Riding a four-game win streak into a mid-Sunday affair with the Toronto Raptors (15-10), the Boston Celtics (15-9) continued building momentum with their fifth straight win, holding off a Raptors comeback attempt that led to four fourth quarter lead changes before Boston pulled away, 121-113.
With a clean bill of health outside of Jayson Tatum, the Celtics ran with a starting five of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta. The Raptors started Immanuel Quickley,
Ja’Kobe Walter, Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl. Toronto was without starting forward RJ Barrett, who has been sidelined since Nov. 23.
Leading Boston in scoring was Jaylen Brown, who scored 30+ for a 13th time this season with 30 on 9-of-19 shooting, while the Raptors were paced by Brandon Ingram’s own 30-piece on 11-of-20 shooting. Derrick White also added 27 points with 3 blocks, knocking down 6 3-pointers.
Nearly two minutes went by with turnovers from both teams before Derrick White hit jumpers inside and beyond the 3-point arc for the game’s first five points. The Celtics took a 10-3 lead into the game’s first break, with Jaylen Brown kicking out to the corner for a Jordan Walsh 3-pointer, and following up a missed Walsh transition layup after Walsh pickpocketed Quickley.
The Celtics shot 54% from the field with 6 made threes in the first quarter, led by a hot start from White, who had 14 points and 3-of-5 shooting from three in the opening period.
After Anfernee Simons beat Scottie Barnes off the dribble for a runner with 14 seconds left, the Celtics took a 34-26 lead into the second quarter. Walsh had three steals in the game’s first four minutes, while Brown added an early 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting.
The Celtics went with a unique smallball lineup early in the second quarter, utilizing Hugo Gonzalez alongside Sam Hauser, Simons, Pritchard and Brown. Gonzalez immediately made an impact, drilling a 3-pointer for his first shot, and driving the baseline into a two-handed dunk for a 55-45 Celtics lead halfway through the quarter.
In the second quarter, Boston got its lead up to as many as 22 points, continuing to fire on all cylinders with 57% shooting in the half while scoring 14 fast break points and forcing Toronto into committing eight turnovers.
They took a 77-59 lead into halftime, with Brown catching fire in the second quarter, scoring 10 of his 17 points, while Hauser drilled three of his six 3-point attempts for 9 points off the bench. Walsh added 9 points in the half, highlighted by an impressive putback dunk.
Boston continued to dominate in the opening minutes of the second half, starting with a quick 4 points and a steal from Queta, along with Brown stepping back for a top-of-the-arc triple in the face of Poeltl while assisting on a Pritchard three for an 87-64 lead nearly four minutes into the third quarter.
The Raptors ramped up their on-ball pressure in response, whittling down the Celtics lead to as low as four behind a combined 25 points from Ingram, Quickley and Ochai Agbaji. The Raptors used a 23-4 run to cut the lead down, though late-quarter threes from White and Simons settled things down and kept Boston in front 97-91 heading into the fourth quarter.
An A.J Lawson three cut the Celtics lead down to just one point 44 seconds into the fourth quarter, and a Jamal Shead steal-and-finish gave them their first lead of the game with just over 10:30 left. The Celtics missed their first seven shots of the quarter, until White hit a late shot-clock three to tie the game as 102-102.
Right after, White found Pritchard for another three, lifting Boston back up to a 105-102 lead for the fourth lead change of the quarter’s first five minutes. White found Pritchard again to push the lead to six with 6:30 remaining, making a cross-court pass in transition to find an open Pritchard for his second 3-pointer of the quarter.
White made another huge play of a timeout, drilling a 32-foot pull-up bomb for a 113-104 lead. He continued to make an impact with another pull-up jumper, this time near the elbow to bring the Celtics lead back up to 10. White had 8 points in the quarter on 3-of-7 shooting.
The Raptors got the deficit down to six in the final minute, but Boston’s defense got the necessary stops, and their shooters converted from the free throw line to hold off Toronto’s comeback.
The Celtics will remain on the road on Thursday, when they take on the Milwaukee Bucks (10-15) at 8 p.m.
