Saturday night’s 100-93 Game 4 loss against Toronto marked the first time this postseason in which the Boston Celtics were primarily outplayed by their opponent. It obviously wasn’t the result that the C’s were hoping for, but it may have been the type of gut punch that they needed in order to get them to dig deeper against the Raptors after allowing them to come back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the series at two games apiece.
Kemba Walker, for one, is feeling ravenous after the seven-point defeat, during which he had his most challenging game of the Playoffs scoring-wise. The All-Star point guard tallied a postseason-low 15 points, while shooting 4-of-9 from the field during 41 minutes of action, marking the first time in 84 career outings that he failed to attempt 10 field goal attempts while playing at least 40 minutes.
Walker called it an “unacceptable” effort after the game and then vowed to come out with a more tenacious collective approach in Game 5 Monday night.
“We’ve just got to clean it up,” Walker said. “We’ve got to find a way, man. We’ve got to be better. I have to be better. I have to find a way to get my teammates at a higher intensity, and I will. I’m going to try my best to bring the best out of these guys.”
One of the main reasons why the Raptors were able to contain Walker so well was the variety of ways in which they defended him in the high pick-and-roll, whether they were trapping him, hedging and recovering, or dropping back.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Sunday afternoon that the Raptors “needed all” of those defensive schemes in order to slow down the man who lit them up for 29 points during Game 3.
“Man, he’s awful good,” Nurse said. “He’s got that combination of jet speed if he goes to the rim and that fast 3-point line pull-up (in transition). It’s certainly a challenge and we are just trying to give him different matchups and different coverages and different looks to try to take care of it. I think he’s still got his share of great plays out of them, so we’re going to just continue to work and challenge the best we can.”
Now that Walker and his teammates have seen many of those schemes, it’s their turn to adjust. Though, that won’t be easy against the top-ranked defense in the league.
“Nobody ever said it was going to be easy,” Walker said. “We know how the Playoffs are, and these are the defending champs. These guys have been through it. They’ve been through the fight before. They’ve been down before. They know what it takes. But I can’t stress enough how much we just have to be better.”
The Celtics also know what it takes: long-lasting intensity. They have to be able to match Toronto’s physicality for 48 minutes, and they can’t let up one bit.
“These guys are extremely tough,” Brad Stevens said of the Raptors Sunday afternoon. “They’re extremely physical. They came at us full head of steam (in Game 4). I thought that we had moments of excellent play and moments where they were quicker to things, but I still believe greatly in our competitiveness and I think our guys are looking forward to playing tomorrow.”
Walker, for one, is chomping at the bit to get back out on the court. It’s a brand-new, best-of-three series, and he wants to throw the next punch.
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