Gameday: Celtics @ Raptors, October 10

Game three of the 2025-26 NBA preseason for the Toronto Raptors will be against the Boston Celtics. The preseason has given Toronto a chance to show what their new additions can do, and the previous game against the Sacramento Kings was the ideal performance. Brandon Ingram’s scoring looked refined and fluid, there was no hesitancy behind the arc, and he broke down defenders like it was nothing.

To some degree it was expected that Ingram would provide a boost to this offense, but Collin Murray-Boyles making an immediate impact is something that wasn’t a guarantee.

Murray-Boyles had a great showing against the Kings, using his size and strength and length to blow up their actions, and protect the rim. Offensively he also showed how strong his decision making can potentially be with the 6 assists that he recorded, which were all to open shooters behind the arc.

Tonight against Boston, Murray-Boyles will have another chance to show what he can do as a defender. While Boston does not have their star Jayson Tatum, they do still have some talented players in which he can test his mettle against.

Boston overall this season is an extremely different team than they were last year. They traded away multiple pieces of their 2024 championship team in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, so this leaves them with some holes on both sides of the ball. Jaylen Brown is still a fearsome scorer, and containing him should be the priority tonight. Brown can attack you off the dribble and he is a fairly strong driver, who can also create separation to free himself up for mid-range looks. He is not a speedster by any means so pressing him will likely work better than it did against the Kings backcourt, but his strength is something that makes defending him more of a challenge.

Derrick White is also still there and he will be a worthwhile test for the Raptors point-of-attack defense. This will be the first time former Raptor Chris Boucher sees his former team as a member of the Celtics as well. Boston still likes to shoot an exorbitant amount of three pointers, as they shot 53 of them against Memphis. With a team that is aiming to shoot the three ball this much, it is imperative that defenders stick with shooters, meaning don’t lose them after an offensive rebound, stick with them in transition, and switch screening actions when necessary to try and stop some of their actions they run for shooters.

This is still a preseason game so we won’t likely won’t see everything Boston has to offer, but the goal for these games is to just see what could potentially translate to full game reps, and thus far this preseason, Toronto has given us a lot to look forward to.