 | Boston | 106 | Final Box Score | 114 | Toronto |  |
 C | P. Patterson21 MIN, 0 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 0-3 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -3 +/- Look, I know everyone is having fits with his butter fingers and awful night from the floor, but I need to point out that the Raptors looked competent defensively every time he was out there. How can a player be so good yet so bad at the same time? The defensive sequence leading up to his block on Amir in the first quarter was beautiful. | |
 B | D. Carroll35 MIN, 11 PTS, 4 REB, 2 AST, 4-10 FG, 3-6 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 3 TO, 19 +/- He’s the dude that tried to stop the bleeding with a three in the 2nd when the Raptors were getting blown out of the building. I thought he also worked really hard to fight through screens and hit his rotations. Please though, DeMarre, don’t dribble it to the rim like a freight train. It is not a good idea. | |
 A+ | J. Valanciunas28 MIN, 18 PTS, 23 REB, 0 AST, 6-18 FG, 0-0 3FG, 6-6 FT, 2 BLK, 3 TO, 17 +/- Did a really nice job on the glass and worked his tail off to get to the rim early and often against Amir. His individual D was huge too!
Only time I think he really struggled in this game was when Olynyk stretched him out. But hey, that’s me nitpicking on something that wasn’t even really his fault. Terrific performance from JV tonight. | |
 A+ | K. Lowry42 MIN, 24 PTS, 4 REB, 9 AST, 7-12 FG, 5-6 3FG, 5-8 FT, 1 BLK, 4 TO, 7 +/- Classic Lowry tonight. He laid it out on the floor (literally, diving for loose balls), popped up out of nowhere for steals, and hit three-bombs. Took two elbows to his face too. Oh, and he also decided to take over in the fourth like the superstar he is, to no one’s surprise. | |
 A+ | D. DeRozan38 MIN, 41 PTS, 13 REB, 0 AST, 16-29 FG, 1-2 3FG, 8-9 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 19 +/- Where would this team be without him? Probably beneath a treadmill, somewhere. Most telling stat is not his double-double, but rather his lack of assists despite getting his teammates good looks. Needs help. The fourth quarter surge is not really a guaranteed thing – it just masked a pretty awful night from a lot of players offensively. There should really be a rare grade of A++ for moments like this.
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 C- | C. Joseph24 MIN, 7 PTS, 1 REB, 2 AST, 2-5 FG, 1-2 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 6 +/- *See Terrence Ross below. Additionally, he just wasn’t efficient with his dribble penetration tonight with the Celtics flooding the paint on his drives and closing down passing lanes. To be clear, he actually worked really hard tonight, but things didn’t go his way. | |
 C- | T. Ross21 MIN, 2 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 1-4 FG, 0-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -12 +/- When I say DeRozan needs help, I’m looking at you. | |
 B+ | L. Nogueira21 MIN, 7 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 3-4 FG, 0-1 3FG, 1-2 FT, 2 BLK, 2 TO, -1 +/- His strength lacks often on defense, but I want to point out a couple great things he did tonight, like: running the floor in transition to get easy buckets, and playing really good man-to-man defense.
Like JV though, just couldn’t do a thing about Boston’s bigs lurking behind the 3-point arc. Not on him, you could argue. | |
 B | N. Powell4 MIN, 2 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 1-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -4 +/- He had a very short leash tonight, and I thought that was harsh, given that he’s good defensively and did a very nice job with his two drives in four minutes – one was an easy bucket, the other one a nice kick-out for an open three. | |
 C+ | Dwane Casey I always feel inadequate giving professional NBA head coaches (particularly of this calibre) bad grades, but I really wanted to see Siakam thrown a bone here, given how badly Jonas and Bebe would get burned on the perimeter when playing together. Another observation: I like the decision to start Patterson, which helped the defensive efficiency to start. The rest of the rotations needed some work though. Somehow we need to figure out how to start Patterson without sacrificing the Lowry + bench death lineup. | |
Things We Saw
- I mean, what is the point in starting Patterson and giving yourself a nice tempo to set the tone of the game before laying an infinite amount of eggs in the 2nd frame?
The 2nd was an absolute bloodbath, and it’s where Boston did most of their damage, outscoring the Raptors 37-23(!). You would’ve been well within your rights to chalk this up as a loss after an abysmal 2nd and slightly less-abysmal 3rd quarter.
The 4th was a different story, though. Lowry and DeRozan took the game into their own hands, Valanciunas stepped up big, and the Raptors outscored the Celtics by 12.
- It really felt like the Raptors should’ve been up big after the first. Boston was not playing well, and the Raptors started off playing sound defense and getting good looks. But the turnovers, man, were horrendous.
The Raptors had 17 turnovers. Their season average is 12. To be fair, they improved slightly as the game wore on in this aspect, but in the first quarter in particular, the Raptors looked like they were playing with their hands soaked in grease.
