Final: Raptors 111, Celtics 91

TORONTO -- Kyrie Irving will be back in action for tonight's showdown at Air Canada Centre

GAME: No. 54 of 82:
WHO: Celtics (39-15) vs. Raptors (36-16)
WHEN:  7:30 EST
WHERE:  Air Canada Centre
RADIO: 100.7 WZLX
TV: NBC SPORTS BOSTON

Projected starters

Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes

Inactive: Marcus Smart (hand), and Shane Larkin (knee) are out.

Raptors
PG: Kyle Lowry
SG: DeMar DeRozan
F: OG Anunoby
F: Serge Ibaka
C: Jonas Valancunias 

Second Half Notes

• The Celtics waved the white flag pretty early in the third quarter of this one.


• Despite facing a 21-point halftime hole, there was no real intensity and fight out of intermission.


• Kyle Lowry started abusing Irving in the pick-and-roll, taking advantage of his lack of speed as he recovers from the quad injury.


• With no real source of offense and the Raptors shooting remaining red hot, the lead got pushed up to 28 points late in the frame at one point, leading to a healthy chunk of garbage time over the game's final 16 minutes.


• Ugliest blowout of the year for the C's since the Bulls game back in December.

• The Raptors bench mob have been impressive all year and that trend continued in the early minutes of this frame. The second unit outscored the Celtics 23-11 in the first seven minutes of the period, thanks to some timely 3-point shooting and transition opportunities.


• The offense stalled mightily with a group of Irving/Morris/Ojeleye/Tatum/Theis on the floor. Despite the necessary offensive firepower, halfcourt sets commonly ended up with Morris and Ojeleye shot attempts that weren't high percentage looks.


• Toronto's second unit ultimately combined to outscore Celtics 30-15 in the quarter behind some hot shooting from Fred Van Fleet and Deion Wright.


• Things didn't get much better for Boston when the Raptors starters returned as they closed out the half with a 14-3 run of their own to push the hosts' lead to 21 points.


• The scary thing for the Celtics is that DeMar DeRozan didn't get going at all (five points) and the visitors still struggled this much. There was hot shooting pretty much all over the floor for the Raps, with 57 percent shooting from the field and 3-point range. (8-of-14).


• Just 40 percent shooting, two free throws and zero offensive rebounds in first half for Boston. Very little fight being shown as team settles for tough shots.


• Limited minutes for Kyrie Irving (12) who scored 10 points. Rozier led the team with 11.

• The first four minutes of this game opened up with a high scoring affair as both teams combined for 23 points in a high paced affair.


• From there, the Celtics offense stalled out for the next five minutes or so with the Raptors going on a 8-0 run. A lot of ugly misses at the rim for the C's as Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Jayson Tatum all had trouble finishing in traffic.


• The visitors continued to hold up nicely defensively though with Brown and Horford tallying a couple blocks at the rim to highlight a disciplined team effort for the first 12 minutes.


• Jaylen Brown suffered a twisted ankle on the first play of the game after he landed on the shoe of Aron Baynes, but he played through the pain after running it off for a couple possessions.


• Scoreless first quarter for Horford and Tatum, who went a combined 0-of-6.

• Kyrie Irving will be back in the Celtics lineup on Tuesday night in a battle between the top two squads in the Eastern Conference. The All-Star has missed the last three games with a bruised quad suffered in a win over the Nuggets last Monday night. "It was a pretty bad bruise," Irving explained. "I was already (hurting) a little bit on that west coast trip as we finished it. I understand it’s a long season so I want to take my time. But us coming out and going 3-0 with our young guys playing unbelievably well made it a lot easier. They played at an optimum level and I just want to come back and integrate myself back into that, and help them play well before the All-Star break."


• Marcus Morris is a game-time decision with a sore hip/butt. He's missed the last two games for the Celtics.


• The Celtics are up 1-0 in the season series with Toronto, with three games remaining in the last three months of the year, starting tonight. Here's Brad Stevens on the first matchup: "They got to their tendencies some, which you have to try your best to take away against really good players. I thought for the most part though we were competitive and locked in. We played without Kyrie, so that was a unique offensive attack for us, but we were fortunate to win because we've seen DeRozan hit that shot 100 times. At the end of the day, it was a really good game. A really hard played game by both teams. We're going to have to play better than that tonight. They're a better team now than they were when we played them earlier."