10 things I saw from Raptors-Celtics (9/12/2016)
Published in
2 min readDec 13, 2016
- I don’t care that Isaiah Thomas was out. I don’t care that this game was harder than it needed to be. All that matters is that they went into Boston and took a win off these Tryhards and added to their lead on №2.
- Kyle Lowry carried the Raptors to this win. He has another gear where he just says ‘fuck everyone else I’m winning this game’ and he actually goes about it. Drawing the three free throws off Al Horford the step back sealed the win.
- Raptors collapsed way too much and conceded far too many open threes. 19 attempts in a half for the Celtics is way too many. This continues to be the Achilles heel for the Raptors defense.
- Dwane Casey eventually shifted to a trapping scheme by doubling the ball off pick and rolls. That’s a fine strategy but it will never work with Jonas Valanciunas out there. He’s just too slow and it corrupts everything.
- The strategy worked much better when Bebe Nogueira checked in. His length and mobility actually gives the Raptors a chance to recover on defense after the initial double. The second half defense is what won the game for the Raptors. Not unrelated: Jonas barely played in the 4th.
- Norman Powell led the comeback. He cut baseline for a free layup off Lowry’s drive, then blocked a shot which led to an open three that have the lead.
- Norm followed up with two threes in the fourth to firmly established the advantage. That kid good.
- Good move by Casey to buy time for his stars by sitting both DeRozan and Lowry to start the fourth. Lowry especially came back fresh to close out the game.
- DeRozan’s isolations to close the game were not necessary but he’s earned enough rope to decide games.
- I wanna drink these Celtics tears.
