Boston Celtics: 3 more matchups to look for in series vs. Raptors
By Tyler Duff
Boston Celtics matchup vs Raptors: Battle of the benches
This is an obvious disadvantage for the Celtics. The depth of this team might be the slimmest left in Orlando.
I am far from the biggest Gordon Hayward fan, but losing him was a major blow when is means extra minutes for Grant Williams and Semi Ojeleye.
The Raptors go legitimately nine to ten men deep in their rotation. They have a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in Powell and have great role players in Serge Ibaka (a future Celtics target, perhaps?), Patrick McCaw, and an emerging Terrence Davis.
In their most recent game against the Nets, this bench was able to come up with 100 of the team’s 150 points. As I mentioned, Brookly is somewhat of a joke and I only knew about four or five of their players, but the confidence this team has on their bench is impressive.
Totally different story for the C’s bench.
The rotation goes about six or seven players deep on a good day. With Marcus Smart now starting, you can’t be sure what you will get night-to-night with any of their bench players. Enes Kanter is unplayable in certain matchups. Brad Wannamaker usually doesn’t make any mistakes, but also doesn’t really do anything.
From there, I take a deep breath any time anyone else checks in.
Brad Stevens always says that the minutes will go to whoever defends and compliments the stars on the offensive end.
This matchup goes to the Raptors, but the Boston Celtics will need to get decent minutes out of a few of these guys if they want to compete in this series.