Celtics 121, Heat 108

The Cs began this game with just a horrible first quarter, jacking up treys, missing, and playing nonchalant defense as well and they weren’t much better in the second quarter and trailed at the half, 58-51. However, in the third quarter they outscored the Heat 41-25 and really never looked back after leading, 92-83, after three. For a change, they never allowed this game to even have a hint of collapse in the final period. Apparently, they are not yet ready to end their season.

They were led by Jayson Tatum with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists; Jaylen Brown was not far behind with 28 points, 8 boards and 2 assists; Kemba Walker had 15 points, 2 rebounds and 7 assists; Daniel Theis had a huge second half with 15 points, 13 boards and 3 blocked shots; Marcus Smart had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists; and Gordon Hayward had 10 points, 3 boards and 2 assists. Everyone was superb on defense in that third quarter. Enes Kanter gave them an important 10 minutes in the first half with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. These are the Celtics we hope we can see more often; intense and energetic on defense and letting the defense dictate the offense.

The next game is Sunday night.

Heat 117, Celtics 114, OT

It didn’t take very long for the Cs to show us everything they have in their portfolio. They played solid defense in both the first and third quarters, holding the Heat to 18 and 16 points respectively. During both of those quarters they defended with intensity and moved the ball offensively to create quality shots, which they made. However, in the second and fourth quarters, they gave up 37 and 35 points respectively, failing regularly to defend the 3-point line and turning the ball over with careless passes to aid the Heat cause. Nevertheless, the Cs should have won the game in regulation when, in 20 seconds and with the score tied, the best they could come up with was a desperation trey by Jayson Tatum who took many poor quality shots in this game. In overtime, Jimmy Butler took the ball to the basket with seconds left, made a difficult shot, and was fouled by Tatum. Tatum failed again to accomplish a similar task and the game was over.

The Cs were led by Tatum who had 30 points on 10 for 24 shooting with 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots; Marcus Smart had yet another strong shooting night with 26 points, 3 rebounds and an assist; Kemba Walker had 19 points, on just 6 of 19 shooting, with 3 boards and 6 assists; Jaylen Brown had 17 points, on 6 of 14 shooting, with 5 boards and 2 assists; and Brad Wanamaker had an extremely impressive game with 11 points, 3 boards, 6 assists and 5 steals, with 0 TOs, in 25 minutes and deserved even more minutes of playing time. Tatum, Walker and Smart each had 3 TOs by comparison. Walker appears to be in the process of becoming a head case as he has now performed well below expectations in 3 games in a row. It’s difficult enough to win without Gordon Hayward but Kemba’s underperformance when needed is becoming a major problem for the Cs.

All that is required to understand this loss is to look at the score by periods. When the Cs defend with energy and move the ball, they are dominant; when they start dribbling the ball and destroying ball movement, they can’t make shots, they fail to defend the 3-point line, and they usually turn the ball over as well. It’s sad but they seem to be incapable of sustaining their effort and concentration.

The coaching staff must bear some responsibility for the very poor finish in regulation.

Game 2 will be on Thursday night.

Celtics 92, Raptors 87

This game was a struggle for both teams as neither played consistently throughout the game. Toronto led at the quarter, 27-26; the Cs led 50-46 at the half and by just one, at 72-71, after three quarters. Actually, the key statistic in the game was steals, the Cs had 12 and the Raptors just 1. And while it doesn’t necessarily show up in the box score, Marcus Smart made several big plays down the stretch which were instrumental in the win.

Jayson Tatum led the scorers with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists; Jaylen Brown had 21 points, 8 boards, 2 assists and 4 steals; Smart had 16 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals; and Kemba Walker, who took a long time to get untracked in this game, had 14 points, 6 boards 4 assists and 2 steals.

The Cs win the series 4-3 and will meet the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals beginning on Tuesday.

Raptors 125, Celtics 122, 2 OT

This game was lost long before the end of the second overtime. Actually, the Cs got off to a good start, leading 25-21 at the end of the first quarter. They even built the lead to 36-25 at the 8-minute mark of the second quarter before they decided that they had played enough defense and slacked off. And they never really got the intensity going until the third period was over and they were down by 4, at 81-77. A team can’t give up a 33-point quarter in the playoffs and expect to win. It’s also difficult to win when two of your star players have poor offensive performances, especially with Gordon Hayward still unable to play. In OT, they were simply outplayed defensively, once again aided by 2 turnovers by Jaylen Brown and another by Jayson Tatum, all caused by excessive dribbling.

The Cs were led by Marcus Smart with a triple double, 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, and by Daniel Theis with 18 points and 7 rebounds, along with stellar defense. Brown had 31 points, 16 rebounds and 2 assists; Tatum had 29 points, 14 boards and 9 assists; but Kemba Walker continued his inconsistent play, shooting 2 for 11 from the floor and 1 for 6 on treys, with 3 TOs. Brown had 3 TOs and Tatum a whopping 6, all caused by excessive dribbling. Also, the Cs had just 5 steals in the game and the Raptors only had 12 TOs.

Some observations: Everybody gets all excited about Robert Williams’ athleticism, because he can make spectacular plays, but he is a fundamentally weak defender and he proved that again tonight in just 8 minutes of playing time. Grant Williams is gaining confidence thus far in the playoffs, hitting two big shots tonight in the second half after not playing at all in the first half. Also, it’s well past time that the Cs figured out that Serge Ibaka is a deadly 3-point shooter when left alone and, in this tilt, he was a game changer with 3 huge unguarded treys. They also need to extend their defense on both Fred Van Vleet and Kyle Lowry because they have proven that they can make long 3s.

The final game of the series will be Friday night. Smart took a genuine physical beating in this game while making several hustle plays; let’s hope he has something left for the series final.

Celtics 111, Raptors 89

If you watched this game, you will completely understand why I was so annoyed after game 4 when the Cs made a half-hearted effort from start to finish and basically handed a win to the Raptors. Tonight they came with defensive intensity from the opening whistle, led 25-11 at the end of the quarter and followed that up with a 62-35 lead at the half, and they really didn’t even shoot very well in the process, still taking forced shots instead of making the extra pass to get a quality shot. However, just to prove that bad habits die hard, they proceeded to begin the second half with zero defensive intensity and actually lost the third quarter 28-25. They were particularly bad in the first four minutes of the quarter.

The Cs were led by Jaylen Brown who broke out of his slump with 27 points and 6 rebounds; Kemba Walker had 21 points, 4 boards and 7 assists; Jayson Tatum had 18 points, 10 boards and 4 assists; Daniel Theis had 15 points, 8 boards, an assist and 3 blocked shots; Brad Wanamaker had 15 points , 3 rebounds and 2 assists; and Marcus Smart had 12 points, 7 boards and 6 assists. Walker was just 1 for 6 on treys and Tatum just 1 for 5; yet they won easily because they defended and acored 62 points in the first half anyway.

Wanamaker has to qualify as the most underutilized player on the roster over the course of two years. It’s obvious he is an effective player but he usually gets little opportunity to show what he can do. He had 28 minutes of court time tonight. Also, Robert Williams’ defense is highly overrrated; he failed to guard Serge Ibaka on a made trey and left him open again for one he missed and he made ineffective switches as well in very limited minutes.

Game 6 will likely be Wednesday night.

Raptors 100, Celtics 93

The Cs are becoming experts at fulfilling the prescription for how to lose. You begin by playing passive defense in the first quarter, giving up 17 points in the first 5 minutes with 8 documented incidences of weak defensive effort in the quarter. Then you complement that defense with no ball movement to create good shots and jack up treys looking for an easy way out. Truth is, this game was never close in the second half as the Raptors were in control all the way. The Cs have a maturity problem and it reared its ugly head consistently in this game tonight. The Cs shooting from the 3-point line was awful, just a pathetic 7 for 35, 20%. It’s not possible to win with that poor a percentage unless you counter it with intense, aggressive defense, and that was not in evidence in this game except for a few minutes in the second quarter.

The game was tied at the half, at 49, but put away by the Raptors in the third quarter and they endured the fourth quarter and never gave in.
Some of the poor performances by the Cs were 5 turnovers each by Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart; 1 for 6 on treys by Tatum, Smart and Walker and 2 for 11 on treys by Jaylen Brown, who also got into foul trouble and had a difficult night trying to guard Pascal Siakim. They also left Serge Ibaka wide open for his pet 3-point set shot and he canned four of them.

Actually, the two Celtics who had the most positive contributions were Semi Ojeleye and Grant Williams off the bench but they only got 24 minutes of playing time between them. To say that they missed Gordon Hayward tonight would be a gross understatement.

The Cs are either going to commit to playing defense at the opening whistle or they will lose this series; yet they may be the better team.

Raptors 104, Celtics 103

A well deserved loss for the Cs in this one. They were beaten by a corner trey at the buzzer but the game was lost long before the last shot. Just as Marcus
Smart shot them to a win in the last game, he shot them to a loss in this one. He was 4 for 15 from the floor and Jayson Tatum was 5 for 18; yet they kept right on shooting, ignoring the fact that Kemba Walker was on fire and not feeding him the ball. The Cs defense was never intense and their normally good ball movement was absent for most of the game as well. Hopefully, they will learn something from this one. And while Jaylen Brown had a great game on both ends of the floor, he made a huge mistake allowing OG Anunoby to shoot an uncontested corner trey, a colossal mistake.

Walker led the scorers with 29 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals; Brown had 19 points, 12 boards and 2 assists; Tatum had 15 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists; and Smart had 11 points, 5 boards and 4 assists. Hopefully, they will learn from this. In the third period they literally froze Walker from the ball even though he had 21 points at the half. Hard to understand why they couldn’t recognize that he was hot for the entire game, the polar opposite of game 2 when he was cold.

The next game will be on Saturday.

Celtics 102, Raptors 99

The Celtics looked like they were on a course to an ugly loss with a lot of the fault lying with the Cs guards, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart, when Smart got fiery red hot, hit 6 treys and willed them to a win. They did a lot of things wrong in this game beginning by defending poorly for the first 6 minutes of the game and ending with a very ugly third period, actually trailing by 11 at one point, before Smart exploded. It’s hard to believe Walker finished with 17 points because he was 1 for 11 from the floor in the first half. Apparently, the Cs are simply the better of the two teams.

The Cs were led by Jayson Tatum with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists; Smart had 19 points, 3 boards and an assist; Walker had 6 rebounds and 4 assists; Jaylen Brown had 16 points, 8 boards and 2 assists; and Rob Williams had 11 points and 4 rebounds. There weren’t a lot of assists as the ball movement on offense for the Cs was substandard throughout the game. Daniel Theis had only 3 points but grabbed 9 rebounds and had 3 blocked shots along with stellar defense. Coach Stevens has a lot of trust in Grant Williams’ defense as he got many important minutes in the fourth quarter.

The next game will be on Thursday.

Celtics 112, Raptors 94

When the Celtics play energetic, intense defense for entire game and Marcus Smart is the leading scorer, the Cs are virtually unbeatable. The law of average finally kicked in for Smart as he was 5 for 9 from the 3-point line. This game was never close even though the Cs managed to turn the ball over a startling 22 times, many of them totally unforced. The Cs led at all the stops after scoring 39 points in the first quarter while holding the Raptors to just 23 which included four treys by known 3-point specialist Serga Ibaka, all poorly challenged by Robert Williams.

The Cs were led by Smart with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists with 5 TOs; Jayson Tatum also had 21 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists with 4 TOs; Kemba Walker had 18 points, 6 boards and 4 assists with 2 TOs; Jaylen Brown had 17 points, on just 6 of 18 from the floor, with 5 rebounds and 4 assists with 2 TOs; Daniel Theis had 13 points and 15 boards with 4 TOs; and Williams had 10 points and 5 boards with 2 TOs. The Cs got useful minutes from both Semi Ojeleye and Brad Wanamaker off the bench as well. And Grant Williams and Romeo Langford had brief appearances in the final minutes, along with Vincent Poirier.

Today’s game marks the second this year where the Cs have displayed dominating defense against the Raptors from the opening whistle; now their challenge will be to sustain it over the course of the series.

The second game will be Tuesday night.

Celtics 110, Sixers 106

Nothing to get excited about here; the Celtics did what they were supposed to do, eliminate the Sixers in a four-game sweep, even without Gordon Hayward. Now they await the Toronto Raptors who lead their series against the Brooklyn Nets, 3-0, and should wrap it up tonight.

The Cs overcame a sluggish start defensively as they allowed the Sixers to score 32 points in the first quarter to lead by 5. They reduced the gap to trail by 1 at the half, 58-57. They increased their defensive intensity in the third quarter and never looked back.

Kemba Walker led the Cs with 32 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists; Jayson Tatum bounced back with 28 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists; Jaylen Brown had 16 points, 5 boards and 2 assists; and Danile Theis had 15 points 4 boards and 3 assists. Brown had another off-night shooting the ball as he was just 6 for 15 from the floor and 2 for 9 on treys. He is much more effective when he is also driving the ball to the rim.

Brad Wanamaker had 18 minutes of play but was only 1 of 6 from the floor and Enes Kanter was solid again with 3 for 6 shooting and 5 rebounds.