Key Moment
The second half of Friday night’s matchup in Toronto wasn’t one of the prettier shot-making stretches for the Celtics this season, but they found the nylon when it mattered most.
Trailing late in the fourth quarter, Boston made three consecutive shots to take the lead from the Raptors, before eventually walking out of Scotiabank Arena with a 108-105 win and bumping their In-Season Tournament record to 2-0.
The first bucket came at the 1:30 mark when Kristaps Porzingis hit a turnaround jumper from six feet out to tie the game at 101 apiece.
KP’s counterpart, Jakob Poeltl, retook the lead for the Raptors with a tip-in, but Porzingis tied it right back up with another six-foot turnaround shot, nearly identical to his first one.
Dennis Schroder tried to reclaim the lead again from his former team on Toronto’s next trip up the floor, but his driving floater clanked off the back rim and into Jayson Tatum’s hands.
Tatum handed the ball off to Jrue Holiday, who dribbled upcourt, drove to the basket, and kicked the ball out to the left corner where a wide-open Derrick White was standing. White rose up, and swished the shot, putting the C’s up by three with 27.5 seconds remaining.
Scottie Barnes missed a potential game-tying triple 16 seconds later, Tatum grabbed the rebound again, and the C’s sealed the game with a pair of Holiday free throws.
Key Player
After missing Wednesday night’s game in Philadelphia due to an illness, Jaylen Brown returned to action in Toronto and didn’t skip a beat. A healthy JB poured in a game-high-tying 23 points on a super-efficient 9-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-5 from long distance.
Brown also grabbed three rebounds and dished out four assists, and he posted the best plus/minus among Celtics starters with a plus-4.
Although he was healthy to start the game, he did appear to tweak his groin slipping on the court toward the end of the fourth quarter. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and we see him back on the court Sunday night in Memphis.
Box Score Nuggets
- Three players tied for the game lead in scoring – Jaylen Brown, Dennis Schroder, and Pascal Siakam each logged 23 points.
- Seven Celtics played 20-plus minutes and each of them scored in double-digits.
- Kristaps Porzingis recorded season-highs of 12 rebounds and five assists to go along with 14 points and three blocks.
- Porzingis had two more blocks than Toronto had in total.
- Al Horford made three 3-pointers, giving him seven makes in the last two games.
- Siakam logged a game-best plus-17 despite the loss.
- Payton Pritchard led Boston in plus/minus at plus-11 off the bench.
- Both teams dished out 29 assists on 42 field-goal makes.
- The Celtics are now 2-0 in the In-Season Tournament with a plus-17 scoring differential.
Quote of the Night
“I loved our character in today's game."
– Kristaps Porzingis on the Celtics' grit down the stretch.