1. Big 4th Quarter
Through the first three quarters of this game the Celtics looked like they were stuck in mud when it came to their offense. After having some huge first halves in back to back games, Boston only had 80 points going into the fourth quarter, keeping Toronto in the game.
The Celtics would flip the switch in the final frame, outscoring the Raptors 35-24. Boston shot a ridiculous 14-21 (67%) from the field and only 2-4 (50%) from three point range while only turning the ball over once. Toronto shot 10-14
(71%) in the fourth quarter but Boston was able to force 6 turnovers on them, explaining the reason why the Celtics had 7 more shots.
The lineup they ran for most of the fourth quarter with Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta looks to be the closing group of the future going into the playoffs. This looks to be a potent end of game lineup that can space the floor and still defend. Excited to see this when the games really start to count.
2. Neemias Queta is Peaking
When it comes to his play this season, I think Neemias Queta has exceeded all exceptions set for him and is just now starting to play his best basketball of the season right as the Celtics are heading into the playoffs. Queta had a great performance against the Raptors, finishing with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks on 9-10 shooting.
His offense was carrying Boston for long stretches in the first half, dropping 16 points through the first two quarters and being the spark the offense needed when it stalled out. Queta did an incredible job when it came to cutting to the basket whether it was slipping out of screens or just running the running the fast break. His ability to overpower the Raptors weak center depth also helped when it came to grabbing offensive rebounds for put-backs.
The second half saw Queta turn into 2022 Robert Williams with his ability to block shots, with all 3 coming in the second half. His improvement on the defensive end with his timing on blocking shots has been incredible to watch this season and really does remind me a lot of Time Lord. He always had this ability but now that he has had the opportunity to shine, Queta is becoming a more dangerous player to this Celtics offense than anyone would have thought possible.
3. Jayson Tatum is Seeing Everything
For the 9th time in 14 games, Jayson Tatum has finished with a double-double scoring 23 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. I don’t think I have ever seen a player go down with a major injury and come back playing arguably better than they were before but Tatum is starting to reach that point for me. I wanted to highlight his ability to see the floor with his passing because he made some incredible assists that arguable only he could have made possible.
Tatum had 3 assists in the first half but 2 of them highlight his mastery of passing out of the double team. When Toronto tried to pressure him, Tatum used his gravity to pass it to a wide open teammate who was able to finish with an easy basket.
When the fourth quarter came around, Tatum was a driving force as to why Boston was so successful with 4 assists. It is amazing to see the Raptors memorized with what Tatum is going to do with the ball in his hands that they completely disregard their defensive assignments to stop him. This leaves Tatum to just make some incredible passes to wide open teammates like this one to Pritchard.
4. Another Great Jaylen Brown Game
While some people out there were worrying about how Jaylen Brown was going to look when Jayson Tatum returned, it was pretty obvious that those concerns were incredibly overblown. Brown finished with another efficient scoring game against the Raptors with 26 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals on 11-20 shooting. Brown is currently ranked first in the Eastern Conference in 20+ point games this season with 62 and second in the NBA only behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who has 66.
Brown was able to get to the basket with ease in this game starting from the opening tip, making an effort to be aggressive. Ten out of his eleven baskets in this game ended in the painted area which doesn’t even sound real but Toronto just had nobody who could guard him inside, finished off with an emphatic dunk for the exclamation point. His one three pointer that he made looked similar to his shot in the corner against the Pacers in Game 1 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals. Similar to the Bucks game on Friday, Jaylen Brown made this game look easy and put up another MVP level performance.
5. Payton Pritchard 4Q Explosion
Going into the fourth quarter of this game, Payton Pritchard only had 6 points on 3-5 shooting which wasn’t bad but Boston needed a spark to ignite the offense and he did just that. Pritchard had 11 points, 2 assists, and 2 steals on 4-7 shooting in the final quarter of play and was the biggest reason why the Celtics were able to pull away from Toronto in this game.
Pritchard did a great job of being aggressive and looking for his shot, taking advantage of a Raptors team who was really fighting above their weight class and tiring out. He was able to exploit their lack of paint defense by driving to the basket and finishing over Toronto’s big men. On defense he was also factor, grabbing his first steal to continue a 16-4 run the Celtics had dating back to the 2:04 mark of the third quarter and getting his second one to essentially ice the game before the Raptors put in their reserves.
6. Jordan Walsh Big 3Q Minutes
I think an underrated stretch in this game were the 6 third quarter minutes that Jordan Walsh received where his defense made a legitimate impact. He had 4 points and 1 steal on 2-2 shooting in this quarter and it shows that Joe Mazzulla is starting to rely on him as the main energy provider off the bench.
Walsh was able to nab a steal on Brandon Ingram and outrun the Raptors defense for a dunk on his first basket and made a really a really nice reverse layup on his other. It is really interesting to see Mazzulla entrust Walsh with this role since it was interchangeable for most of the season with Hugo Gonzalez and Ron Harper Jr also seeing time. Walsh has been solid since return to the lineup and it is cool to see him run with the opportunity. I am excited to see him inevitably make a big play in a playoff game this year.
7. Nikola Vucevic Return
For the first time since May 6th, Nikola Vucevic returned to the Celtics rotation after suffering a fracted right ring finger. You could tell he was still trying to get back after missing a month of time but he had okay game, finishing with 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist on 2-5 shooting but was a -14 overall in 13 minutes.
I would say the best part about this game was his two man game with Payton Pritchard at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He was able to clear out space when Pritchard was attacking to the basket and it resulted in a basket and an assist in this time frame.
I think we are going to have to be patient with Vucevic’s return. It took him a few games to get going when he was first traded to the Celtics so once the playoffs come around I have faith that he will be able to mesh well together with the rest of the team. If not, Neemias Queta has been playing out of his mind recently so he could always get more minutes or they can see if Luka Garza can provide a spark from the back up center position. Overall though I think Vucevic will be fine and will provided much needed bench scoring in the playoffs.
8. Historic Paint Scoring
If you’ve noticed throughout the takeaways so far, I have highlighted the Celtics ability to get to the paint with relative ease against the Raptors defense. That is because Boston finished with a ridiculous 76 Points in the Paint compared to Toronto’s 58. This was the most points in the paint that the Celtics have scored in a game in the play-by-play era which is an incredible feat.
The Celtics are a team known for their three point shooting, averaging 41.8 threes a game but in this game they were only 8-28 (29%) shooting from beyond the arc. In the painted area, Boston shot 38-57 (67%), just getting whatever they wanted whenever they wanted against Toronto.
9. Defensive Improvements
Over the last two games, although Boston was blowing out their opponents, they also allowed back-to-back games with the other teams making 20+ three point shots. I didn’t file it away as a concern but it was just something that was very strange. All of my possible concerns were put to bed with this game against the Raptors where the Celtics defense held them to only 8-20 (40%) shooting from three and 40-84 (48%) shooting from the field.
The only reason why Toronto stuck around so long in this game was the fact that Boston wasn’t able to hit their threes to match. Although Boston had a little bit of a problem turning the ball over themselves with 15, they responded by forcing Toronto into 15 turnovers as well. The Celtics turned them into 26 points off turnovers and that was most relevant in the fourth quarter when Boston forced the Raptors into 6 turnovers.
10. Possible First Round Matchup
With the regular season quickly coming to an end, this game had some interesting implications for both the Celtics and the Raptors. With the Celtics win to push their record to 53-25, their Magic Number to clinch the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference has been lowered to 2. This means that Boston needs either 2 more wins or the New York Knicks to lose 2 more games to official have home court advantage on their side of the playoff bracket.
The Raptors on the other hand needed to win this game to possibly avoid playing the Celtics as a part of the Play-In Tournament. Toronto is currently the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference but have the same 43-35 record as the Philadelphia 76ers who are at the 6th seed. If Toronto did end up in the Play-In and beat the 8th seed who is currently the Charlotte Hornets, they would face Boston in Round 1 of the Playoffs.
Thinking of a Toronto vs Boston matchup in the first round makes me think it will end similarly to the way this game played out. The Raptors would put up a good fight against the Celtics for the first three quarters of games but run out of gas in the end. At best I think Toronto could end up finishing similar to the Orlando Magic last season against Boston, losing in at most 5 games or get flat out swept.
