TORONTO – For a change, no one was ducking it.
Professionals are almost comically devoted to the ‘one-game-at-a-time’ maxim. Leave it to the amateurs to carve one regular-season game out as somehow more important than the other 81, to weave in the storylines, to hunt for the heroes and the villains and the sleights and the hurts.
But in the lead-up to the Toronto Raptors‘ meeting with Boston Celtics at the Air Canada Centre Tuesday night, there was little pretense.
It was a big game.
Was the Celtics’ Kyrie Irving playing after missing three games with a bruised thigh?
“Oh, I’m playing,” he said in a wouldn’t-miss-it-for-the world way.
Was this a big game, the Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas was asked?
“They’re a good team, we’ve got to play hard,” said Valanciunas, which is what he says, by rote, when the Raptors are hosting the Atlanta Hawks or the Sacramento Kings.
But then he veered off course and said what you knew he was thinking.
“We’re building for something so we’ve got to show how we want to play in the post-season…” said the Raptors big man. “It’s a really important matchup. The top teams in the conference, so it’s a good matchup and fun to play games like that. It’s going to be a big battle so we’re ready.”
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And then the ball went up. And they played like it was a hot afternoon in May instead of a cold Tuesday in February.
Or at least one team did.
What the Celtics were doing exactly was unclear, but the Raptors dominated from the opening tip as the 111-91 final would suggest. Their No. 4-rated offensive attack moved the ball easily against the NBA’s top defence, and their own underrated defence – ranked third in the NBA at game time – stifled the mid-pack Celtics offence. Irving finished with 17 points, or seven points below his season average, and fellow all-star Al Horford was essentially shut out, finishing with two points on five shots.
Toronto had 12 players score and five finish in double figures. C.J. Miles was a huge spark off the bench, netting 20 points with five three-pointers as the Raptors shot 17-of-35 from deep on the night.
“You play as hard and with the intensity we did, it kind of sets the tone and gives you a rhythm offensively,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “… They’re one of the best defensive teams in the league (with) their length but our ball movement out-trumped them. We got the ball moving a little bit but, again, it came from our defensive intensity.”
If the Raptors were hoping to see how they would measure up in crunch time against the Celtics they never had the chance. They started the fourth quarter up 83-60 and stretched that lead even further when Miles hit a quick three to start the period and then another in one of his stronger outings of late. The Raptors’ lead was 27 with nine minutes to play.
The loss was the second-largest the Celtics had suffered this season — the only one worse was a 23-point December defeat in Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back. Kyle Lowry (23 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and DeMar DeRozan (15 points, six assists) played just 29 and 25 minutes, respectively, and other than a mini-explosion by Lowry in the third quarter when he knocked down three of his six triples, the Raptors’ all-stars were just part of the picture as opposed to being at the centre of the frame.
The win evened the potentially pivotal season series between the Eastern Conference’s first- and second-place clubs at 1-1 with two more to play and cut Boston’s lead in the conference to one game as Toronto improved to 37-16 while the Celtics fell to 39-16. The Raptors have now won five straight at the Air Canada Centre to improve to an NBA-best 22-4 at home.
What was notable wasn’t just the result, it was the Raptors’ adherence to the plan they have adopted that they believe will pay post-season dividends.
The lasting impression from Toronto 95-94 loss to the Celtics in November was the way it ended – not just with a pair of missed shots by DeRozan, but that the looks were straight out of the ‘give-it-to-DeMar-and-watch’ playbook Toronto is trying to get away from.
From their first touch Tuesday, the Raptors seemed determined to prove they have moved away from that kind of thinking. DeRozan had a lane to the basket early and likely could have chanced driving and drawing a foul – his bread and butter — but he dropped a pass off to Valanciunas, who missed a short jumper, but it was the intent that mattered.
“Just [trying] to be aggressive and set the tone and give my guys easy shots and easy opportunities to attack to the basket,” said DeRozan, who had six assists without a turnover. “Even if I wasn’t shooting, just me getting to the paint and looking for guys and getting shots and that is how we get our rhythm.”
But the game – like so many this season — turned on the play of the Raptors’ second unit.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was effusive in his praise of the Raptors’ bench mob: “First of all their bench has been killing everybody,” he said. “Starters and bench, whoever is on the court against them, they’ve been great.”
With both Lowry and DeRozan on the bench to start the second quarter, the Raptors took over the game. Miles sparked it, making a quick jumper, finding a cutting Pascal Siakam and then knocking down a three all in short order, but there were all kinds of contributions. Fred VanVleet knocked down a three and then Miles got another after a spectacular Siakam block. Then Siakam chipped in with a steal that Delon Wright converted into an alley-oop for Siakam on the other end.
In five minutes, the Raptors’ four-point first-quarter lead was 15 and even as the starters trickled back in, it was Wright doing most of the damage as he finished the half with 11 points on six shots and two assists in 11 minutes. VanVleet had 10 in 14 minutes while Lowry led all scorers with 13 at the break as Toronto led by 21.
The Celtics’ Irving, best-known off the floor for once telling the world that he believed the Earth was flat, spoke a fundamental truth after the game:
“They are the best second-unit in the league and they have confidence in themselves.”
For the night, the Raptors’ bench outscored the Celtics starters 59-40.
Their play was a picture-perfect example of what the Raptors have wanted to do offensively but have occasionally struggled to execute against some of the NBA’s better defensive teams. In the first half, the Raptors snapped the ball around for 13 assists on 22 field goals while shooting 8-of-16 from three and forcing Boston to 39 per cent shooting and seven turnovers. For the game, it was 29 assists on 40 field goals while shooting 50 per cent from the floor compared to Boston’s mark of 39 per cent.
There was a lot to like. But after the game it was an effort to put things in perspective, to put one night in the rear-view as quickly as possible. It is the professional’s way.
“We haven’t done anything,” said Lowry. “We’ve been in situations where we’ve been top four seeds the last whatever years and looked at this and got swept one year, and this and that. We’ve just got to make sure that we understand that the product isn’t finished until you get to the playoffs and you still have work to do then… So we know and understand the journey is far from over. We’ve got to continue to get better. You don’t want to peak now, you want to peak when you need to peak.”
So maybe that’s the best part – the Raptors believe they can still get better.
That will be fun to watch. For now, maybe it was just one game out of 82; one night in a long season. But for the Raptors it was a near-perfect game, and a very good night.
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