 | Boston | 97 | Final Box Score | 107 | Toronto |  |
 B | D. Carroll28 MIN, 6 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 2-4 FG, 1-3 3FG, 1-2 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 19 +/- It is hard to give Carroll a great grade tonight. He just wasn’t there offensively and struggled to mesh with the first unit given that DeRozan was dominating the ball — and it was mostly Patterson and Ibaka getting the open looks. His flagrant on IT riled the Celtics up and propelled them on a huge run. He did though, have a few nice defensive sequences while hitting a huge open corner three in the fourth. Oh, he even got into it with his doppleganger.
| |
 A | S. Ibaka36 MIN, 15 PTS, 7 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 7-12 FG, 1-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 16 +/- You can already tell ‘Toronto Ibaka’ will be more fun than ‘Orlando Ibaka’. He’s in a better situation, and fits in seamlessly. Face up game = smooth. Perimeter defense = watertight. PnR game = new weapon. Loved his minutes at the 5 with Patterson at the 4. Man that was fun, and opened all kinds of new possibilities on offense. | |
 B- | J. Valanciunas18 MIN, 7 PTS, 6 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 3-4 FG, 0-0 3FG, 1-3 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 4 +/- A quiet game, through no real fault of his own. The Raptors ignored him in the first quarter, and then put some nice offensive possessions together after a timeout in the 2nd quarter — getting JV some touches down-low. Obviously the Celtics were never going to out-rebound the Raptors with JV on the floor; but Casey rightfully went for the Ibaka / Patterson frontcourt for key stretches in this game. | |
 A | C. Joseph36 MIN, 11 PTS, 1 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL, 5-12 FG, 0-1 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 21 +/- My notes after the first six minutes: Cory Joseph holds the ball too long, makes bad decisions, and turns the ball over. *Delete. Delete. Delete. This was one of CoJo’s best games in recent memory. His defense was fantastic, and in a game without Lowry (he was never going to replace Lowry’s offensive output), he did carve Boston’s defense for some nice buckets and dimes. Also of note — fought through every screen to close down Thomas with every limb in his body.
| |
 A+ | D. DeRozan37 MIN, 43 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 0 STL, 15-28 FG, 1-3 3FG, 12-12 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, 15 +/- Ok, he could have gotten his teammates involved more in the first quarter (he completely ignored Ibaka on a pick-and-pop on the very first possession), and continually had tunnel vision — presumably feeling he needed to compensate for Lowry’s absence. But look, DeRozan was a freak tonight. He made plays over and over again that no one else on this roster can do. The Celtics played him tight and played him good. Jaylen Brown gave him everything defensively — yet he was helpless. DeRozan did what he wanted, and scored at an efficient rate. He struggled against Charlotte, but that had a lot to do with hoq crowded the paint was. Tonight, Ibaka and Patterson completely unplugged the lane for him to go to work. | |
 A | P. Tucker29 MIN, 9 PTS, 10 REB, 1 AST, 3 STL, 2-5 FG, 1-1 3FG, 4-6 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 7 +/- Ok. I really, really, love PJ Tucker. There is so much to like here. He is a bully on defense — a complete fireball. Was huge on multiple defensive sequences, and absolutely huge during the clutch lineup to close this game out. Will Lou and I talked about how he could help with guarding multiple positions on last week’s podcast, but I didn’t imagine he’d help like this — right away, and after having not slept for the past week. Get some very well deserved rest, PJ. Take a nap for the ages. You are going to be a big part of this team’s deep playoff run.
| |
 B+ | P. Patterson17 MIN, 11 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 4-6 FG, 1-3 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -8 +/- He looked comfortable in his role off the bench (duh) — scoring inside early, and hitting a couple big shots in the third quarter run. But Casey rode the PJ Tucker train to close it out, which, like, is completely fine considering PJ Tucker was unbelievable. | |
 B- | N. Powell17 MIN, 3 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-5 FG, 0-1 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 1 +/- He was always going to take a backseat with Tucker’s arrival, and though he didn’t have a great game — he worked tremendously hard and had a key steal in the fourth quarter. | |
 C | D. Wright12 MIN, 2 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-5 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -11 +/- We have to come down from our Delon hangover, slightly. He gave Marcus Smart all he could handle off the bench, but then they put him on Rozier and he struggled. His biggest contribution was shutting down Isiah in the fourth on his last possession before checking out of the game. | |
 C- | L. Nogueira11 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -14 +/- Good interior D. Nice passing in the post. But, he will be sacrificed now. | |
 A- | Dwane Casey This was nearly a disaster. Casey started this game taking in an iso-fest with little security on the defensive end. But things started to really change when Casey went with the Patterson / Ibaka frontcourt in the third, and started running some Pick-and-rolls with DeMar and Serge. Look, it’s not easy heading into a heavyweight clash without Lowry and two new faces to incorporate, but Casey did well to juggle what he had, and it will only get better. | |
Things We Saw
- The Celtics were getting an unapologetic amount of open looks in transition to start this game. It was bad. Defensively, nothing was working. To make matters worse, the Raptors missed their first six (I stopped counting after that) threes.
Once the game started to normalize and Casey figured out what he wanted to do (it took a good 24 minutes to do), the Raptors started to throw some uppercuts. After getting outscored by 10 in the first half, they went on to outscore the Celtics by 20 in the second.
To be sure, DeRozan moving the ball (while also going possessed with his shooting) in the third quarter helped a lot. I’m sure Brad Stevens could have lived with DeRozan single-handedly keeping the Raptors afloat; but not Ibaka / Joseph / Patterson combining for 37 points.
- Let’s chalk up the first half due to familiarity issues. Yes, that’s generous, and doesn’t explain all of the bad defense and bizarre stagnant offense. But, there were some positives to pull out even amid all that chaos — such as Tucker and Joseph’s defense, and Ibaka’s seamless fit.
There is a lot to be excited about here once this team starts to figure it out. The (quality) depth added is really, really something.
