Boston Celtics: 3 keys to victory over the Raptors in game-one
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics key to victory No. 3) Stay out of foul trouble
No one wants to give their opponent free points. I mean, that would be stupid, right?
That said, as we all know, sometimes things happen. Little things called shooting fouls and over seven-team fouls in a quarter…
Should the Boston Celtics want to give themselves the best chance of winning, they must keep to the ground, their hands in check, and to make smart plays when being physical.
In other words, they have to be better at controlling their fouling, especially when going up against the more physically dominating Toronto Raptors frontcourt consisting of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.
All year long, the Cs have struggled in the fouling department. Throughout the 2019-20 regular season, Boston found themselves ranked as the tenth worst team in personal fouls committed per game (21.6).
The one game during their first round-series in which the Boston Celtics easily could have lost came in gam-three, where they were seemingly fouling Joel Embiid and the Sixers left and right — as previously mentioned, Tatum picked up three in the first quarter and Daniel Theis fouled out in 26 minutes of play (overall, the team committed 23 fouls).
Against Toronto, specifically, they’ve averaged 20 fouls committed per game during their four outings this season, where the team then would do their dirty work from the free-throw line, where they rank sixth in the league (79.6 percent).
Make smart decisions Boston!
Next. B/R believes this player to be C’s “dream” trade target. dark