 | BOS Celtics | 102 | Final Box Score | 99 | TOR Raptors |  |
 A | O. Anunoby38 MIN, 20 PTS, 7 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 7-12 FG, 4-6 3FG, 2-3 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 6 +/- Easily the best Raptor of the night and the only Raptor that seems to recognize that you can’t stay stationary and need to cut to make the Celtics help-conscious defense pay a price. Did have two bad fouls on three-point shots in the fourth but man, if there’s one positive in this series, it’s this guy. | ||||||||
 F | P. Siakam43 MIN, 17 PTS, 8 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL, 6-16 FG, 1-4 3FG, 4-4 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -2 +/- Ew. I mean, he was better than Game 1 but his hook shot’s not working and he just doesn’t seem to know where he is relative to the hoop to weigh his shot properly. He can’t punish smaller defenders and smaller defenders are shutting him down. Not a good combo. Stepped on the sideline with the game on the line and looked generally out of sorts. He looks scared shitless at times. On the positive side, a few of his spin moves worked. Oh, and remember when he played point and created offense? Did that to start but it’s mostly a regular season thing. | ||||||||
 C- | M. Gasol21 MIN, 6 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 2-4 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-2 FT, 2 BLK, 3 TO, 7 +/- Should not have started. Looks stuck in mud and as always, hesitant in his shot and killing the speed in our already slow half-court sets. Boston doesn’t have to worry about him at all on defense. Fouled out with three minutes left and not soon enough. | ||||||||
 B- | K. Lowry40 MIN, 16 PTS, 5 REB, 7 AST, 4 STL, 5-16 FG, 0-7 3FG, 6-8 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 9 +/- He’s being guarded by guys bigger than him and it’s taking a toll. Clean looks are nowhere to be found so he’s resigned to either forcing it up in transition or hoping to draw a foul. The officials are silent on his drives. Having said that, he’s the only creator we have on the floor and there’s only so much he can do. | ||||||||
 D | F. VanVleet43 MIN, 19 PTS, 5 REB, 7 AST, 1 STL, 8-22 FG, 3-12 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 3 TO, -3 +/- Soooo slow. It’s hard enough to push against Boston but when he has the ball in his hand our pace is glacial. Know your role in the offense and stick to it. Going up against trees waiting for you is not how you put pressure on the Celtics D. Fell for every fake by Marcus Smart to start the fourth and the Raptors paid the price. Then when the Raptors were trying to make their post-Smart heroics comeback, missed two wide open threes and then got outplayed by Walker. | ||||||||
 A | S. Ibaka27 MIN, 17 PTS, 9 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 7-12 FG, 3-5 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 2 TO, -10 +/- Huge game off the bench. The three-point shooting gave the Raptors an edge and almost looked to have them on their way to expanding the lead as the fourth started. Then Marcus Smart happened. Got switched onto Kemba for the game-icing jumper but not much he can do about that. Rather give up the jumper than the drive there. | ||||||||
 F | N. Powell13 MIN, 4 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-5 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -12 +/- Just not into the game mentally it seems. There was this one play where he could’ve just let the ball go out of bounds but instead tried to save it and pushed it out of bounds. Defensively he’s not able to cover anyone around a screen which begs the question what he’s good for when the drive is sealed. | ||||||||
 C | C. Boucher9 MIN, 0 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-1 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -9 +/- Got called in early and had good energy. Nothing in the way of production though. Can’t rely on your fringe players to deliver in the playoffs. | ||||||||
 D+ | T. Davis6 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 0-2 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -1 +/- The Celtics attacked him every chance they got. Was more liability than threat. Got yanked. | ||||||||
 C+ | Nick Nurse Poor decision to go with Gasol. Possibly even a poorer one to stick with Fred, especially when you have options on the bench. Not having Kyle to start that fourth was also a risky move. Arguably better to manage timeouts and give him a minute or two break in the quarter than at the start when you’ve worked so hard to build that lead. Not gonna blame the coach though, his players didn’t deliver. At least he tried something different with Boucher, just didn’t work. | ||||||||
Things We Saw
- People will talk about the refs and they were bad, don’t get me wrong. The Raptors didn’t even shoot a FT in the first half despite having more points in the paint. But let that not be the story because our star players failed to deliver and theirs did. End of.
- Siakam started off the game playing the point a little where he had some success, but we didn’t see much of that anymore with the Raptors guards managing the ball almost exclusively. Half-court offense was always going to be a problem but the degree to which we’re struggling to score is alarming. The only bright spots are OG and his off-the-ball movement, and the occasional drive Lowry gets. That’s it. The rest is very difficult to watch.
- A theme in this series is the Celtics being able to put their smalls on our bigs very effectively, and their bigs shutting down our smalls. It’s like a nightmare out there which isn’t helped when we shoot 27.5% from three (11-40).
- Not sure where to go from here. I suppose to pick up the three-point shooting we’re going to give Matt Thomas a run. He surely can’t be any worse than Fred VanVleet, but hey, that’s exactly what we had said after going down 0-2 to Milwaukee. Just replace FVV with Jeremy Lin.
