Despite having right energy, Raptors unable to beat Celtics' deep roster

BOSTON — Two teams playing on the second night of a back-to-back, each having had to travel overnight, but for one team every remaining regular season game matters, the other home and watered, free to relax until the playoffs start 10 days from now. 

One team at full strength, the other resting everyone they can. 

Which team played harder? Which team played better? 

Boston, a team with its immediate future assured and focussed on making sure their key players are rested and healthy for the post-season? 

Or Toronto, at full strength and with its foot on the gas with three games left? 

You could make a case it was the Raptors who brought the energy. They need every win they can get to improve their chances in the play-in tournament as they started the night with the same record as the Atlanta Hawks but were in ninth place because Atlanta owns the head-to-head tiebreaker. 

The eighth seed is a worthy goal, it means if they can travel to Miami — the very likely seventh seed — and win on the road against the Heat they’ll earn a first-round matchup against the second-seed Boston Celtics. If they lose in Miami they can at least come home and host one more game with a chance to grab the eighth seed and a first-round matchup against No. 1 Milwaukee. 

So no, the Raptors played their butts off. Toronto head coach Nick Nurse leaned heavily on his starters, as you would expect, even with a bench deepened by the return of Gary Trent Jr. after six games missed with various ailments. He went small down the stretch and got a nice effort from Precious Achiuwa. Pascal Siakam delivered a big game with his team in need. 

But the Boston Celtics still managed to squeeze out the 97-93 win to drop Toronto back to .500 at 40-40 and — more significantly — a full game behind the eighth place Atlanta Hawks who throttled the Washington Wizards. It’s looking more and more like Toronto will finish ninth and host the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the play-in tournament. Win that and Toronto will go on the road to play the loser of Atlanta and Miami for the eighth seed. It’s not all decided, but it’s shaping up that way. 

The Raptors odds at finishing a difficult season with some post-season validation just got a little longer.

And you have to conclude that the Raptors are where they deserve to be, because while they were healthy and motivated and played hard, they weren’t good enough to beat a Celtics team playing mainly not to get hurt. 

“I mean I think every loss is frustrating at different levels,” said Fred VanVleet who had just seven points after one of the tougher shooting games of the season as he went 1-of-12 from three and 2-of-14 overall as the Raptors shot 6-of-30 from deep as a group. “You know, we played a pretty good game for the most part and our execution was there. You know, I wouldn't give it an A+ by any stretch, but we fought, we competed, we made plays but yeah, I mean, 6-for-30 from three, you know, it's gonna be hard to win like that.”

VanVleet did play most of the second half with his left thumb wrapped after he sprained it when it got caught in a Celtics jersey, but he wasn’t making excuses. “This one is on me, I don’t know if we’re going to survive me going 2-of-14 and 1-for-12 from three,” he said. “You just got to find ways to be more effective. And, you know, I'll take full responsibility for this one for sure.” 

Toronto made it interesting. A pair of consecutive threes by Achiuwa and VanVleet had tied the score midway through the fourth quarter after Toronto had trailed since midway through the first period. But Malcolm Brogdon hit a big three on the next possession and Toronto was chasing again. Another three by Mike Muscala with three minutes left put Boston up six and the closest the Raptors got was a pair of dunks by Achiuwa — the latter after a steal by O.G. Anunoby with 15.5 seconds left that cut the lead to two. 

Boston made their free throws though, and that was it as they improved to 55-25. 

The problem with a team like the Celtics is that they are one of a very small handful of rosters in the league where three starters — including an MVP candidate — and a solid rotation piece can take the night off and they can still roll out a formidable lineup on the second night of a back-to-back. Even without Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard, Boston had an elite go-to score in Brown, plenty of perimeter shooting and — in Rob Williams and Derrick White — two all-NBA level defenders. And they had options off the bench too, led by Brogdon, a Raptors killer from way back. 

Brogdon finished with 29 to lead Boston, who also got 25 from Jaylen Brown, though he was 12-of-29 from the floor as Toronto held Boston to 42.7 per cent shooting. Siakam led the Raptors with 28 points and added 11 rebounds and four assists. 

Toronto got 16 points and nine rebounds from Achiuwa off the bench but shot 41.1 per cent from the floor and 6-of-33 from deep. The Celtics made 11 threes on 38 attempts. 

Short version: Boston is really good, the Raptors? Pretty meh.

When it comes to depth, the Raptors aren’t nearly as lucky, which is why there has been so much confusion about the status of Jeff Dowtin Jr. On a team that has struggled to establish useful depth this season, why the uncertainty about keeping a player who had gained Nurse’s trust and filled an area of need? He wasn’t available to play against Boston because he’s used all 50 of the games he’s eligible for while on a two-way contract. The Raptors would need to waive someone in order to sign Dowtin Jr. to a deal allowing him to play any remaining regular-season games, play-in games, or playoff games, but there is no indication they’re going to move ahead, which is confusing, given Toronto has a couple of players not in the rotation that could be waived at no consequence. 

There wasn’t any more clarity before the game, though Nurse laid out next steps:

“We’ve got ‘til 5 p.m. (Thursday) to make a decision,” he said. “Now with Will (Barton) and Gary (Trent Jr.) back healthy — I think it kind of made sense for us to play Jeff these last few games with those guys out, and kind of just coming back. (General Manager Bobby Webster) is flying in here shortly and we’ll sit down tomorrow. Before 5 o’clock we’ll make our decision of what we’re gonna do.

“Like always, we’ll make the best decision for our organization, in totality, for sure.”

The Celtics showed the advantage having a roster seemingly two-deep at every position in the first quarter. Toronto jumped out to a 17-11 lead before Boston found their feet and finished the period on a 17-8 run and to lead 31-28 at the end of the first quarter. No beat seemed to be missed, especially when Brogdon was on the floor with the starters, giving Boston another high-end creator, shooter, and defender. He already had 11 points in nine minutes when he ripped a no-look pass to a wide open White alone under the basket midway through the third for his first assist. 

A moment later it was White with a pin-point lob to Williams for a dunk over Chris Boucher before Brogdon pulled up for a three in transition as part of 14-4 run that pushed Boston’s lead to 12 as Toronto went more than four minutes without a single field goal. A putback by Jakob Poeltl and a fastbreak finish by Anunoby after a Celtics miss stopped the bleeding, but not before Boston had a 56-44 lead to start the third quarter. Brogdon led all scorers with 16 points on nine shots in his 15 minutes off the bench. 

“I think they've got a lot of practice at that,” Nurse said of the Celtics' ability to play on even while short-handed. He didn’t say it’s a tell-tale sign of a deep, championship level team, but he didn’t need to.  

“When we had Kawhi sitting out a lot. I think early on people were like, What the heck's going on here? They don’t have Kawhi, they don’t have a chance,” said Nurse, referring to the Raptors' 2018-19 championship team that had a better regular season record when their star, Leonard, sat than when he played. “And all of a sudden we're 20 games into it and we barely even talked about it. Everyone kind of got used to it and adjusted to it … so I think that's kind of where they are.”

Toronto carved into the Celtics' advantage in the third quarter. After going scoreless in the second quarter, Siakam threatened to take over after halftime as he scored 14 points and added two assists in a four-minute stretch beginning in the middle of the period with Toronto trailing by 13. He finished his flurry by finding Scottie Barnes for a wide-open three and suddenly the Raptors were down by only two with two minutes left in the quarter. But Brogdon came back with a deep three and hit a tough runner at the horn while the Raptors didn’t score again and in a blink Boston was up seven again, leading 79-72 to start the fourth. 

The Raptors couldn’t reel Boston all the way in because, it’s clear, the Celtics are both better and deeper. Effort can’t fix everything.