BSJ Game Report: Celtics 121, Raptors 102 - C's defense, followed by Hauser-Pritchard 3-pointers, bury Toronto

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Toronto Raptors, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics were missing Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Malcolm Brogdon, and they turned the ball over 10 times midway through the second quarter, but they still managed to build a 36-point lead at one point. Jayson Tatum did whatever he wanted and the combination of Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser (6-11 combined from 3) crushed Toronto in the first half. Tatum sat out the second half and the Celtics slowed down in the third and their lead got cut in half, but they recovered to go into the fourth up 22 and it was garbage time after that.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Raptors going extinct: This is what playing out the string looks like. The Raptors had almost no fight in them at all. Nick Nurse is making it blatantly obvious he’s done after this season and it seems like the team is just content to play out the string. When the game mattered in the first half, they had absolutely nothing for Boston.

Some much-needed fun: This was game 81, and if things go right for Boston, there are about 25 or so more in their future. Getting a laugher like this where the bench got to go nuts and all of the regulars got to chill on the sidelines for most of the game was a nice sort of palate cleanser to get them ready (after a very meaningless game on Sunday) for a deep playoff run. 

But the good thing is they earned the right to chill in the second half. 

“I felt like the way we started the game today, we set a tone,” Al Horford told BSJ after the game. “I like how engaged we were defensively, how engaged Rob (Williams) was, the impact that he was having. So even though it was a let-loose game, I feel like also it was a tighten-up, making sure we feel good moving forward.”

Jaylen Brown’s injury: When word first trickled out that Brown had cut his finger would miss the game, there were a lot of paper cut jokes from people thinking this was just an excuse to sit him. It turns out he has five stitches in his hand. That's not great timing. More on that later. 

Seeding all set: Brooklyn won, Miami lost, and obviously Toronto lost. So the Nets have clinched the sixth seed. Miami and Atlanta will play the 7/8 game in the play-in tournament, so the winner that game will be Boston’s first-round opponent. 

Toronto and Chicago will play the 9/10 game. The loser of that game is eliminated, and the winner faces the loser of the 7/8 game. That winner will be the eighth seed. 

TURNING POINT

This is one of those games where the turning point was honestly the jump ball. The Raptors made a little bit of a run in the third quarter when the Celtics were basically sleepwalking, but that only got the lead down to 18. 

No, this game was lost right away. After a rough start for both teams, the Celtics actually pulled together a 12-2 run. Toronto never challenged. Boston didn’t miss a 2-pointer in the first half.

FIVE UP

Sam Hauser: Let’s give him top billing tonight thanks to a career-high 26 points on 10-16 shooting. He was 6-12 on 3-pointers, and 4-4 on 2-pointers, including THREE dunks. 

“Sam is a big part of our team and what we’re trying to accomplish,” Jayson Tatum said after the game. “And just a testament to how hard he’s worked, especially this offseason and this season to be prepared for moments like this, that he’s going to go out there and produce and that we trust him to. He’s made tremendous strides from last season to really be in the rotation of one of the guys that we trust in games like this or in big games like the playoffs. So I’m happy for him. And Sam just works really, really hard.”

Hauser also gets a shout out from me, because you know there's a whole story coming about his dunks and how fun this night was. 

Payton Pritchard: Coming off that bone bruise in his heel, Pritchard put up 22 points on 9-14 shooting (4-8 3pt). He and Hauser basically demoralized the Raptors in the first half with their shooting. 

Jayson Tatum: 21 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds in 19:56. He was 7-12 overall, 0-5 from 3. Do the math … he was perfect from inside the arc and 7-9 from the line on top of it. The Raptors could not stop him at all. 

Al Horford & Robert Williams: Going to combine them here because they combined for 6 blocked shots and 14 rebounds. The defense those two guys played early on was stifling. The Celtics basically came out and hit the Raptors with body blows with the defense they played, then the 3-point shooting was the knockout punch. Horford and Williams together like this shows why some of us have been advocating so long for double-big lineups. They can be just devastating defensively. 

NONE DOWN

I won’t make too big a deal of Derrick White’s 6 turnovers or Grant Williams going oh-fer this evening. It didn’t matter. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER 

- The Jaylen Brown injury shouldn’t be a big deal, but it sure isn’t great timing

Brown said he cut his hand on broken glass at his house last night, and the cut is in between his forefinger and middle finger on his shooting hand. The cut required five stitches to close. He said it would keep him out of basketball activities for “a week, tops,” which is the good news because Game 1 of the first round is a week away. 

The bad news here is that a cut that requires five stitches is a deep enough cut to be significant. If there's one thing I personally can speak about, it’s cuts that require stitches (I think I’m closing in on 50 total, not counting surgeries). Not only is it a pretty good gash, it’s in a tough spot where the hand is constantly flexing and contracting.

It’s also on his dominant hand, so everything he does will pull at that thing as it tries to heal. When he gets back to playing, he’ll be dribbling, catching, and shooting with that hand, and each time the ball hits that spot it will be painful and put even more pressure on it. 

The good news is that it’s a spot that can be padded pretty well with presumably minimal discomfort, though that will vary from person to person. These guys’ bodies are precision machines, so any kind of padding can be a little bit of a distraction. 

And he can still run and keep his cardio up. There's no reason for him to lose any conditioning. The biggest hurdle will be mental and not letting himself feel like he’s falling out of rhythm or getting rusty. 

This next week will be key. A few days of going lefty will be very helpful. From there, some special attention can creative bandaging can do the trick until it fully heals. 

Another good thing is that the first round is spread out, and Boston should be able to make quick work of any opponent and then just chill until the second round gets here. If they can dispatch their first round opponent in four or five games, then Brown will get another few days of letting this thing heal without interruption. 

Next up: The regular season ends Sunday with a 1 p.m. game against Atlanta.