Final: Raptors 115, Celtics 83 - Celtics booed off the floor in home opener

Game 2: Celtics vs Raptors
TD Garden
7:30 PM, NBC Sports Boston

STARTERS

Boston: Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Robert Williams

Toronto: Fred VanVleet, Goran Dragic, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- The Celtics are fully healthy (sort of). No one is out due to injury. Pascal Siakam (left shoulder injury rehabilitation) and Yuta Watanabe (left calf strain) are out for the Raptors.

- Al Horford will start but will be limited to the 20-something-minute range

- The Celtics are adding wrinkles to the offense. The goal is to get Tatum and Brown working more together. 

- Boston is favored by 7

GOING A LITTLE DEEPER

- There was a lot talk after the Knicks game about Jayson Tatum’s volume shooting on a night when he was ice cold. 

“A lot of wide open shots,” Ime Udoka said of Tatum’s night. “We broke down the numbers of Jayson’s looks and thought it felt like he settled for one or two at the time, but 13 of those 15 were wide open shots with space. So yeah, we know he won’t miss those again.”

That said, the open shots could have also been drives or something to get him better looks for himself or his teammates.

“We tried to move Jayson around, get him some different shots off walk-aways, post ups so he’s not just shooting 3-pointers out there,” Udoka said. “Really encourage him to be aggressive.”

- Ime Udoka was given the opportunity to evaluate himself after one game: 

“You always look at lineups and rotations that you could have out there at times, different things like that,” he said. “But the overtimes ran a little long, adds extra minutes to your guys, it’s almost a double-edged sword when you're running guys those extra 10 minutes and you don't get a win. So you always look back, could you have subbed some guys in and took a break there? But the main thing would be rotation wise, looking at who we had in at certain times, maybe get some younger guys some more minutes as well, especially with Josh (Richardson) and Al out.”

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. Tatum and Brown playing off each other.

Anyone who has followed me for any extended amount of time knows I’ve been begging for Tatum and Brown pick-and-rolls ... or at least something where they’re working off each other. It might finally happen.

“Yeah, definitely. We’ve added a few sets -- we wanted our two best guys together in actions,” Udoka said. “They can be more aggressive when one is on and off the court, but we gotta get them involved together in certain actions, and we’ve put in a few over the last few days.”

2. Transition defense.

The Celtics got torched by the Knicks in transition, and the Raptors will try to do the same off their pesky defense. The Celtics have to get back and force a small Toronto team to set up in the half court. 

3. The Horford difference.

Let’s see how much having Horford back helps clean up some of the bad habits we saw in the opener.

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.