Blowout to Raptors is final reminder Celtics need help ahead of trade deadline

TORONTO -- With less than 48 hours remaining until the NBA trade deadline, the Celtics got delivered a harsh dose of reality by the Toronto Raptors. The 111-91 beatdown on Tuesday night wasn’t even as close as the score indicated. Garbage time started in this one during the closing minutes of the third quarter, as the Raptors stretched out at 20-point halftime lead to 27 points. The visitors trailed by double digits for the final 35 minutes of the game.

Boston has been known for its comebacks and fight all year long, but this one was a little different. It was the second worst loss of the year for the C’s on paper, but the worst (Dec. 11 in Chicago) was without Kyrie Irving . The All-Star was back in action on Tuesday night (17 points in 21 minutes), as he and Marcus Morris returned to the fold, giving the Celtics a competitive squad to face off the high-powered Raptors, at least on paper. However, this was a mismatch from the opening tip as Toronto exposed the C’s flaws right away.

“I thought you could see it with our first six minutes of the game,” Brad Stevens explained. “We gave up 15 points in the first five minutes. We looked slow. We looked like we weren’t ready to react to their speed or their physicality and I think that was probably the case the whole night. And credit them. They played great.”

The Raptors have a top-four NBA offense and they outclassed the Celtics’ defense for the better part of 48 minutes with their balanced roster and hot shooting. Even with top scorer DeMar DeRozan (15 points) dealing with an off shooting night, it did not slow Toronto down. Five different players scored in double figures thanks to 50 percent shooting from the field and 47 percent shooting from 3-point range. The Raptors got the shots they wanted all over the court and the Celtics didn’t have an answer for them.

“It’s a credit in the second quarter to their bench,” Al Horford explained. “They came out and did everything they wanted to do, helped them build a lead and then their starters got it going.”

Kyle Lowry took over during the middle two quarters after the bench outburst, scoring a team-high 23 points as he took advantage of a rusty Irving.

“We have to be there on his pull-ups,” Stevens said of defending Lowry. “We have to be there in transition. We have to be way more urgent than we were off of screens. He got going and he cooked us, and I thought we were not urgent enough. I didn’t think we were urgent enough the whole day, but I thought clearly on him we missed the boat big time.”

Irving put the blame on himself for his lackadaisical effort.

“I'll probably harp on myself more than I will on our team effort,” he said. “Even our young guys coming in, they still gave the effort that we needed. As one of the veterans on this team, I just got to be better. This one is just mainly on me, kind of just taking responsibility and trying to be better as we go forward. That's it.”

While the Raptors won’t always be as hot as they were on Tuesday, the more troubling part of this performance from the Celtics’ perspective was their own offense. Toronto has a top-three defense as well and they made Boston uncomfortable all night long during halfcourt sets. Horford (two points, four turnovers) was pressured all over the floor by Serge Ibaka and failed to facilitate the C’s offense.

“I probably wasn’t able to run a lot of the offense at times, as is expected of the bigs,” he explained. “They did a good job – more aggressive getting to 50-50 balls. We didn’t quite have enough tonight.”

With Horford out of his groove and Jayson Tatum (2-of-9) suffering from an off shooting night, the Celtics’ offense showed off its warts throughout the first half while falling behind by 21 points. At intermission, Boston was shooting a mere 40 percent from the field and still had zero offensive rebounds. With no inside presence against a subpar Raptors defensive rebounding team (20th in league), there were no ways to manufacture points for this Celtics team, outside of Irving and Terry Rozier.

Future Celtic Greg Monroe (who will likely sign before Thursday’s game) will help on the rebounding front, but Boston’s lack of ability to create and get to the free throw line (two first half free throws) was also a major issue against Toronto’s length and speed. This group is still far too reliant on jump shots with their second unit (Morris, Semi Ojeleye) and that’s a dangerous path given the inconsistencies of those players. This wasn’t just one of those nights in the mind of Stevens

“We got our butts kicked by a really good team who physically overwhelmed us from a speed and physicality standpoint. We need to do a better job. So I’m not gonna – the one thing you never do as a coach is you never chalk it up to ‘one of those nights.’”

Assuming one of them can get past the Cavs this postseason, the Celtics and Raptors appear to be poised for a postseason clash and time is running out for Danny Ainge to add reinforcements. Boston’s offense has been a problem all year (20th in league) and that was the case again on Tuesday. With Tyreke Evans and other appealing players looming as options to give that department a boost, this game was one final reminder that help is certainly needed for this group despite a 39-16 start to the year. Whether it comes via a trade or free agency remains to be seen, but more options are needed for Stevens for a showdown with the Raptors down the road.