The Toronto Raptors have shown they can lose ugly so far in their second-round series against the Boston Celtics.
They’ve failed to show up (Game 1); frittered away a hard-earned fourth-quarter lead (Game 2) and now have looked completely outclassed (Game 5) after the Celtics dominated in every category of their 111-89 win on Monday night.
Toronto’s had moments too: In between the losses they’ve won in miracle fashion (Game 3) and while in control, largely, from start to finish (Game 4).
Now the Raptors will have to find a way to win ugly, pretty, easy or hard – any way at all will do as their playoff lives officially depend on it.
Add it all up and Boston will take a 3-2 lead into Game 6 Wednesday night.
The Raptors have done a lot of amazing things on the road to becoming NBA champs, but they’ve only won once while facing elimination – Game 7 against Philadelphia in their 2019 second-round series, perhaps you remember it?
Now they have to win twice in win-or-go home games (literally, given the Raptors have been in Florida for 10 weeks now) in order to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in four years.
This group is never to be underestimated, but it’s hard to like their chances given that Boston has shown the ability to outclass Toronto at times, Game 5 being the most obvious example.
The Raptors gave up an open triple to Jaylen Brown in the corner to start the game and not only did they never lead the rest of the way, but when Boston went up 21-9 with two minutes left in the first quarter, the Celtics never led by less than 12 for rest of night.
Boston led by 14 at the end of the first quarter, 27 at half and by as much as 30 late in the third quarter.
It was a beatdown and the Celtics came with clubs.
Toronto was shooting just 30.2 per cent from the floor and 4-of-18 from three through three quarters as Boston never let them find their feet.
Could the Raptors finally be showing the effects of consecutive games where they had pushed the limit in order to crawl out of an 0-2 hole?
In Games 3 and 4, Nurse played Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby 340 of a possible 384 minutes. He had little choice, but based on the lack of energy the Raptors showed at points of the game and some of the careless turnovers, it has to be a considered as a possibility.
They at least had most of the fourth quarter to rest in advance of Game 6 on Wednesday.
Heading into Game 5 the pattern for the series had been pretty well established. With the exception of Toronto’s no-show in Game 1, these were two teams ready to go to the wall to win – or more often than not the floor. Both were perfectly capable offensive teams in the regular season and the Raptors rolled into the series averaging 126.3 points a game in their four-game sweep of the Brooklyn Nets.
But the Celtics aren’t the Nets and the Raptors have shown an ability to raise their game defensively going back to their championship run a season ago.
It made sense that scoring was going to be at a premium.
The Raptors’ offensive rating through the first four games was 101 per 100 possessions – for context, the Golden State Warriors were last in the regular season in that category with 104.4. The Celtics came in at 104.6, or barely ahead of the regular-season Warriors.
Tellingly, Nurse wasn’t all that confident that the Raptors would suddenly solve the Celtics and start putting up big numbers. He’s seen enough through the first four games.
“From what I see, they’re a very good defensive team and I think most people around the league would agree with that,” he said. “They got some guys playing it; they got some great schemes. They got some length; they got some effort. I think the numbers bear out it is two really good defensive teams, and it’s physical and makes it hard to score. I don’t know if the offence will improve or not.”
And the Celtics weren’t about to let their foot off the gas, not having dropped two straight games and on the verge of losing control of the series if they dropped a third. Ramping up their defence even more was a pre-game focus.
“I think the biggest thing is we have to defend better at the start of the first and third quarters. That’s something we’re paying close attention to for sure,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, referring to the relative success the Raptors starting lineup has had in the series. “And then that helps you get down the court, helps you get into space, and then you get better looks. I thought we got good looks at the start of the third for sure, and in the first. It wasn’t bad, so we just have to keep playing the right way on offence and make it as tough as possible.”
Never let it be said the Celtics can’t follow a game plan.
It’s not often an NBA playoff game gets largely decided in the first half of the first quarter, but it sure felt that’s what was going on in Game 5.
The Raptors brought their bag of stones to the rock fight as they limited Boston from running wild in the early going. Through the first nine minutes of the game they held Boston well in check, but the Celtics had the Raptors playing as if their hands were tied.
When Brown rose up for an authoritative dunk over Anunoby it capped a 9-0 Celtics run, but Boston only had 18 points at the time.
But Toronto was playing as if their hands were tied behind their backs. The Celtics lead was 18-5 and the Raptors were shooting 2-of-15 from the floor. The Raptors were rushing – Anunoby fumbled a pair of passes that should have led to dunks; Lowry was left shooting isolation air balls at the end of the clock. Norman Powell – ostensibly Toronto’s offensive spark plug off the bench – was called for charging in transition and was blocked on another drive (although on replay it appeared it may have been goaltending). Siakam was nowhere to be found and Marc Gasol, scoreless in his first four shots, looked lost.
Boston led 25-11 after the first quarter as Toronto shot just 4-of-20 from the floor and coughed up six turnovers. The Raptors were able to keep in it with their own defensive approach, but with that many balls flying off the rim and enough turnovers, eventually it’s like water rushing through a leaky dam – it all can’t be contained.
The Celtics maintained their defensive edge in the second quarter but they complemented it with plenty of easy scores – Boston was 7-of-8 in the paint in the second quarter alone and counted seven fastbreak points as they went into halftime leading 62-35 – the 27-point difference a deficit no team has come back from in NBA playoff history.
The Raptors weren’t going to be the first and now will have to win not one but two elimination games in order to keep their championship reign going.
