games, quite a bit of a drop off.

“It has to be a team effort at this point. And, one through five, all the players have got to do their job in boxing out and being aware that we need to do a better job there.”

Porter finished with four rebounds in 15 minutes and Young had a season-high seven assists to go with four rebounds.

The best measurement for a player's contribution is not always how many points that they score.

Tatum shot the ball poorly while going an inefficient 7/19 from the field including 1/6 from deep.  He did other things quite well as he had 14 rebounds and 6 impressive assists with just 1 TOV.  Add in a steal and a block and the culmination of his contribution to this win is evident.

A deep team really means that help comes from everywhere.

With White and Holiday scoring 22 points each, the team was somewhat able to offset the absence of Jaylen Brown.  The Celtics made timely baskets when they needed to but this game was well below their average offensive output.  This game was won on the defensive side of the ball and behind the arc on offense.  It is not that our defense was stellar.  They ran on us (30-15) fast break points and killed us in the paint (60-28)  We had 13 TOV to and they had only 7.

The difference in this game is the same difference that has elevated this team to the top spot in the NBA.  The Celtics shot 16/39 from deep (42.2%) and the Raptors only managed to shoot 4/32 or 12.5%.

Even with out two top guns combining for a ghastly 2-10 from deep this team still managed to shoot the 3 ball at a 40% clip.  That is because we have a lot of quality 3 point shooters on the roster.

I want to mention a couple of things about KP.    No one mentions this but he is not shooting the deep ball very well at all.  His 32.7% accuracy is  below his career average 35.7% and is not on pace with the team's 37.9% average.  I do not know if fans heard an interview from him early in the year when he discussed his 3 point shooting.  He said that he has changed his shot.  He said he is shooting from the side. (turns his body) He does not do it on every single 3 point shot but I have seen him do it quite a bit.  KP is usually wide open in those high pick and pop actions so his 3 pointers are rarely contested.  If you are an opponent and are looking to reduce the impact of the Celtics 3 point firepower, you would want the poor 3 point shooter to take them.   KP takes 4.9 3 point attempts per game.  If he made one more his average would be 40%.  In other words the difference between well below average and well above average is one.

The other thing I want to mention is the post up opportunities that the team finds for him.  He is shooting 66% on 2 pointers.  They seem to go to him exclusively when they recognize a mismatch situation.  Because of his size and length advantage that is going to happen most of the time,  I think he can be even better in those situation.  He has a tendency to catch the ball and look around to see what the defense is doing.  That split second is when the defense collapses on him.  Sometimes he will try to get a dribble or two off but whenever the ball come downs the defense will pounce.  What I would like to see him do more is to catch, turn and shoot.  There is no one there to defend him.  He can shoot over anybody.   Basically, quicker action on his part is needed.  

For several years, I have mentioned the need for the Celtics to play more zone defense.  Well it looks like CJ is doing that.  They played some  2-1-2 defenses last night with a match up zone wrinkle during the same possessions.   I like it.  The value of playing zone defenses is a proven tactic and the most obvious team that has perfected it is the Miami Heat.  Zone defense helps to hide players that may not be as good when defending one on one.  The other important reason why it works is because it is harder for a heavy PNR/PNP  team to have open looks off of those high screen actions.    If the Celtics keep working at it, I am certain it will make them a better overall defensive team.

The Spurs game on Wednesday will take us to the halfway mark of the season.  This season seems to be moving at warp speed.

dboss wrote:The best measurement for a player's contribution is not always how many points that they score.


For several years, I have mentioned the need for the Celtics to play more zone defense.  Well it looks like CJ is doing that.  They played some  2-1-2 defenses last night with a match up zone wrinkle during the same possessions.   I like it.  The value of playing zone defenses is a proven tactic and the most obvious team that has perfected it is the Miami Heat.  Zone defense helps to hide players that may not be as good when defending one on one.  The other important reason why it works is because it is harder for a heavy PNR/PNP  team to have open looks off of those high screen actions.    If the Celtics keep working at it, I am certain it will make them a better overall defensive team.

+1

...or is that +2?

Anyway, agreed.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Don’t know what to add, gyso covers so much.

How about this, this is another game we might have lost last year, with Tatum’s shooting off, in past years he might still take a dozen 3’s. This year he’s really figuring out how to do a lot of little things to effect winning when he is not in one of his zones. Love the way he’s rebounding, made a lot of plays on defense and his setting up others in the offense has really matured.

Cow

We have seen a number of wins this season that would have been losses last season.

Every season I have great optimism  but there is a different aura this time.   They are clearing all the bench marks.  They have a very noticeable balance and maturity that allows them to  stay in the moment.   They exhibit a reasonable  level of respect for their opponents but not out of fear of losing.   Each game they are working to improve and that seems to be their focus.   Play Celtics basketball and the wins will be there.