Boston Celtics
Boston posted its third-best defensive rating of the year to date, and scrounged up just enough baskets late to claim a fifth straight victory.
Toronto Raptors’ Immanuel Quickley looks to pass while under pressure from Boston Celtics’ Neemias Queta during the first half. Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP
Jayson Tatum and the Celtics rallied from a big first-half deficit on the second night of an emotional back-to-back to claim a gritty 98-93 victory over the Raptors on Wednesday, closing out their road trip in first place in the Eastern Conference.
Here are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum took over at the most important times
Tatum had an underwhelming statline for the second night in a row, but he took the game over at two absolutely critical moments.
The first was in the second quarter with the Celtics trailing by 22 following a flurry of 3-pointers by the Raptors. Tatum checked back in, and almost immediately, he buried a pick-and-roll 3-pointer with a clever bump to create space against Raptors forward Allen Graves.
That sparked an 11-point quarter by Tatum, which included a 4-point play that turned into a 7-point possession when officials noticed that Collin Murray-Boyles had closed out too close to Tatum’s foot. Tatum made the free throw, and Baylor Scheierman buried a triple on the ensuing possession.
All told, the Celtics — who were at one point being outscored by 13 in the second quarter — ended up winning the frame 25-23 on the strength of Tatum’s takeover, which sent him to the locker room with 19 points.
In the second half, Tatum struggled to get going — he was scoreless during his usual third-quarter stint, but when he returned in the fourth, he made two massive plays.
The first was a heavily contested whirling jumper with 1:55 remaining that gave the Celtics the lead.
The second was a big swooping drive to his left, on which he was fouled by Ja’Kobe Walter with 25 seconds remaining. Tatum’s free throws gave the Celtics the lead, and their defense — coupled with clutch free-throw shooting — closed out the game.
Tatum, who finished with 24 points on 6-for-21 shooting to go with seven rebounds and eight assists, has had prettier performances, but he gave the Celtics exactly what they needed when they needed it, and Wednesday’s victory counts exactly the same in the standings as Tuesday’s far more heralded victory.
The Celtics showed real grit
We should note, before we dive too deeply into praising the Celtics here, that the Raptors were without both Scottie Barnes and Kawhi Leonard. We would also be remiss if we didn’t point out that the Raptors look really good — a tough, hard-nosed, defensive-minded team that spent much of the game forcing the Celtics to try to score in late shot-clock situations. When Barnes and Leonard return, they will be tough, talented, and mean.
Still, the Celtics are showing plenty of toughness and resilience themselves — claiming a win on Wednesday was not easy. The Celtics were on the second night of a back-to-back, as well as their third game in three nights. They were less than 24 hours removed from experiencing the great relief by winning easily the most highly publicized game of the year, and they were playing the final contest of a grueling four-game road trip.
No one would have been particularly surprised if the Celtics absorbed the Raptors’ opening blow, rallied back a bit once or twice and ultimately succumbed to what looked on paper like a potential schedule loss.
“You can kind of mail it in and just say, ‘second night of a back-to-back, blah blah blah,’” Mazzulla acknowledged to reporters after the game.
Instead, the Celtics posted their third-best defensive rating of the year to date, and they scrounged up just enough baskets late to claim their fifth straight victory.
Derrick White was absurdly good
White was a two-way killer for the Celtics — he floated in a pair of baskets, hit three 3-pointers (including a big one in the fourth quarter that kept the Celtics attached), and he snaked one lovely pick-and-roll for a mid-range jumper en route to 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting.
If you feel like you’ve seen a lot of floaters from White this season, you’re not imagining things: 17.7 percent of his shots this year, according to Synergy Sports, are runners, and he has been excellent — averaging 1.18 points per 100 possessions. Both of those totals are up from last year, when he averaged just 0.77 points per possession on runners.
However, White’s hellacious defense was the real highlight: He finished with four blocked shots and a steal. The flashiest block was a flying rejection at the rim in the second quarter on which he ranged from the opposite side of the floor to snuff out Murray-Boyles at the rim.
However, if you like detail-oriented defense, don’t miss this play where R.J. Barrett successfully baited White into the air, but White realized halfway up that it was a pump fake, and he managed to turn his jump into a hop before leaping up and rejecting Barrett at the rim.
At his best, White is a sensational basketball player.
Neemias Queta wants Mazzulla to be more critical
Queta and Luka Garza started the game together in a double-big look that didn’t get off to a particularly good start, but both chipped in at various times — Garza as a floor spacer (albeit a relatively unsuccessful one on Wednesday) when the Raptors blitzed Tatum in the pick-and-roll, and Queta on the glass where he pulled down 13 rebounds, including some big ones on both ends late.
Queta was particularly essential on the Raptors’ most meaningful possession in the closing seconds: He contested Barrett at the rim and forced a miss, he claimed the rebound, and then — after the Raptors fouled him — he canned two free throws that put the Celtics up three and changed the complexion of the game.
“Neemi continues to get better and better at both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla told reporters after the game. “Honestly, his offensive presence is just as impactful. […]
“Defensively he just lifts us to another level with his rim protection.”
Queta, however, wants Mazzulla to push him.
“I’m so hard on myself, just having him being hard on me doesn’t really affect me,” Queta said.
“I think he needs to actually be harder on me. A couple things, I could have gotten way better looks tonight, finishing around the rim, I made way too many turnovers, and that’s something I need to be better at.”
Mitchell Robinson played just 11 minutes
The Celtics used Robinson very sparingly on Wednesday — the second night of a back-to-back — playing him just 11 minutes overall, two in the third quarter and none in the fourth.
Robinson was a -17 in the box score in his limited minutes, most of which occurred as the Raptors raced out to an early lead.
Sam Hauser had one of his better (non-shooting) games in recent memory
Hauser is, of course, known as a shooter, but his defense has improved steadily over the years, and he has looked particularly good on that end so far this season — Hauser put the clamps on Barrett on several occasions, and he pulled down nine rebounds while shooting just 2-for-6 from the floor (2-for-4 from three).
The biggest play Hauser made was the game-sealing steal: With the Celtics up three, Hauser read the Raptors’ play perfectly — he picked up Immanuel Quickley flaring off a screen on the sideline out-of-bounds play drawn up by the Raptors, and he was able to secure one of the simpler steals a player will get as a result of his defensive work.
Hauser becoming a truly plus defender would, of course, be a massive development, and one that would further complicate what is already the best kind of problem in the Celtics’ wing depth.
Baylor Scheierman played good two-way basketball
Scheierman played a good defensive game and made a number of impressive hustle plays, but two stood out in particular.
The first was this diving steal in the fourth quarter, which he then turned into a big 3-pointer on the other end.
The second was this no-dip 3-pointer which finished off the massive 7-point possession, followed by an unselfish extra pass that fed Derrick White for a layup when the Celtics turned the Raptors over on the ensuing possession.
Scheierman has a tendency to do the right thing in the right place at the right time, which is very high praise for a role player.
What’s next
The road-weary Celtics will embark on another bizarrely designed road trip next week which we can only assume is the work of the NBA’s schedule makers after several hefty drinks, but first, they finally get a brief respite in Boston: Three days off before a visit from the Mavericks at TD Garden on Sunday, which tips off at 6 p.m.
The Magic will visit on Monday at 7 p.m.
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