Quick Reaction: Celtics 126, Raptors 114

Started hot, hit his first two threes, and much like he did in his first game of the season, he let the game come to him. Then the second quarter started. When his team needed him most tonight, mainly during Boston’s mega runs during the second and third quarters, Spicy P was nowhere to be found. He contributed across the box score, but if you watched this one, what you saw from Pascal did not equate to a productive game of basketball.

OG has always had the chops to be the best defender on an NBA basketball court. But in order for him to take the next leap, he needs to start figuring out things on offense. There were too many times tonight when he got the ball in a prime scoring position and appeared to have no idea what to do with it. Finishing in transition, hitting open shots and making consistently good decisions with the basketball are three areas that need a lot of work if OG wants to justify his fat new raise.

Kyle had a fairly average game for his standards. He was one of the raps most productive contributors on offence, took a charge (duh), and perhaps most importantly, he picked up his teammates when they were down and mightily dejected. If the Raptors are going to turn this thing around, they’re going to need more of that sort of stuff from their unquestioned leader.

Here on QR, the name of the game is to give out grades. As it stands, I’m highly suspicious that Mr. VanVleet stole the answers to the test. Hit his first 4 triples, was seen ripping through the seams of the Celtic D on numerous occasions, contested shots, and generally outplayed anyone else in a Raptor uniform. FVV was one of the lone bright sparks in what was otherwise a fairly pathetic performance from Toronto on Monday night.

When your best asset as an NBA basketball player is your height, one would expect you to be able to make wide open layups. Tonight was one to forget for the big Aussie, as he consistently botched a series of bunnies, rebounded poorly and didn’t really bring anything positive to the table for his team.

If there was a tangible metric to measure hustle, Boucher would be among the league leaders. The dude’s second, third and even sometimes fourth efforts are incredible. He contests shots most bigs would give up on, gets after it on the offensive glass and just looks like he really cares 100% of the time he’s out there. All of the above was on display tonight. His contributions in the box score are starting to become a nightly occurrence, easily making him the most improved Raptor of the season.

We saw some solid minutes for TD for the first time since game one of the season. He provided some much needed offensive spark for his team, and threw down one emphatic jam that was worth a B all on its own.

Powell plays his most effective basketball when he plays downhill and with a high level of aggression every minute he’s out there. He gave the Raps some great minutes early, but when things started to unravel, so did his offence.

In his first bunch of meaningful NBA minutes, Flynn looked a little deer in headlights-ish out there. After the dust settled, he played great on-ball defence and handled the ball with confidence. Moving forward, I would love to see Nurse play Flynn in more lineups where he gets minutes as the primary ball handler.

Taking advantage of the consistent uptick in his minutes, Johnston played with energy that warrants a conversation for his presence in the lineup to continue. He got his hands in passing lanes early, and did a solid job of putting himself in position to space the floor, but couldn’t knock down his shots.

He was better than Baynes, but that’s not really saying much.

If Watanabe’s teammates continue to underperform in their minutes, he could be an interesting look for the Raps off the bench moving forward. He’s a tenacious rebounder who’s quick on his feet for his size. If he can hit the occasional three I think he brings some value to the table.

Didn’t get enough run for any real feedback tonight.

This was one of those nights where you could’ve revived Red Auerbach from the dead and let him run the show and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Nurse experimented with some new rotations throughout this one, and with how his team has played to start the season, who can blame him? There were definitely some teachable moments for the Raptors coaching staff tonight, but Nick Nurse is just one piece of the puzzle.