The Toronto Raptors are winners of six straight after defeating the Boston Celtics 115-109 last night. The Raptors appear to have discovered who they are as a team, and everyone’s buying in and everyone’s playing well. Well, mostly everyone.
This was Amir Johnson’s first game back in Toronto after signing with the Celtics in the offseason. Johnson’s relentless hustle and kindred spirit made him a fan favourite in his six years as a Raptor, and fans rewarded him for his service with a standing ovation before the game. The Raptors also put together a wonderful tribute video for him — perhaps the best one they’ve done — which you can watch here. And finally, someone gave him what appears to be a painting.
Amir got a gift pic.twitter.com/1Hc0hMl4e6
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) January 21, 2016
Johnson’s Celtics are currently the fourth-best defensive team in the league, worse than only the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, and Indiana Pacers. That’s fine company, and a quick look at their roster makes it easy to see why they’re that good on the defensive end. Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, and even Canada’s own Kelly Olynyk are all stellar defenders in their own way, and on paper you might have expected the Celtics’ defensive prowess — especially in the backcourt — to stifle the Raptors’ two stars, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
But that’s not what happened.
By his standards, Lowry did have a relatively quiet game, finishing with 14 points and eight assists. But DeRozan, on the other hand, had himself yet another fantastic game. DeRozan scored in every way imaginable: isolation jumpers, cuts to the rim, reverse layups, scoop shots, post-ups…you name it, he at least tried it and probably made it work. He finished the game with 34 points on 13-of-25 shooting and six assists. That’s impressive work against the Celtics’ duo of Bradley and Crowder, whom despite being athletic, apt defenders were simply too small and not strong enough to force DeRozan into truly tough shots. Of DeRozan’s 25 shot attempts,19 were considered contested by NBA.com. He made 10 of those shots.
A handful of DeRozan’s baskets came off of great two-man plays with Jonas Valanciunas. Valanciunas’ size proved to be invaluable against the Celtics’ smaller guards, whom had trouble getting around him and sticking with the Raptors’ guards. In fact, Valanciunas’ size was indispensable against the Celtics’ bigs, too. He frequently out-muscled Jared Sullinger on both ends of the floor, forcing the Celtics’ big man into tough shots and even an airball on defense and essentially having his way with him on offense. Valanciunas finished with 19 points on 9-of-9 (!!) shooting and 12 rebounds, good for his eighth double-double of the season. He also gave us this wonderful highlight:
Valanciunas showed tremendous patience and poise last night. He’s really coming into his own these days.
The Celtics did lead the Raptors by six at the half, but an 18-point quarter from DeRozan helped the Raptors put together a season-high 40-point quarter in the third, vanquishing the Celtics’ lead until much later in the game. You knew the lead wouldn’t last, but you also knew the Raptors were probably going to pull it out in the end.
Here’s what happened.
Back-to-back layups from Isaiah Thomas brought the Celtics within two with a hair over four minutes left in the game. Thomas followed up with a jumper on the Celtics’ next possession, but missed. Patrick Patterson missed a decent look from behind behind the arc, and then boom, a not-the-greatest-shot-but-it-went-in jumper from Bradley tied the game at 105 with 3:20 left in the game. Momentum never truly shifted in the Celtics’ favour, though, and there was a sense the Raptors would answer with big buckets of their own. And they did just that.
Lowry patiently dribbled the ball up the floor and handed it off to Patterson, whom handed it off to DeRozan. A haphazard isolation play from DeRozan nearly resulted in a terrible shot, but he smartly kicked the ball out to a drifting Lowry for a wide-open 3-pointer. Boom. One possession later, a set play designed to get Lowry moving toward the rim with momentum ended up getting Terrence Ross a decent look from behind the arc. It looked great in 4K, according to Matt Devlin. A jumper from DeRozan and two free throws from Lowry iced the game.
All in all, this was a commanding win for the Raptors. When they’re on like they were last night, they’re extremely difficult to beat. The Raptors tend to have tough games when Lowry’s not dropping 20 or more points, so seeing DeRozan and Valanciunas capably lead the team when they were needed is encouraging. Excellent glue-guy performances from Ross and Luis Scola certainly didn’t hurt, either. The only Raptor to have an outright bad game was Cory Joseph, and the Raptors were able to mitigate that, too. The Raptors are a few wins away from tying their franchise record of nine straight wins. This team looks difficult to beat, even when matched up against the NBA’s elite teams.
The Raptors’ next game is against the Miami Heat on Friday. Let’s break some records.
