Raptors' inspired defensive effort can't overcome ice-cold shooting

TORONTO — The Boston Celtics are a lot of things and might be NBA champions when the 2023-24 NBA season is all said and done. They have many strengths but no glaring flaws. 

They can beat you from deep, with seven of their rotation regulars shooting 37 per cent from three or better. They can punish mismatches in the post with Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. And in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have two slashing wings that can get their own bucket when needed.

There’s a reason Boston arrived in Toronto as the only team in the NBA already with 30 wins. But the reason they are most people’s favourite to win their first championship since 2008 is that they can defend almost anything you throw at them. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White are all-NBA-level defenders and Brown (who was a late scratch Monday with knee soreness), Tatum, Horford and Porzingis all bring something to the table.

The Celtics arrived in Toronto with the NBA’s fourth-best defence, third-best offence, best record and No. 1 net rating. 

In response, the Raptors delivered one of their most inspired defensive performances in weeks, but it still ended up a 105-96 defeat to the visiting Celtics, who downed the Raptors for the fourth time this season to sweep the season series. 

The only way the two Atlantic Division rivals would play again this year is if Boston finished first in the East and the Raptors win the play-in tournament. Given Toronto lost its fourth straight and fell to 15-25 on the year and Boston improved to 31-9, one thing seems more certain than the other.

For once the Raptors' defence wasn’t the issue. The Celtics started well but shot just 36 per cent in the second and third quarter combined and then were held to 6-of-18 shooting in the fourth quarter. 

Unfortunately the Raptors' offence — top-four rated in the seven games since the OG Anunoby trade and on fire from deep — went into a deep freeze inspired by the sudden arrival of January-esque weather outside Scotiabank Arena. The Raptors shot just 40 per cent from the floor themselves and, most critically, just 4-of-32 from deep.

The Celtics? They connected on 16 of their 39 three-point attempts and that was, really, the difference.

“You guys [media] bring up that we don't play defence, we start playing defence, our offence is great, then our offence is struggling,” said Rajakovic after the game. “I mean, we shot 4-of-32 from the three-point line tonight. I thought that it looked like we were getting good looks. The ball did not go in. Even inside the paint, around the rim, first and second quarter, I thought we were getting to the right spots. We did not make those.”

It was a corner three by White who was wide-open after the Raptors trapped Tatum at the top of the key that was the game-turning shot as it put Boston up seven with 80 seconds to play. The Raptors pulled to within six after trailing by double figures most of the fourth quarter but missed two triples and a lay-up down the stretch. 

RJ Barrett led Toronto with 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting while fellow former Knick Immanuel Quickley added 21 on 8-of-20 shooting. All five Celtics starters were in double figures led by White and Holiday with 22 each.

“We stuck to the game plan. They're a very good team,” said Barrett. “They're going to make some shots. I think we played hard, played together, there were some tough stretches for us, end of the third, beginning of the fourth, but we were able to fight, rally and come back.”

Defence is something the Raptors seem destined to struggle with as they jockey for position in the play-in tournament.

Since the Raptors traded away their best defender in Anunoby — and arguably, in Precious Achiuwa, their second-best defender — their defence has been terrible, Monday night excepted.

It’s harsh to say but numbers support the assessment. Through seven games with their new lineup, the Raptors are 28th in defensive rating, allowing 124.7 points per 100 possessions. In a league that features the Charlotte Hornets (eight wins), Washington Wizards (seven wins), San Antonio Spurs (seven wins) and Portland Trail Blazers (10 wins), sitting that low in any statistical category is hard to do. 

Did we mention that the Knicks have the best defence in the league with Anunoby in the starting lineup? 

Fortunately, the Detroit Pistons (five wins) are still a thing and the slowly imploding Golden State Warriors are having an existential crisis, otherwise, the Raptors would be dead last in the month of January. 

The Raptors are just having a crisis — defensively at least — abetted by the absence of defensive-minded centre Jakob Poeltl, who missed his fourth straight game with an ankle sprain that is likely to keep him out a couple of more weeks at least. Toronto got significantly smaller in exchanging Anunoby and Achiuwa for Barrett and Quickley. And with Poeltl out, they get smaller still.

The Raptors are 26th in defensive rebound percentage since Poeltl sprained his ankle, they were 15th in 26 games prior.

The hope would be that their effort Monday against a big Boston team that looks to crash the offensive boards at every opportunity could provide a blueprint. The Raptors held Boston to just five offensive rebounds and their guards and wings — Barrett (nine defensive rebounds), Dennis Schroder (seven) and Quickley (six) — were major contributors to the cause.

“The coaching staff was preaching that to us as far as the rebounding part,” said Quickley. “And the Celtics obviously crash everybody. So we wanted to rebound and run because that's when you crash everybody, that's where you're vulnerable is a fast break. So we tried to do a little bit of that today for sure.”

Still, the Raptors' defensive ambitions might be hard to achieve because with Anunoby and Achiuwa gone, Scottie Barnes has become the Raptors' go-to choice to defend the No. 1 on-ball threat. He did good work against Boston and was the primary defender against Tatum, helping hold the Celtics star to just 19 points, well below his season average. But even if Barnes is well-equipped for the job having him in that role means he’s not available to do what he does best: Roam freely and make plays as a help defender, while also chipping in on the defensive glass. Barnes is averaging just 3.9 rebounds a game since the trade, compared with 11.4 rebounds a game in the seven games prior and 9.4 rebounds for the season before the trade. He had 13 rebounds to lead the Raptors Monday, but offensively only managed 10 points and two assists, half his season averages.

“I thought that he played with a lot of energy on defence tonight,” said Rajakovic. “And I'm not sure if that took away from some aggressiveness on offence end. He turned it on during the fourth quarter. He was getting to the rim. He was scoring. He just needs to find a way how to be both, how to be good and elite defensively and how to at the same time to affect offence.”

The Raptors did a reasonable job defensively in the first half. The Celtics came out of the gate shooting well — they connected on 58 per cent of their shots in the first quarter including 5-of-9 from three — while they showed the Raptors why they can be such a problem defensively.

Boston had three blocked shots and a steal against the Raptors before the game was two minutes old. Toronto players would drive into a crowd and get swarmed by long-armed Celtics defenders before they could get a shot up. It wasn’t much better when they did get one off as they were 5-of-15 midway through the opening quarter. But Toronto stayed in it by forcing Boston into five first-quarter turnovers and earning a 3-0 edge on the offensive glass. Boston led just 29-25 even though the Raptors were shooting only 11-of-29 from the floor.

Boston looked like it was going to pull away in the second quarter as the seven-foot-three Porzingis gave the Raptors problems and they tried to solve them by fouling him. When Holiday snuck for an offensive rebound and putback Boston was up 11, but a Pascal Siakam post-up and bucket with 36 seconds left and a three in transition by Quickley 10 seconds later cut Boston’s lead to 61-55 heading into halftime.

The Raptors' most inspired basketball of the night followed when Barrett, Siakam and Barnes took turns slicing through the Celtics' defence as Toronto started the second half on a 16-3 run with veteran Thad Young, playing as an under-sized centre, dishing out four assists to his cutting or posting teammates during the four minutes spurt. The Raptors led by seven.

But the Raptors' aggressiveness seemed to wake Boston up, Tatum, their MVP candidate, in particular. He didn’t command the offence long — most of the time he was content to pass out of doubles and set up his teammates — but for a stretch he showed how he can control a game.

Tatum got himself rolling when he blew past Siakam for a dunk and then got another one when Holiday found him on a smart cut. The Raptors' lack of a true 'stopper' was beginning to show itself. Tatum next blew past Barnes for a dunk and then twisted the combination of Chris Boucher and Jalen McDaniels into knots with some ball-handling mastery at the top of the circle before he blew past them — yes, a theme was emerging — and found Celtics back-up centre Luke Kornet for a dunk. An 18-2 run to finish the third quarter put Boston back in control and leading 84-75 to start the final frame.

The Raptors scrapped and clawed and fought their way back in the fourth quarter but their defensive effort couldn’t overcome their icy-cold touch.