Quick Reaction: Celtics 111, Raptors 101

Star-J Barrett was pretty consistent all night long and the best part about his game was the usual relentless attack in the opponent’s paint. His travel late in the game really halted the Raptors comeback attempt and they had huge momentum up to that point but his turnovers were the only bad part about his game tonight.

Scottie B was super aggressive in the first half and he was more rowdy than usual tonight as he was chirping at the Celtics big time (mostly Tatum.) He also picked up Jayson Tatum a few times giving full-court pressure on inbounds to try to disrupt his game but that’s easier said than done. Most of his damage came from the mid-range which is becoming his bread and butter. Scottie’s defensive pressure was phenomenal tonight and we saw one of his best offensive rebounding games in quite some time as he capitalized on Boston’s lack of bigs.

Back in the starting lineup as Jakob Poeltl was out yet again. The Boston Celtics didn’t elect to go with a traditional big to start the contest and the beginning of the game had a really fun and chaotic pace to it. His switchability and perimeter defence is a huge asset and it comes in handy quite a lot. We didn’t see too much of the rookie in the second half as he was the odd man out in a no-centre game for most of the night.

This was a classic Gradey performance that we’ve gotten used to as of late as Dick has moments of brilliance during the game where you think it’s going to turn his night around but he ends up crashing back to reality rather quickly. His behind-the-back pass during the first quarter where he dived for a ball rolling out of bounds was a nice play though, as that’s something you don’t see every day and to be fair he was good defensively but his main job is to knock down threes, which he struggled to do tonight.

IQ really struggled with his shot-making tonight but his playmaking was good all night long. He’s also not known for his defensive abilities but in the first half, he had two really good defensive possessions where he was so close to coming away with an on-ball steal both times. The second half was pretty much a copy-paste of his first-half performance.

Ochai was solid pretty much all night long. Defensive work was good from Agbaji but unfortunately the most memorable moment from Ochai, tonight was his missed alley-oop finish from a Quickley feed-in transition during the first half. Despite all that, he had a great game and made a huge three midway through the fourth quarter.

Tonight felt like it was the return of early-season Jamal Shead who was an immovable object when guarding opposing guards on the ball. His defence has generally been great but tonight felt different. His shot-making came alive in the fourth quarter with some nice drives to the rim. The playmaking was superb and it felt like he was one of, if not the most energetic Raptors on the court tonight.

Orlando Robinson got relegated back to a bench role after starting the last two games and having a good outing. Perhaps too good for the team tank members including Toronto’s front office as they elected to go with Jonathan Mogbo at the five. He had a good first half but the second half was a forgettable outing filled with some bad turnovers.

Walter who sometimes struggles to find shots, had a night where he found quite a lot of open looks but was unable to capitalize on a few of them, overall his defence was solid and this was a solid game from the first-round pick for sure.

Boucher had good energy even though the stat line was pretty empty for Montreal’s finest. He wasn’t able to convert on any three balls tonight but he made some great off-ball cuts on almost all of his buckets.

Solid rotations from Darko tonight, he had a chance to challenge a call midway through the fourth quarter where a hustling Ochai Agbaji wasn’t able to win a loose ball and by the way the crowd reacted, it could’ve been a winning call.