TORONTO – OG Anunoby’s miraculous game-winning buzzer-beater that got them back into their second-round series has the Toronto Raptors rightfully feeling pretty good about themselves.
“Needed that. Needed a good win and I think we haven't been feeling good, really good lately and that's a big one,” said Pascal Siakam after Thursday game. “That's a big one. A big win and obviously we just worry about one game and that's always how we worry about the games. One game at a time. Try to win the next game and that's our focus. Next game. It's really good that we got this one and we've just got to move forward.”
Their opponent, the Boston Celtics, on the other hand, were feeling less content.
“It’s a [expletive] disgrace,” said Celtics forward Jaylen Brown after Game 3. “Terrible. No excuse for it. At all. It was ridiculous. Can’t take your foot off the gas at all. We gotta be ready to play Game 4.”
And after a night to mull it over, the Celtics are still pretty upset about that final, near-impossible play from the Raptors that now sees Toronto only staring at a 2-1 series deficit instead of the 3-0 black hole.
“We have a really competitive group, we have a really intrinsically motivated group,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens on Friday. “At the end of the day, basketball, as long as there's time on the clock anything can happen. We were on the unfortunate end of a tough loss last night. So, you know, you lick your wounds, you’re feeling whatever emotions you're feeling and then you move on and you try your best to do what you can to control what you can, to be the best you can.
“And for some people, putting a chip on the shoulder is the way to go about it. For others, it's just being able to focus a little bit more on the task at hand and in that moment, everybody's a little bit different in that. But at the end of the day, I love this group; I love their competitive spirit.”
Yes, despite the emotional, nature of Toronto’s victory, it was still just their first in the series with plenty more to play for now moving forward.
As such, the relative importance of Anunoby’s shot in the grand scheme of the series has yet to be determined.
“I think last night the season was on the line. So that’s the biggest thing, we had to get in the series because we weren’t in it really until we got a W in any fashion,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse Friday when asked if a historic win like the one Anunoby provided can help them move forward. “But I think, to your question, they seem to always be more historical, right?
“I think ‘The Shot,’ like last year, you’re talking about ‘The Shot’ becomes a super-historical moment because of what happened in the end, we ended up winning the championship, right? And you look back to that moment as, well, if we would have gotten knocked out in the next round it wouldn’t have been. ‘The Shot’ probably would have been less iconic, right?
“So I think you’ve got to let some time pass and some history pass to see how iconic [Anunoby’s shot] becomes.”
This sort of felt like Nurse dampening some of the excitement and fun around Anunoby’s play, but his view of the situation isn’t wrong because, as Anunoby himself said of the shot when speaking to reporters afterwards, “It was cool. Just getting ready for Game 4 now.”
And that’s exactly where the Raptors’ mindset has to be now.
After all, the Celtics will surely come out in Saturday’s Game 4 with renewed energy and maybe even a little bit of that lingering anger they felt in the aftermath of Anunoby’s miracle.
“I think they’ve been playing great. I would imagine they’ll continue to play great,” said Nurse of what the Celtics will be like come Saturday. “I would imagine they’re going to play a little harder, not that they’re not, but sometimes when you’re pissed you get a little more aggressive in some things, that would be a natural response to that type of game.”
Added Boston’s Marcus Smart: “I mean it’s not really anger, you know? But it is just – it’s extra fuel. Because we know we had that game. We know we could also have been a lot better. And this is our first loss in the bubble in the playoffs, so, you know, when you lose, that puts a little bad taste in your mouth and you want to get back there and redeem yourself. So tomorrow for us should be a fun game.”
Like the Raptors ahead of Game 3, the Celtics will be entering Game 4 believing they were robbed in their previous contest, making for some good extra motivation. The Raptors know this and will have to be prepared for it.
“It’s a long game and you can’t run across the ring in the first round and try to deliver a one-punch knockout, that just isn’t the way it works,” said Nurse. “It’s 48 minutes and you can play on emotions some at the start, you can set a tone, which you’re always talking about doing, but it really comes down to being able to play with composure, intensity and composure, over the 48.”
