Quick Reaction: Celtics 112, Raptors 96

His jumper remains fire. He’s shooting more triples recently now that they’re falling, and it’s really giving teeth to Toronto’s offensive possessions, even lame-duck ones. (There were a LOT of lame-duck ones.) He really understood his offensive advantages over every defender. Great job getting to his spots, and even mixed in some nice passes with a clean floater early on. His defence wasn’t anything to write home about, especially when he switched onto Boston’s smalls. But he was far from Toronto’s only issue there. And he cleaned that up in the second, playing strong weak-corner defence to break up a pass that should have been an easy bucket.

A desperately poor performance. Some imperfect choices, and he missed his looks, too. When he checked in midway through the second quarter, I liked his intent much better. He was more engaged on defence, cracked back to the glass more readily, and gave up the ball earlier. He won a rebound in transition that he had to fight for. Blocked a Pritchard triple from behind. So, you know, he was better at the small stuff. But the big stuff still wasn’t there. He didn’t create much of anything for himself or others, which ultimately is a huge problem from a team’s starting point guard.

His passing was exquisite for long stretches, but the scoring really wasn’t at any point. I liked his defensive work on Payton Pritchard in a switch, letting his length do the work for him, not falling for fakes, and closing the gap instantly when Pritchard picked up his dribble. But offensively early, he couldn’t lift his bench group, missing his jumpers and finishes, and trying to get too cute with his interior passing.

Just a fantastic scoring game. He showed the value of a spacing big. Got open early as Toronto’s forwards worked inside. Hit a huge number of shots. But he just can’t eat glass on his own, and Boston’s bigs fought for tons of offensive rebounds with Mamukelashvili in the game. The defence was not very good with him anchoring it.

He didn’t put much in the box score, and his jumper was wayward, but he got off the ball fast as lightning, which meant he didn’t hurt the offence with his presence. It really helps when you make quick decisions, as long as they don’t lead to turnovers. He won some fights on the glass. And his defence on White was quite solid. Still. Hitting his triples would have helped!

The 3-point shot wasn’t there, and that outweighs everything else. How many times have you heard this? He’s gotta shoot. Still, he didn’t offer nothing. A fearless drive and reverse and-1 in the third quarter. Great work fighting on the glass early on, stealing an offensive rebound he had no business getting to. Hit a short jumper after a stampede cut. Defensively, he was poor.

Wasn’t finding ways to lead the offence in the first quarter. Missed his shots and even got stripped open court by a big. He misthrew a fairly easy transition look to Mamukelashvili, ahead of everyone, in the second quarter. Hit a triple after Boston doubled the post in the second, then another right away on a handoff with Barnes. But ultimately, his units didn’t win minutes, and he was a big part of that.

His jumpers were off early, even though they weren’t particularly contested, and Toronto fell behind. Hit a few in the middle quarters, each of which Toronto desperately needed, and Toronto pulled into the lead. A coincidence? Well, yeah, kind of. His defence wasn’t what it usually is, and he gave nothing inside the arc. Didn’t help on the glass whatsoever, and he fouled.

I had a whole thing typed out about my frustrations in his minutes living and dying by the results of his first few jumpers, but then he got another stint after missing in his first, and he responded with a make. Not enough minutes to make much of a determination, but with Toronto’s offence so stilted (especially without Ingram), I really would have liked to have seen more Battle.

A strong game despite his plus-minus numbers, which weren’t his fault. Offensive rebounding. He finished well throughout the game, and threw the right pass to a cutting Agbaji from the nail when given a high-post touch. Hit an open above-the-break triple that Ingram created with his off-screen gravity. His defence was quite solid, even though some Celtics made some tough shots in his face, and he did have some mistakes. But that doesn’t detract from what was a great game.

Garbage time.

Toronto just hasn’t been consistent in terms of effort and execution since RJ Barrett got hurt. Sure, the skill level is obviously down, and the team is missing a number of his skills, especially his driving. The team is also missing Jakob Poeltl. But that doesn’t excuse getting killed on the glass by a team also missing key contributors. It doesn’t excuse Toronto’s offensive lethargy. Yes, it’s the players on the floor. But Toronto found answers for much of the game and then went away from them.