Robb: Celtics get a wakeup call in loss to Raptors

Clunkers are bound to happen over the course of an 82-game season. Yet, the Celtics were seemingly immune to them this season since an ugly 14-point loss on opening night in Philadelphia. Through injuries and tough matchups, the C’s gave themselves a chance in the closing minutes of essentially every single game since the loss to the Sixers leading into Saturday’s matchup against the Raptors. Boston’s six other losses on the year had come by a combined 24 points.

Toronto may have been down three key pieces for Saturday's matchup but they were rested and motivated after being embarrassed on their home floor by the Celtics on Christmas Day. Kyle Lowry played like an All-Star. Serge Ibaka wreaked havoc on the boards. Patrick McCaw played the best game of his NBA career and the Celtics let a chance to win the season series outright slip away in the 113-97 shellacking.

“Those guys played extremely well,” Kemba Walker declared. “You definitely can’t take away what they did. Defensively they were great, offensively they were great, that’s just a really good team. And we definitely missed some shots that we normally make, but so much credit to those guys and the way they played and how they came out from the very beginning of the game.”

“All credit to Toronto,” Jaylen Brown added. “They came out and really turned up the intensity of the game and really set the tone. To be honest, to their credit, we haven't faced that level of intensity defensively, so we needed that. But all credit to Toronto, they came out and played a helluva game.”

Brad Stevens couldn’t even get after his own guys too much in his postgame presser at the risk of belittling the impressive effort of an undermanned Raptors squad.

“I don’t think tonight is as much about us,” the head coach said. “I think that our guys did some good things and had some moments but they deserve a lot of praise. They came in here and set the tone for how the game was going to be played. Played with great energy. They looked like people that were the last team standing last year. Just from the standpoint of, even though it’s a lot of different guys, they played with great makeup today.”

Such is life for any team facing off with another top-6 squad of the Eastern Conference right now. The Celtics weren’t exactly fresh playing their third game in four nights but they clearly weren’t ready for the playoff-level intensity that the Raptors brought to the Garden on Saturday night. The Celtics missed countless bunnies at the basket amid a dreadful 39.7 percent shooting night from the field. They didn’t make the extra pass (18 assists) against a pressuring Toronto defense either and lacked poise at times while questioning a whistle that still leaned heavily in their favor if you looked at the foul comparison (32-17) over 48 minutes.

“The way it was called was kind of similar to a playoff game,” Brown said. “They weren't calling those little hand slaps that we're used to getting and things like that. They let a lot of stuff go on both sides. So it was a fun game, to be honest, but we didn't match the level that we needed to on a back-to-back and there was definitely a lesson learned. We need to continue to get better and we're not where we need to be yet. But we need to continue working.”

The work is critical now for the C’s who fell to 4-4 on the year against other top-six East teams. The Celtics may have been able to coast on their high talent level against the Cavs and Pistons of the world but a different level of intensity is required against the East’s elite now and the C’s didn’t have it, particularly on the defensive end of the ball.

“The East is good,” Brown said. “People always make light of the East. I think the East is really good. Especially like the top six or seven teams are really strong. So nothing is given. Nothing is expected any given night. We saw tonight, Toronto just raised their level of intensity and we weren’t ready to handle it. We’ve got to adapt quicker and we’ve got to be more physical with the basketball, starting with me.”

Brown was right to be critical of himself after back-to-back career nights. He got blocked at the rim on multiple occasions against an aggressive Raptors defense. His loose handle led to three turnovers. His inability to get back in transition at full speed led to two easy layups in the first half, but he was hardly the only one with effort struggles.

Daniel Theis got caught in bad spots in transition, which led to easy buckets as well. Jayson Tatum took the night off on the glass (three rebounds) and watched his man pile up plenty of second-chance opportunities on the offensive glass for the visitors (15 offensive rebounds). Marcus Smart was rusty and tried to do too much offensively at times. Enes Kanter was exposed with his pick-and-roll defense. Gordon Hayward missed open jumpers.

Bad shooting nights will happen but the C’s didn’t give themselves much of a chance in this one with their defensive play and rebounding.

“We haven’t been very good at it recently,” Stevens said. “But we’ve been winning so we’re not talking about it a lot. I think the bottom line is that we have to be better on that end of the floor, generally. We’ve had some moments, as we’ve talked about, and we certainly had some possessions tonight. But we gotta get back to being a better defensive team and we gotta find the right mix of guys that will defend together, that complement our best players to defend well.”

Defense gives the Celtics a chance to win games no matter what and this team fell short in that department tonight. Whether the slippage continues will be intriguing to see now as the schedule softens up for a bit over the next week until a date with the Sixers on Jan. 9. In the meantime, this game should allow Stevens to get this group’s full attention. The good vibes of getting a healthy group back together ended quickly in this one as they were outclassed by the JV squad of the defending champs. Now the challenge goes to ensuring another clunker doesn't appear for another 25 games or so.