raptors

Today at 11:37 PM

TORONTO — For a marque franchise defending their NBA championship, things have been pretty quiet around the Boston Celtics this season.

The Celtics started the season 21-5, which was ahead of the pace they set last season when they won 20 of their first 26 and went on to run away and hide on the rest of the Eastern Conference with a 64-18 record before going 16-3 in the playoffs.

But the Celtics didn't get much attention because the Cleveland Cavaliers were off to an even better start in the East and the Oklahoma City Thunder were matching them win-for-win in the West. Meanwhile, Boston's championship hangover finally started to hit, and the Celtics went 11-10 over the next six weeks, brought down in part by cold three-point shooting and some indifferent defending.

But great teams can sniff the finish line. The Celtics arrived in Toronto on Tuesday night as one of the hottest teams in the NBA, having won nine of their previous 10 starts as they get revved up to defend their title.

For the Raptors, it was an opportunity, in the mind of head coach Darko Rajakovic. How better to find out where you stand than by playing a team firing on all cylinders?

"I think that you’re excited when you play against teams and players like this,” Rajakovic said before the game. “You can see the guys, they’re even more locked in than usual. They really want to go out there. They’re looking forward with excitement to play the best team, champion of the NBA last season. So there is a lot of motivation there. And that brings a lot of alertness and energy in the game that’s needed to play against them like that."

The scoreboard never lies: Boston (42-16) won 111-101 to sweep the season series against the Raptors 4-0. But the Raptors (18-40) hung in right through the final moments of the fourth quarter.

"I thought our guys played extremely hard," said Rajakovic before his team headed to the airport for a flight to Indianapolis to start a four-game road trip against the Pacers on Wednesday night.

RJ Barrett had 22 points, eight rebounds and three assists while Scottie Barnes added 21 points, three rebounds and six assists. Boston got 24 points from Jaylen Brown and 22 from Derrick White.

OK then, apart from the final score, how do the Raptors stack up against one of the NBA's elite teams?

Based on one night in February and my own wholly unscientific criteria, here is my impression of where the Raptors stand relative to the defending champs:

STAR QUALITY

Perhaps the Celtics’ biggest advantage is that they have several stars, though how you define the word determines how many. The Celtics' top superstar is Jayson Tatum, who is a near lock to earn all-NBA honours for the fifth time and for the fourth straight year as a first-team selection. He leads the Celtics in points per game (26.8), rebounds per game (8.8) and assists per game (5.7).

The Raptors can only hope Scottie Barnes will become to them what Tatum is to Boston. They share a lot of similar qualities as big, rugged wings who can punish smaller matchups with bully ball. But Tatum's game is more varied: his three-point shooting (37.6 per cent for his career) is better that league average, and he gets them up from every angle while averaging 10 attempts a game this season. 

Tatum was 3-of-12 Tuesday. But perhaps the most encouraging thing from Boston's point of view is that he's still developing. Tatum's 11 assists against Toronto marked the fourth time in nine games he's cracked double-digit helpers, and he had another game with nine. He's on pace for a career high. Celtics insiders point to Tatum's passing as being a big contributor to Boston's recent surge.

Barnes had his moments against the Celtics. The best of them came in the first half as he put his shoulder down and bulled his way to the rim multiple times. It's that kind of force that makes the defense collapse and allows Barnes to use his passing ability for a bigger impact.

Barnes’ shooting has miles to go. He was 0-of-5 from deep against Boston and is now shooting 26.4 per cent from behind the arc. Going forward he'll either have to get better from that range or come up with an alternative plan. In his fourth season, Barnes' potential remains apparent, but there's a big gap between the level he's at and where Tatum has been for the past four or five years.

Advantage: Boston

TEAM SHOOTING

This is an easy one. Boston is on pace to shatter the NBA record for three-pointers made and attempted this season. They get up 48.3 per game and score nearly 54 points a game from behind the arc. Boston has eight players averaging at least 1.8 made threes per game. The Raptors are second-last in the NBA in three-point attempts (33.0) and makes (11.7), and have just three players making more than 1.8 per game. 

The Celtics didn't even have a particularly good night shooting the ball – they finished 15-of-51, 29.4 per cent – but when they're getting up that many attempts it almost doesn't matter. They can catch fire and go cold multiple times in a 48-miniute game.

Boston jumped out to healthy first-quarter lead by going 5-of-11 from deep while the Raptors were 0-of-9. Boston was ice cold after that, but its two threes in the fourth quarter – both by White – helped keep the Raptors at arm's length.

Advantage: Boston

DEPTH

Boston was already down two of their bigs in Al Horford and Luke Kornet when the Celtics got the news that Kristaps Porzingis would be a late scratch due to illness. As well, they were already without guard Jrue Holiday, who was resting on the first night of a back-to-back.

The Raptors were missing only centre Jakob Poeltl (hip) from their regular rotation (his return is "very close," said Rajakovic). Toronto also was missing Brandon Ingram but given he has yet to play for Toronto and his ankle sprain will be re-evaluated in another two weeks, it's hard to count him.

Anyway, even missing so many key performers, Boston was able to squeeze out a win because the Celtics got just enough from their secondary contributors. Back-up point guard Payton Pritchard played 35 minutes, started in the second half and was excellent, grinding his way to 20 points, seven rebounds and two assists. The six-footer's offensive rebound and kick out to White for a three with just over two minutes left was a backbreaker. Boston got some nice minutes from back-up big Neemias Queta – eight points and five rebounds in 20 minutes,

Still the Raptors got plenty of contributions from their bench. Rajakovic had five reserves play at least 14 minutes and as a group they shot 15-of-26 from the floor and were a +4 for the night in aggregate. None of the Raptors reserves are ready to for the kind of role Pritchard plays for Boston, but you can see some promise.

Advantage: Even

DEFENCE

With the Celtics lacking all three of their primary bigs and missing Holiday, their best perimeter defender, it's perhaps not all that surprising that the Raptors were able shoot 50.6 per cent from the floor overall even while missing 28 three-pointers. But the Celtics showed their pedigree when they felt the urge to assert themselves.

In the first quarter, they forced the Raptors into a shot-clock violation and desperate three-point attempt at the horn that might as well have been a shot-clock violation. In the fourth quarter, they made the plays they needed, such as when Tatum ripped the ball out of Gradey Dick's hands and then forced Immanuel Quickley into another turnover on consecutive plays in the last 2:25.

But the Raptors’ defensive effort was commendable, especially without Poeltl. Barnes again took on a heavy load, matching up with Tatum and Brown and making his presence felt. Toronto kept the Celtics off the line – they only had eight free throw attempts – and finished off their possessions with rebounds. There was a mix-up on a switch on a baseline inbounds play where it looked like Dick was late to react on what ended up being a lay-up for Queta that put Boston up nine with 3:19 to play, but for the most part Toronto's defensive engagement was more than adequate.

Had Boston not missed 36 threes the picture might be different, but the Raptors won't have to look at their defensive clips and cover their eyes.

Advantage: Boston (but just slightly)

EFFORT AND COHESION

It wasn't so much that Boston lost this category as it was the Raptors won it. It seemed every other play a different Raptor was diving on the floor, most memorably when Dick dove out of bounds in the first half and somehow saved the ball with a behind-the-back pass directly to Chris Boucher, or in the fourth quarter when Ochai Agbaji took another dive and seemed to save the ball, although the referees ruled otherwise.

When Jonathan Mogbo battled for an offensive rebound and tapped it out for a Dick three, the latter player made sure to acknowledge Mogbo's effort.

Boston moved the ball and made plays and certainly played hard enough to win. But for a team that is 18-40 on the season, the Raptors’ connection and hustle was impressive and should be a foundation element going forward.

Advantage: Toronto