The Boston Celtics went north of the border on Wednesday night for a game against the Toronto Raptors—just a couple of weeks after they demolished the same team by 54 points at TD Garden. However, this version of Toronto looked a bit different, as RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick, and Scottie Barnes were all healthy.
From the jump, this game was close. And based on the way things were going in the first few minutes, it was going to stay that way. Both sides were fighting back and forth a bit, but the Raptors maintained a steady leady for most of the second and third quarters. In the end, Toronto pulled away, and the Celtics were handed an awful 110-97 loss.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics’ 110-97 to the Raptors.
Stud - Kristaps Porzingis
Though the Celtics’ lineups with Kristaps Porzingis haven’t looked great in terms of numbers, he’s looked solid individually. And on Wednesday night, he had yet another impressive showing.
Porzingis was red hot from the field, acting as Boston’s lead scorer for most of the evening. The threes were falling, the interior shots were falling, and Toronto didn’t have an answer for him.
Meanwhile, Porzingis was just as impactful on the defensive end. A couple of thunderous blocks were paired with some impressive rim protection.
It still feels like Porzingis and the Celtics are trying to get their top-tier chemistry back, but every game that passes by, they get closer and closer.
Dud - Defensive consistency
There were times in this game when the Celtics swarmed, sprinted, and completely smothered the Raptors. The problem was, when they weren’t doing that, Toronto was consistently getting open.
Early in the contest, it was threes. The Raptors, who are not a good three-point shooting team, were on fire from deep. They made the Celtics pay for giving them some.
Then, as the game went on, issues popped up in other areas. In the third quarter, in particular, the Celtics couldn’t stop anybody inside.
Jakob Poeltl cooked them, RJ Barrett’s ball-handling cooked the, and whenever the Raptors ran a two-man action, the Celtics were toast.
Defense came in waves for the Celtics, and that’s not good enough in the NBA.
Transition defense, specifically has been a problem for the Celtics this season, especially in recent games. The Raptors are not a good offensive team, but they scored a bunch in transition in this game.
Even when the Celtics weren’t turning the ball over, the Raptors were able to run off of their missed shots, and Boston seemed to get beat down the floor more often than not. Missing shots is one thing, but compounding that with not getting back on defense is a surefire way to avoid pulling ahead. That’s what happened on Wednesday night.
Stud - Payton Pritchard
The Celtics looked rough for the first few minutes of this game, but then, Joe Mazzulla threw Payton Pritchard into the mix. It was an early sub, but it worked beautifully.
Pritchard immediately game in and changed the energy of the game. His on and off-ball movement was great, and the Celtics entire mood shifted once he was on the floor (though part of that may have been a scolding from Mazzulla).
It wasn’t just three-pointers for Pritchard on Wednesday, either. Pritchard was doing a great job of working the ball inside and creating from that spot, too.
His night was highlighted by a big body move on Bruce Brown in the post, after which he looked to Boston’s bench as if to say, ‘This guy can’t guard me.’
Dud - Jaylen Brown
This was an ugly, ugly game for Jaylen Brown. He just couldn't seem to do anything right, especially when it came to scoring the ball, as he finished with a season-low 10 points.
As the Celtics desperately sought out any sort of offensive initation from guys not named Jayson Tatum or Payton Pritchard, Brown didn't step up to the plate.
Everything from Brown's energy to his ball-handling to his shot-making was off on Wednesday night.
Stud - Jayson Tatum
A quick look at the box score may not lead to the belief that Jayson Tatum had a stud-worthy night. But he sure did. He was impacting the game in so many ways.
His shots inside the arc weren’t falling, and a couple of his three-point attempts were questionable, but Tatum completely dominated the offensive end of the court when he was on the floor.
Tatum’s playmaking and offensive gravity were very impressive to watch. He made pass after pass after pass, reading the defense perfectly as the Raptors overreacted to whenever he had the ball.
The shots weren’t going down at the rate Tatum may have liked in the first half, but he was an elite offensive hub in this game.
Dud - Derrick White
The slump has reached new levels of brutality. Derrick White just couldn’t find the basket in this game. He was as ice-cold as ice-cold can be.
It got so bad early on that he was yanked from the game in favor of Pritchard just a few minutes into the first quarter. As soon as he was out of the game, Boston got back into the swing of things.
White will be fine. He’s been too consistent over the years not to bounce back. But right now, it’s rough, as he was effectively usurped by Pritchard for starter minutes in this one.