The Celtics are who The Raptors Should Be
Despite several injuries hampering the team, Boston is playing like they can beat anybody
Thursday night two games of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Semifinals played yesterday and two types of outcomes happened that day. The Toronto Raptors, the number one seed team in the Eastern Conference, were trounced by a LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers, a fourth seed team. Despite numerous articles questioning the roster makeup, defense, and overall experience of the Cavaliers, they still outplayed a younger, more balanced Raptors team as James continues to be the bane of the Raptors’ existence.
Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics have lost their key superstar talent in Kyrie Irving and skilled combo forward Gordon Hayward, and yet they pulled from a 22 point deficit to beat the red hot Philadelphia 76ers and take a commanding 2–0 in the series.
It’s a stretch to say that the Celtics have better players than the Raptors. The team didn’t earn the number one seed by accident. They played extremely well during the season and managed to win against a tough, scrappy Washington Wizards in a six game playoff series. So what’s the Celtics secret that the Raptors can’t seem to grasp?
One idea is based on the Celtics’ commitment to defense. Sixers’ point guard Ben Simmons was held to a single point on Thursday’s game and Joel Embiid, the starting center and All Star big man, was held to 22 point on 22 shots and was in foul trouble for the duration of the game.
The center was outplayed by fellow All Star center Al Horford, who had a double double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
“The matchup with Al is a tough one for us and for most of the league,” Brett Brown said to reporters after the 76ers fell back 0–2 in the series.
It also helps that Brad Stevens knows how to take advantage of roster lineups and utilize the talents of his players to the best of their abilities to help win the game.
“ Give Stevens a ragtag band of NBA players with no stars, and he will advance through the playoffs,” said Ringer writer Rodger Sherman. “Give Stevens a mid-major college team, and that school will contend for the national title.”
Meanwhile the Raptors are looking more and more like “pretenders” in the NBA and that’s due to an assortment of mistakes that makes Dwane Casey want to pull out his hair.
There were several instances throughout the game that the Raptors made too many mistakes on defense that proved to be costly and eventually led to their 2–0 hole against the Cavaliers. Whether it was the constant switching of DeMar DeRozan, C.J. Miles, or Kyle Lowry on Kevin Love — which leads to matchup problems since Love can easily score on all those wing players — or the fact that Serge Ibaka failed to provide any legitimate stops and Cavs rolled to the basket like a wide open front gate at a home.
Either way, it even has Casey starting to feel disbelief in his team.
“One thing you have is pride,” Casey said to reporters after the game. “One thing you have is pride to go into Cleveland and play for pride. I don’t know what the history of down 0–2 is, but one thing I do know: Tonight wasn’t us, how we normally play for longer periods of time.”
That doesn’t sound too good for the Raptors. The series is not over but the advantage clearly belongs to Cleveland at this point.
Celtics continue to show the league that even with a depleted talent, you can gather wins when you mix matchups and take advantage of opposing teams’ strategies. Raptors will have to find a niche and commit to defense if they expect to remain competitive and beat the Cavs in a possible seven game playoff series.
Either way, it looks like the Celtics — once again — look like the threat to Cleveland’s crown as the dominant Eastern Conference team.
*additional credit to Celtics Blog, Raptors HQ, CBS Sports, ESPN
