Raptors takeaways: Complete effort against Celtics ends in heartbreak

Is it better to have loved and lost, or to have never loved at all?

Countless times this season, the Toronto Raptors won sequences, stretches, quarters and halves. They've won battles, but they can't seem to win the war, unable to keep it together for the full 48 minutes.

Saturday night's 126-123 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics felt different. The Raptors held even or won the 48 (53 if you count overtime). It was their most complete effort of the season, taking it to the defending champs, turning in a doubter-silencing defensive performance and making the Celtics sweat. Toronto looked like a different team, but the result remained the same — this time losing a heartbreaker courtesy of an MVP-worthy buzzer-beating three from Jayson Tatum.

The battle in Boston was more than promising for a Raptors team in the midst of a rebuild as they won stretches against the defending champions and made them adjust to their own style of play. The Raptors didn't look like a team stuck at 2-12 in the middle of a seven-game losing streak. They didn't look like the league's fourth-worst defence with a 117.6 defensive rating. They didn't look like the 25th-best three-point shooting team, hitting only 32.7 per cent of their looks. They looked like a team hungry for so much more.

The Raptors came into Saturday's outing on the heels of their two best defensive performances of the season, holding both the Bucks and Pistons to under 100 points — the only two times they've done so all year. Despite the score, the effort they turned in against Boston was better than both.

Toronto, which gives up the third-lowest opposing three-point percentage in the league (33.6 per cent), used that to its advantage against a Celtics team that lives and dies from the perimeter. While Tatum was pressed by Ochai Agbaji most of the night, forcing the wing to defer, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White weren't allowed to get going from deep under the watchful eyes of Jamal Shead, Davion Mitchell and RJ Barrett.

They held the Celtics to 44.4 per cent from the field and 34.4 per cent from three-point range, beat them 21-8 in fast break points and held leads for good chunks of the night. They out-rebounded, out-assisted, and at times, simply outplayed the Celtics. They had career nights from two of their stars and steady nights from their role players. But that doesn't always equal a win.

Here are some takeaways from a hard-fought loss to a Celtics team that, against all odds, didn't look worlds away.

Gradey at the top of the scouting report

It's been a tough back-to-back set for the sophomore sparkplug. Following a game against the Pistons on Friday that saw him shoot 4-17 from the field and 1-10 from deep, Dick followed it up with another quiet showing, going 3-12 from the field and 1-5 from three-point land.

But putting the loss on his shoulders would be a mistake. Dick isn't seeing ghosts out there, isn't playing scared and doesn't look as though the increased role is too big for him. Instead, it's become apparent that opposing teams have put his name at the top of the scouting report.

Boston went after Dick all night, particularly on the defensive end, making sure to tire him out. When Brown or Tatum would get the switch onto him, they'd play him physically, backing him down and using their bigger and stronger frames to bully him.

Then, when smaller guys like Derrick White, Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser got him as their primary defender, they'd have him running all over the court, sprinting from end to end, over, under and through screens. It was like watching a marathon runner go through a Tough Mudder obstacle course.

The Celtics' focus on the sophomore didn't stop there. When playing Boston, there's no such thing as an easy shot. Dick learned that firsthand, as the defence it deployed was centred around stopping him. White was on him like ... white on rice ... pressing the always-moving Raptors wing. If he got the switch onto Pritchard or Hauser, whoever got the assignment chose to turn their back to the ball entirely, keeping their eyes locked on Dick the whole way through.

If you only look at the boxscore, you'll see a Raptors player in a slump, falling back down to earth after a skyscraping start to the season. In reality, Gradey Dick has elevated himself from an afterthought to a player circled on the scouting report.

Barrett's playmaking takes another leap

In light of all the injuries the Raptors have dealt with this season, RJ Barrett's growth as a playmaker and creator has softened the blow.

The sixth-year wing took another step on Saturday, dishing out a career-high 15 assists with only a single turnover and finished with the first triple-double of his career.

If you want to be the guy on the bus looking out the window facing the mountain and pouting, feel free to look at his 10-27 from the field and complain about his scoring efficiency, that's just what Jaylen Brown's defence can do to guys. But if you don't turn around and notice the beauty in the 24-year-old's growth this season, you're missing the bigger picture.

To think that Barrett — whose career-high in assists before this season was nine — could steer an offence on his own was far beyond expectations. He came into the year projected to remain a slasher, capable of laying it off on a short roll or completing the extra pass to keep the offence moving. But running a surgical pick-and-roll and turning Jakob Poeltl into a 35-point scorer? That's another thing entirely.

His 15 assists against the Celtics weren't simple reads. They came from Barrett creating the opportunity himself, using screens and leveraging his physical play and strong frame to create space, using the threat of his downhill drives to absorb pressure, and showing some serious vision and awareness to spot the open man down low. Barrett is processing the game at another level this season, and when players eventually make their return from injury, it should be interesting to see how he's able to parlay his newfound abilities to complement his usually efficient slashing style.

Poeltl's career night

The biggest recipient of Barrett's playmaking leap so far has been Jakob Poeltl, who put on an absolute clinic with push shots and floaters out of the pick-and-roll to finish with a career-high 35 points on 16-of-19 shooting from the field. For good measure, he tacked on 12 rebounds (six offensive) and a steal.

Poeltl has had his best stretch in a Raptors uniform as of late, tallying 25 points and 18 rebounds against the Pistons on Friday and 13 points with three steals and two blocks against the Bucks on Tuesday.

It stood to reason that a game against the Celtics would be a tough matchup for the big man, as Boston and its propensity for the three-pointer would surely stretch Poeltl to the perimeter, particularly if he drew the Al Horford assignment.

Though that did occur on occasion, and the Celtics took advantage of Poeltl being drawn away from the paint to throw lobs to Neemias Queta, the Raptors big didn't get burned. It might have been a different story had the Celtics been at full strength with the floor-spacing Kristaps Porzingis, but you have to beat what's in front of you. Poeltl did just that.

Never known as an offensive threat, Poeltl showcased a newfound touch after coming out of a short roll. He consistently took advantage of the Celtics choosing to play more drop coverage on him and when teammates missed, he was quick to swoop in for a tip layup.

In a game against the seventh-best defence in the NBA, Poeltl proved that he's not just a rim-runner and added yet another layer to what's becoming an increasingly interesting Raptors offence.