Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s hard-fought loss to Raptors

When news broke that the Boston Celtics would be without the likes of Robert Williams, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum for Monday night’s game against the surging Raptors, a win was viewed as a rather challenging feat to accomplish.

That said, even without these aforementioned core players, the shamrocks proved that they have the grit, grind, and tenacity to hang with the rest of them, and, even though their efforts came up a bit short, they sure went on to give the Raptors a run for their money.

At several points on the night, in fact, we saw the C’s leading the fully-healthy Raps, holding a double-digit advantage in the second and even seeing a seven-point lead with under five minutes to go in regulation.

Unfortunately, however, due to the sensational 40 point, 13 rebound, and two block performance by Raptors star, Pascal Siakam, coupled with Boston’s struggles to hold onto the ball, coughing up 17 turnovers (many of which were unnecessary and unforced) which, interestingly enough, we considered to be one of the biggest keys to attaining a potential victory, Ime Udoka’s squad ultimately lost control of their lead and wound up losing the contest by a final score of 115-112.

Now, despite the obvious disappointment that comes with a loss, the outing actually proved to be quite an impressive showing, for, even without four of their key contributors in the lineup whilst also playing on the road, the Celtics had a real shot of pulling away from the night victorious up until the final seconds of overtime.

With Monday’s bout against Toronto now in the rearview, we at HH would like to pinpoint 1 stud and 1 dud from the exhibition: