Game Thread: Toronto Raptors at Boston Celtics preseason

Still shorthanded, Toronto looks to get back in the preseason win column in Boston.

The last time the Toronto Raptors played the Boston Celtics, the Raptors played eight players. Seven of them are no longer on the team, and the last, Chris Boucher, is currently injured.

This became apparent to me when selecting the picture to accompany this game thread; we usually like to pick a photo from the last time the teams met, featuring players who will play in the upcoming game. That’s literally not possible in this case! (For their part, the Celtics played 10 players in that game, and only five of them remain on the roster.)

As Joseph Strauss mentioned in his preview this morning, things have a changed a lot, for both of these teams. The Celtics and Raptors have had a lot of fun matchups over the past five years or so, from Game 6 to the double block to Kyrie’s 43 points.

With all the different faces, along with it being the preseason, I don’t think we’ll see anything quite like that tonight. Instead, hopefully we’ll see better discipline from the Raptors on both ends of the court than what they showed on Thursday, when they gave up 125 points to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Let’s watch and find out!

Where to Watch:

TSN2, 7:00 PM EST

Lineups:

Toronto – Fred VanVleet, Goran Dragic, OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes, Precious Achiuwa

Boston – Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, Romeo Langford, Robert Williams

Injuries:

Toronto – Pascal Siakam (shoulder — out), Khem Birch (health and safety protocols — out), Chris Boucher (finger — out), Yuta Watanabe (calf — out)

Boston – Jaylen Brown (Health and safety protocols — out), Dennis Schroder (knee —out)