Chris Boucher returned to Ontario to face his former team as Boston traveled to the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto Friday night for game 2 of the NBA preseason. The new style run-and-gun Celtics dominated
most of the night, but the scrappy third stringers of the Toronto Raptors hung around late and stole the game from Boston, they win thier second game in preseason, 107-105.
After resting three players in their previous game in Memphis, the Celtics continued this trend against the Raptors by resting Brown, White, and Hauser. Jordan Walsh was also out with a minor hip injury. Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics coaching staff handed Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons, Josh Minott, Chris Boucher, and Neemias Queta starting duties.
Grady Dick opened the scoring for Toronto with a triple before Boucher struck back against his old team, hitting a tough turnaround jumper over Murray-Boyles. Boston struggled shooting the ball early, hitting on just 3 of 12 from the field and a woeful 0-6 from downtown. A Minott dribble drive got the Celtics back level with the Raps, as the score was tied at 9-9 at the first timeout of the contest.
Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez, and Baylor Scheierman were the first players off the bench for Boston, as Pritchard finally hit on Boston’s first triple at the midway mark of the first quarter. Gonzalez missed on consecutive defensive rebounding assignments and was immediately pulled from the court by Mazzulla.
Pritchard found the bottom of the net on a running drive, followed by Minott and PP hitting back-to-back three-pointers to give Boston an early lead, 20-18. The Raptors dominated the offensive glass in the first quarter, which led to several early substitutions, as Mazzulla tried to send a message to his team. Pritchard was a bright spot for Boston, as he had 10 first quarter points, including a sweet dime to his former college teammate Boucher, who cut baseline for an uncontested dunk.
Mazzulla finally settled on a lineup of Scheierman, Pritchard, Tillman, Boucher, and Minott to close the quarter, and they extended the lead to 8 points after one, 27-19.
Anfernee Simons struggled early with his shot and the pace of the game, as he had 3 fouls, 1 turnover, and went 0-2 from the field. He came back into the lineup to start the second quarter in place of Pritchard and finally hit his first shot in green with a dribble handoffand outstretched layup.
Boucher showed his length on a gorgeous tip-in, his ninth point of the night. Gonzalez scored his first points of the night hustling to put back a Minott miss. Toronto went on a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter as they got back into the game. Neemias Queta got pulled out by Mazzulla again, as the Portuguese center only played 6 minutes of action before getting pulled out of the game for a second time.
The Luka Garza and Xavier Tillman tandem proved fruitful for Boston late in the first half as Boston held a 46-39 lead with 3 minutes to go. Chris Boucher hit back-to-back three-pointers in a one-minute stretch, going for 17 points in the first half.
Joe Mazzulla drew up an awesome sideline play, with Scheierman lofting a deft QB pass over the top of Grady Dick to Josh Minott, who skied for the two-handed alley-oop dunk, extending Boston’s lead to 14 points. Pritchard led Boston with 18 points as the Celtics cruised into the half up big, 63-42.
Pritchard rattled in jumper at the elbow to start the third quarter, as Boston was on a 24-3 scoring run. Minott swatted away a Jac’Kobe Walter dunk attempt resulting in a wide open Queta layup, Boston up, 74-51 early in the third.
Toronto was without it’s starters Barnes, Barrett, Poeltl, Ingram and Quickly for their third preseason game, and it’s second stringers just couldn’t match Boston’s intensity. Grady Dick providing the lone bright spot for Raptor fans after three quarters.
The Celtics got consistent effort and good performances across the board as five Boston players registered double figures in scoring during the third. Simons poured in 10 points alone as Boston kept a lead of 10 points at the end of the third. Boston up 87-77 to end the third as Toronto’s third stringers managed to keep it within striking distance.
Boston saw it’s lead whittled down to 7 points at the start of the fourth, before Mazzulla went back to Luka Garza and Tillman to try and steady things. Queta had a shocking game overall registering his 5th turnover and 3rd foul in 16 minutes of play. Rookie Hugo Gonzalez also didn’t have the greatest of games as he went to the bench early and made way for Kendall Brown. Boston had Scheierman, Brown, Amari Williams, Harper Jr., and Bridges in the game looking to secure the win on the road.
Harper Jr. hit a step back three-pointer and Kendall Brown cut through the lane for his first score of the night, Boston up 10, 96-86. Scheierman was directing the team offensively and assisted to Bridges who hit on his first three-pointer of the game. Amari Williams hit 4 consecutive free throw attempts for Boston as the deep bench looked to close out the game on the road.
Boston then recorded 3 awful turnovers with 2 minutes remaining in the game which spurred the Toronto fans to get rowdy, as the Raptors got within 6 points. Undrafted Rookie Chucky Hepburn was all over the place in the forth quarter and hit a three-pointer to cap an 11-0 run. Scheierman fouled out of the game and Max Shulga came into the game in a very high pressure environment.
Boston completely capitulated on the road as the scores were tied up at 105 points with 4 seconds remaining. Mogbo laid up the winning points with 1 second to go, they win the game 107-105. Boston recorded 29 turnovers on the night and now return to TD Garden for a 2-game home stretch and next face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night.
