Final: Celtics 112, Raptors 94 -- C's cruise to Game 1 win

All five Celtics starters scored in double figures as the Celtics jumped all over the Raptors in the first quarter and didn’t look back in a blowout victory on Sunday afternoon. Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum led the way with 21 points each while Kemba Walker added a double-double with 18 points and 10 assists. Daniel Theis also set a postseason career-high with 15 rebounds to go along with 13 points which forced the Raptors to play catch up for the majority of 48 minutes. Kyle Lowry had a team-high 17 points but the Raptors offense stalled all day against Boston’s stout defense combined with an ugly shooting day from 3-point range. Toronto shot just 36.9 percent as a team and 25 percent from 3-point range, with All-Star Pascal Siakam held to just 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting.

The Celtics take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven series heading into Game 2 on Tuesday.

TURNING POINT

Celtics really took command to this game midway through the first quarter with a 14-2 lead to push their early lead up to 18 points all while Jayson Tatum (usually the best plus/minus player on the team). Even after an ugly offensive second quarter, that early run gave the C's enough of a cushion to overcome rough offense.

TWO UP

Marcus Smart: The reserve guard snapped out of his shooting funk in the first quarter of this one, knocking down all three of his shots, including a pair from 3-point range to finish with a game-high 10 points in the opening frame. He also chipped in with three rebounds and a steal while playing all 12 minutes.

Celtics 3-point shooting: Boston began the game scoring hot from 3-point range, knocking down six of their first nine attempts on their way to a 39 point first quarter.

TWO DOWN

Pascal Siakam: The All-Star struggled mightily in the first quarter of this one, piling up three fouls in his first eight minutes of play. He tried to punish the Celtics small defenders in the post (Brown/Smart) but those guys held their ground, limiting Siakam to just one field goal make on his first eight attempts.

Celtics zone offense: Nick Nurse made the first strategic chess move in this matchup, going to a matchup zone to slow down the Celtics offense for he first five minutes of the second quarter. The tactic took the C’s out of their rhythm as they scored just three points in the first six minutes of the second quarter, helping the Raptors to climb back into the game for at least a short stretch.

TOP PLAY

.@jaytatum0 wasn't slowing down for anyone pic.twitter.com/Vrb5cxG5mC

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 23, 2020

• Kyle Lowry (sprained ankle) will be active for the Raptors after missing two days of practice earlier this week. Head coach Nick Nurse says there won't be any limitations on the All-Star point guard.


• Brad Stevens spoke about the conundrum of attacking the Raptors weak defensive rebounding while also getting back against the team's best transition team: "We just want to run good offense. Good offense means you make the right play when the right play presents itself. If you are supposed to go the glass based on the positioning you are in, go and everyone sprints back immediately to set your defense. It doesn't necessarily -- the emphasis to go the glass or not doesn't really change but the emphasis to get back and set your defense against Toronto is clearly a huge priority. If you look at any playoff series, it's the easy baskets teams get to put them over the top, whether it's the transition baskets, the offensive rebound baskets, loose balls, those type of things. You have to make everything as challenging as possible because they are great in transition."


• The Celtics and Raptors are coming off a week of rest but the lack of rhythm seems like a small issue given the events around the NBA over the past week: "I've said this before, I think there are bigger things to worry about in the world than this," Stevens said. "We are just going to go out and play as well as we can. Toronto and us have been on the exact same schedule. There is nothing normal about this experience so what we've tried to do this entire time is prepare as well as we can and play as well as we can. We will see how we play at 1 o'clock."


• The Celtics have a couple of the better isolation players in the league in Tatum and Walker but that isn't a strategy that will work in this series according to the C's head coach: “Isolation is not the answer," Stevens said against Toronto. "They just load up on you, so the ball has to pop, you have to move, you have to find a great shot when you can and you have to be patient enough to find it. It’s just a very solid, tough, physical team, predicated on help and recover with great effort. Everybody can talk about their defense being good and playing with multiple efforts, Toronto is as good as they come at playing with multiple efforts. That’s why they can over-help. They over-help because they know they can get back. It’s an impressive defensive team. It’s an impressive team overall. Obviously scheme is excellent, they’re really, really well coached. So that’s why they make it tough.”