Quick Reaction: Celtics 91, Raptors 105

He outscored the Celtics in the first quarter, dropping 17 points (!!) with a mix of threes, old-man post moves, and a transition dunk. MOOD:

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— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) March 19, 2016

You can’t have a career-best night every time out. He was still quote solid, and while his finishing fell on the poor side of the ledger, he was great on the glass and helped discourage Boston penetration. The Celtics went to Bang-a-Biz at the end of the 2nd and he hit both.

The typical Lowry night: Dominant. He was great throughout but really picked it up in the fourth, single-handedly killing any hope the Celtics had left after closing the lead to five entering the final frame. Pull-up threes, causing havoc off the bounce, getting sneaky in passing lanes. A full Lowry game.

That's a RAP. #RTZ #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/sk9qkOWds5

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 19, 2016

Liked that he cracked down on the defensive glass to help the bigs and looked to distribute, particularly early. Shot wasn’t falling and he took the tough looks Bradley wanted to give him. Wasn’t terrible defensively beyond the odd back cut, but wasn’t especially good like Thursday, either. It was fine. I’m choosing to look at the assists as encouraging for how he’d handle a more swarming playoff opponent.

Really nice energy defensively and moved seamlessly between three different defensive assignments. That versatility could eventually be huge, almost as big as the ability from long-range he’s been showing. They’re small samples early on and recent, but his jumper looks more compact and fluid than in his senior year at UCLA, and he’s put on some masterful shooting performances in practice/shootaround. Continues to impress.

Left the game early with a foot contusion after trying to play through it for a bit, and hopefully it was just a precaution with a big lead. the entire bench unit was awesome defensively, and he continued to show he’s a trustworthy option against strechier bigs. His rebounding is the issue in those scenarios, but if he defends like this, the team can find ways to work around it (like the guards cracking back).

There’s no better word for him than “solid.” Quality minutes at the four and five, even as he’s still learning the playbook, and he covers a ton of ground on defense (he’s still learning exactly where to be). Missed his threes but both were ones he more or less had to take.

He got into a game!! He made a swing pass when iced to the top to get Thompson one of his looks. It was like 90 seconds, what do you want me to say?

Another decent, if unspectacular game for Ross, who didn’t have his 3-point shot going but put the ball on the floor a little bit and helped make switching across a few defensive positions manageable. Eventually, he’s going to realize he can actually get to the free-throw line by going to the rim instead of pulling up from there.

A few shaky moments, typical of Bebe, but for a seven-minute re-audition, it was fine. Blocked a couple of shots, hit the offensive glass, finished a dump-off. He missed an opportunity for another easy dunk. It’s a small sample again, but it was fine.

It was 90 seconds and he didn’t really get to do much.

His streak of shooting below 50 percent in games reaches nine, and it’s beginning to become a bit of a concern. I’d point to fatigue, but he’s still playing really well on defense, so I’m not sure that’s even the answer.

The Raptors came out a house afire, and when they started to slip, he began tinkering. Went to Nogueira early for a spark, tried Thompson out at the four, kept DeRozan to just 32 minutes (37 for Lowry). There wasn’t really a need for much high-level chess given the flow of the game, so there’s no telling what the Casey-Stevens matchup may look like (you might have a guess). Casey gets the bump because there’s not really anyone else to give credit to for a team turning in three good games in four nights.