Depleted Raptors score well, lose with honour to Celtics

Moral victories are a funny thing. When an NBA team is bad, and losing constantly, it’s all you can find. And the Toronto Raptors found plenty of moral victories over the last two seasons, certainly. When a team is underperforming, moral victories are unacceptable. But when a team is 23-15, overperforming, and missing both stars and another starter to boot against one of the league’s best, it’s okay to search for moral victories once again.

So the Raptors lost to the Boston Celtics. If you’re the Raptors, that’s not such a big deal. One thing that could be a big deal: RJ Barrett went to the locker room (under his own power) midway through the fourth quarter after stepping on a defender’s foot. Stick with Raptors Republic as we get updates on his status. But the team was without Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, and Jakob Poeltl. But a variety of Raptors played well, and there was absolutely no quit in the team, despite being given every opportunity to lay down and die. The Celtics started out on fire? Toronto punched with them. The Celtics built a huge second-half lead? Toronto clawed its way back in with an entire Summer League roster. And, yes, it wasn’t enough to win the game.

But it was enough, it turns out, for the Raptors to find their way, once again, to a moral victory.

It turns out when you get down the bench for the Raptors, there’s drivers on the roster. There are players who can put the ball on the floor after all. And early on against Boston, there was money in them there hills as a result. RJ Barrett drove off a pindown, hit the paint, found a shooter. Barrett got middle off a series of Collin Murray-Boyles rescreens (he was creating great contact!) and found a shooter. Gradey Drick blasted into the paint off of triple threat and silked a lefty layup through the rim. Even Alijah Martin got in on the fun, drove, used some fancy dribbling, and found a shooter. 

When the dust settled on the first quarter, the Raptors had scored 30 points on 5-of-9 shooting from deep. Pretty good! 

The only problem was that the Celtics can score the heck out of that thing, too. Sam Hauser splashed virtually every jumper he took, which were manifold. Payton Pritchard played with ease in the midrange, hitting his high-arcing moonshots without even touching the mesh. In the second quarter, he started creating layups, lobbing his teammates, and generally shredding Toronto’s undersized defence. 

The Raptors tried to counter with defence, getting Jonothan Mogbo some run. They tried to counter with offence, giving Jamison Battle a look. They tried getting both on the court. But ultimately, Toronto couldn’t find a way to outscore the Celtics or slow their offence whatsoever.

At least, not at first. Murray-Boyles eventually found his way to sink his teeth into the game. He tipped a pass away from a flare screen, got rid of the ball, and thundered a one-handed lob dunk over Pritchard in transition. He stepped in on a Jaylen Brown drive and helped Brown fumble the ball out of bounds. 

And meanwhile, the Raptors kept on the offensive pounding delivered to Boston’s defence Barrett hit a triple. Shead hit some more, drove for a floater. Walter kept digging away in the triple mines. Toronto came within fingernails of tying the game. 

But it accordioned back, as Boston found some layups while Toronto missed some shots. Walter’s diligent shooting started rimming out. Against these Celtics, even a cold-shooting streak that lasts for two possessions can spell a double-digit deficit. 

Things didn’t change in the second half. Toronto stayed hot, at least early, but a few mistakes in transition gave the Celtics open triples. Which they don’t miss. Murray-Boyles ran some blind pig above the arc and tossed an and-1 layup in on the roll, but he also got called for some rookie fouls on the other end. Barrett hit a triple, scored in transition, but the Celtics’ lead grew. Grew and grew. Slowly, to be sure. But Pritchard could not be stopped. 

Nor could Brown. Martin found himself back in the game and stripped him on a post spin. But Toronto’s defence was shading so heavily to Brown to deter his drives — read more about their commitment to such defensive tactics! — that it let shooters get open looks possession after possession. There’s a reason the Celtics are the second-best offence in the league, per Cleaning the Glass. While Brown scored far fewer than Pritchard in the first few quarters, it was Toronto’s defensive attention to Brown that allowed Pritchard and others his space behind the arc. (It didn’t help that at the end of the third quarter, Brown had 10 free throws, more than all of the Raptors combined. Some of those fouls weren’t particularly, ummm, deserved.) 

Some good things happened, to be sure, for the Raptors. Dick hit a triple! Shead threw some brilliant passes, including finding a cutting Jamison Battle whom he had no business identifying as open. Mogbo had some impressive defensive stops. Martin dunked a cocked-back one-hander in transition over a pile of flailing limbs. A lineup that had played together in Summer League clawed Boston’s 20-point lead back down to 11.

Sandro Mamukelashvili cut for a layup in the fourth. He made hay with his legs all game, running in transition, cutting in the half court. Sometimes he can camp out and blast away from deep, but he knew the assignment with the stars absent. He remains a vital and malleable offensive weapon. Walter never stopped digging in those 3-point mines, and he found the gold in the bedrock in the fourth. He finished with 19 points and five made triples. Dick drove for another physical layup after a hard closeout. Toronto finished with 117 big points.

None of it was enough. Brown got loose on his drives, finally, and he dunked and found some and-1s and generally wreaked havoc around the rim. As mentioned, Barrett seemed to turn his ankle after stepping on a defender’s foot and left the game, precluding him from another late-game miracle.

The Celtics ended up scoring 125. It was a monster number that showed about 40 minutes of pure offensive dominance. Toronto was without Barnes, who is the sun, moon, and stars of the defensive system. Losing, and giving up 125, is life.

But Toronto played well. Its bench played well. Not only did rotation players like Shead, Walter, Dick, and Murray-Boyles find great moments of success, but the deep bench, the 905 stars like Alijah Martin and Jonathan Mogbo found moments of success, too.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s nice to have moral victories back on the table. Now the Raptors have to hope the stars come back soon, and Barrett doesn’t miss much time after turning his ankle, so that moral victories don’t remain this team’s diet for long.

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