Boston Celtics: Recognizing 3 Stars in win over Toronto

The Boston Celtics picked up a much-needed win on Thursday night after losing their previous two, winning over the Toronto Raptors by a score of 120-106. The Cs got out to an early lead and held onto it due to their hot shooting, never letting the 2019 champs get back in the game.

Boston shot a scorching 20-of-39 from downtown on the night (51.3%) and 39-of-86 from the field (45.3%). They were simply outshooting the Raptors, who only shot 32.1% from three. With that kind of discrepancy between these two teams, the Celtics were due for a win and they got one.

Toronto came into Thursday’s contest winners of five of their last six, scoring 115 or more points in each of those games. This propelled the veteran team back to a near .500 record of 12-13 after a miserable 2-8 start.

They got good performances from Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry, both scoring 23 and 24 points on greater than 50% shooting. However, Fred VanVleet–who dropped a career-high 54 against the Orlando Magic last week–only finished with five on 2-of-9 shooting.

The Boston Celtics had a good wire-to-wire win against a hot Raptors team

The Celtics did something they almost never do: get to the foul line. They finished 22-of-28 on the game and drew 26 fouls…both numbers that are encouraging for their offense.

Getting into the bonus early in the fourth quarter, it was easy to fend off any comeback attempts with endless opportunities at the charity stripe.

When it comes to the stars of the night, let’s first look at the honorable mentions.

Boston Celtics’ stars honorable mentions: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown didn’t have the best shooting nights but contributed heavily to a team win nonetheless. This was the first game all season for the Celtics in which neither Tatum nor Brown led the team in scoring. JT scored 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting, while Jaylen had a particularly ugly game, finishing with 12 on 3-of-14 from the field.

These kinds of nights from a pure scoring perspective are uncharacteristic, but they showcased why they are both superstar talents…even when their shot isn’t falling.

The “Jays” combined for 19 assists, with JB recording a career-high of 10. They both took plenty of ball-handling responsibilities with Kemba Walker playing as an off-ball shooter, and it worked.

Tatum in particular has mastered the art of the drive and kick, finding Payton Pritchard on this beautiful swooping pass. It helped that all of Boston’s shooters were hitting threes, but they both found the open man more often than not.

Basketball’s always better when the ball’s moving, and the Boston Celtics had 30 assists on their 39 field goals on Thursday night.