BSJ Game Report: Celtics 126, Raptors 123 (OT) - Tatum cashes in on second game-winning attempt

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

IN A NUTSHELL

Jayson Tatum scored 13 first quarter points, but the Celtics continued to allow a parade to the rim, giving up 16 points in the paint. Their two-point lead briefly disappeared in the second thanks in part to Jakob Poeltl, but that's where it settled at the half. The Raptors started the third on a huge run and built a seven-point led, but Payton Pritchard helped turn things around and preserve a one-point lead heading into the fourth. The teams went back and forth and Tatum had a chance to win it at the buzzer in regulation and missed. He redeemed himself, hitting the game-winning 3 at the buzzer in overtime.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Tatum comes through: It has been a while since he’s hit one of these shots, and he bricked a very good look at the regulation, but Tatum finally came through with a buzzer-beater at the end of overtime.

“It felt good,” Tatum said. “Felt good to finally hit one of those, obviously, after the horrible miss I had in the regulation. So it felt good to bounce back and hit the shot for the win.”

Tatum had been oh-for-the entire second half before breaking through in the overtime.

- Points in the paint: Jakob Poeltl shot 16-19 on his way to a career-high 35. It was part of 76 points in the paint the Celtics allowed. More on this later. 

- Winning ugly: I’m not thrilled with this win, but it was a win nonetheless. They clearly took the Raptors lightly, allowed a parade of layups, and they didn’t rebound well. They easily could have, and maybe should have, lost this game … but … they did enough to win, including making some big defensive plays when it mattered. So there's some value in that. 

TURNING POINT

The turning point in a buzzer-beating win is the buzzer-beater, but I’m going to say Al Horford’s fourth-quarter stretch, which included two huge 3-pointers, was huge. He led the Celtics with nine points in the quarter. The Celtics probably lose this game in regulation without Horford. 

“He was super important,” Tatum said. “His presence out there, just defensively and obviously on the offensive end, he's always an outlet. They got to make a decision. Do they want to help on our drives? And obviously his ability to space the floor is so important to our team and what we're trying to accomplish. He just makes the game easier by his presence being out there.”

THINGS I LIKED

- Finding a way: Part of me wants to kill them for the way they defended. Part of me wants to praise me for still finding a way to win. This is being written by the angel on my shoulder. 

It’s not always going to be pretty and it’s not always going to follow an expected script. They gave the Raptors some confidence and Toronto got it going. The Raptors played hard and hit shots, led by an obnoxiously hot night by Poeltl. So Boston getting it together enough to pull it out is nice. 

It’s better than the alternative.

- Al Horford: His 18 points was a season-high. He was firing away, finishing 5-10 from 3 on the night.

- Jaylen Brown: The final play was actually drawn up for him to get the ball … or at least that was one of the options. The refs probably could have called a foul there, but they swallowed the whistle. Brown led the Celtics with 27 points so him hitting the game-winner might have been more appropriate. 

It might be weird to say for a guy who had seven assists, but Brown missed a bunch of reads in the game that could have made this an easy double-double night. 

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE

- The defense: This has been an issue for a little while, but the perimeter defense needs to be shored up. They're allowing too many easy runs to the basket and it’s leading to too many points in the paint. 

- Rebounding: Also a part of the defense. Help defenders are sliding over and rotations are slow or not there at all and it leads to putbacks. The Celtics are winning these 3-point battles pretty easily (69-27 in this one), but they lost points in the paint by 34, which levels the playing field too much. The Celtics need to rebound better.

- Payton Pritchard: He hit a couple of big 3-pointers in the third, but he otherwise had an off night. You’d think wearing uniforms that looked more like the University of Oregon rather than the Boston Celtics might have inspired him. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- I’m glad Tatum, not Brown, hit the game-winner. 

I say that for one reason and one reason only: I don’t want the Brown vs. Tatum discussion to resurface. If Brown hit the shot after Tatum missed so badly, the entire conversation on the Monday drive shows would have been pitting them against each other and I just don’t want to hear it. 

Jaylen can get the next one. 

- Points in the paint are a real problem.

I don’t know that this is something that just gets fixed by Kristaps Porzingis coming back. 

“I think overall just giving up too many layups,” Brown said. “We definitely don’t want to just keep giving up layup after layup after layup. So we’re going to figure some stuff out. We’ll watch it and we’ll adjust.”

Mazzulla said the 76 points in the paint number in this game is skewed because Poeltl hit a million shots they would normally live with. And to be fair, he’s right about that. But they also gave up 23 baskets in the restricted area, which is obscene. Seven of those belonged to Poeltl. He did hit 9-11 from non-restricted paint, which is the shot Mazzulla was talking about living with, but that doesn’t account for the entire problem. 

“I would say there's probably about half of those are because of the coverage that you're going to play on a guy like him throughout a game,” he said. “The other half is we have to do a better job rebounding, and we have to do a better job at individual defense. So those are the two areas that can clean up 50 percent of those points, you know what I mean? Defense and rebounding. He's a bear down there, though. He's good. I mean, he's good. It's one of those situations. If you play one coverage, he's going to shoot that. If you play a different one, he's going to bury on the glass. So he puts teams in a bind. He's a good player.”

He is, and no one gives up zero points in the paint. But Boston is allowing too many smaller guys to get to the hoop. If they don’t figure that out at some point, they’ll never get back to last year’s defensive levels. 

Next up: The Celtics host the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday night