The Celtics should have be preparing to put the finishing touches on their second round series on Saturday night. Instead, they have handed life to the defending champs after watching the Raptors steal Game 3 with a buzzer-beater by OG Anunoby.
A quick turnaround has been prevalent in all playoff games in the Orlando bubble and that circumstance works well for Boston as the C’s are hungry for redemption and to take back command of the matchup after letting a critical Game 3 slip away.
“It's not really anger, you know? What it is is just extra fuel, because we know throughout that game, we could have obviously been a lot better,” Marcus Smart said Friday. “This is our first loss in the playoffs, so when you lose, it puts a bad taste in your mouth and you want to get back out there and redeem yourself. So tomorrow should be a fun game.”
The Celtics may have technically blown the game in the final minute but Daniel Theis looked to the entire second half (Raptors outscored Celtics 57-46) as a bigger reason for the defeat.
“Obviously it was painful yesterday to lose a game like this, but we should never have come into this situation,” Theis said. “We were up 10 at halftime. We blew the lead at the beginning of the third. It’s all about us. We have to play better in the beginning of games and the third quarter, so you don’t lose the game on the last shot. Obviously it’s motivation because we’re still up 2-1 and want to bounce back and play our way in the next game.”
The Celtics have shown strong resiliency in the restart so far, having not lost consecutive games since back in March. That mentality bodes well for their ability to bounce back.
“Our guys have had a great approach throughout all the early wins with regard to trying to improve from film, and get better, and play a little bit better the next game, and that’s what you try to do again,” Brad Stevens said. “This is part of it. Obviously last night was a tough loss, but our mindset has moved on to Game 4. And we feel like there’s things we could do better, so we’re going to keep working to get better.”
“We still haven’t played our best basketball yet, so for us that’s a good thing,” Smart added. “Tomorrow should be one of those days where we just go out there and play and get every loose ball that we can, and really just fight our way to try to get a win.”
Slowing down the backcourt a concern
Kyle Lowry was the hero with the pass at the end of Game 3, but the majority of his damage came with 31 points in 46 minutes on an incredibly efficient 13-of-23 shooting. He missed six of his eight 3-point attempts, leading to a tremendous night for him finishing inside the arc. (11-of-15) while attacking the C’s in the pick-and-roll.
“He was in attack mode yesterday,” Theis admitted. “He went to the basket a lot. And it’s hard to guard because you know he’s flopping a lot. And all those guys, you’ve gotta be careful with them, you’ve gotta have your hands back. But it’s an adjustment we’re going to make in the next game, just, like, protect the paint even more, especially as a big guy.”
The Celtics have been able to keep Toronto’s offense in check for nearly every half in this series except for Game 3. Siakam, Lowry and VanVleet finally broke out with 47 points in the final two quarters and it’s going to be essential for the C’s to shut down the momentum that those guys got going if they don't want to drag the series out.
“We’ve just gotta be who we’ve been this whole restart defensively,” Smart said. “We had a lot of breakdowns, the fact that Kyle Lowry was being able to get into the paint and finish the way he was, it’s on the guards. It’s on the bigs. It’s on the guards to get back in front, do everything we can to fight back, it’s on the bigs to make sure once he gets past the first line, that they do their job on the second line. But like I said, they did everything they were supposed to do. It was a must-win game for them. They did their job, now we have to go do ours.”
Closing thoughts on the final play
Stevens chimed in on the crucial miscue after getting a second look on film.
“However we could’ve guarded it better—we certainly could—but that should be on the whole team and where the whole team has something happen, then that’s on me. So, I’ve moved on from it,” Stevens said. “We talked about it this morning. We also have to realize that Lowry made a perfect pass over a 7-foot-6 guy all the way across the court, and a guy caught it in .4 seconds and shot it in.
“Obviously we weren’t on him on the catch, but a lot of good things had to happen that they had to do to make that play. The other thing I don’t want to do in any circumstance is take credit away from the opponent, because they’re out there too and that’s a hell of a team. So if there’s anything to learn from it, we’ll learn from it. We’ll be better in that situation if that situation comes again, but our guys have been great at the end of games all the way through the last month and were again most of the time last night. I told our guys, I don’t want any of them to lose any sleep over it. If anything, let me lose the sleep, and we’ll move on.”
The Celtics face off against the Raptors in Game 4 at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night.