Other than Game 1, Toronto vs. Boston had been a razor-tight, defence-first affair, so there was no reason to expect Saturday’s fourth tilt to be any different.
And it wasn’t. There was the usual set the sport of basketball back 50 years second quarter, a ton of gritting and grinding, a boatload of missed three-pointers by key players on each side but just enough outside prowess from the Raptors to square up the best-of-seven at two games apiece thanks to a 100-93 win.Kyle Lowry was the best player on the court for the second game in a row despite again barely resting at all even though he’s the oldest player on either side.
Lowry was once again everywhere. He took multiple charges, drew fouls, hit the court for every loose ball and added to his already superb resume with a dynamic 22-point, 11-rebound, seven-assist effort. The point guard even added a couple of blocks and steals for good measure in his latest masterpiece. This wasn’t the Raptors team that couldn’t find the range from outside that we’d seen earlier in the series.“We played some ball tonight, looked like the team we remember a lot,” said head coach Nick Nurse. “We made really excellent decisions at the offensive end, we just kept probing and looking and passing and finding good shots, and then guys stepped up and made some big ones when we needed ‘em too.”Toronto got pummelled in the opener, but easily could have taken Game 2 before squeaking by the other night. Not much separated the teams on Saturday either, but in the end, it was Toronto’s 17 made three-pointers (on 39% accuracy) compared to dismal 7-for-35 (20%) outside work by the Celtics that made the difference.
Toronto shot poorly on two-point attempts and shot eight fewer free throws than Boston but it didn’t matter in the end.
Pascal Siakam stayed with it despite a bad start and overall 2-for-13 outside shooting to score 23 points, along with 11 rebounds. Serge Ibaka was huge off the bench with 18 points, OG Anunoby was strong overall and Fred VanVleet added 17. Lowry, Siakam and VanVleet all played the entire second half and Siakam said afterward he’d “play 1,000” minutes if that’s what it took to help his team get a win. VanVleet said “there isn’t really another option right now” other than playing heavy minutes and added the team had a three month break before coming to the bubble and is OK.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse passed Dwane Casey for most playoff wins with the team and quipped about Lowry afterward: “I asked him if he needed a sub, with a smile, and he chewed me out … Our guys are used to heavy minutes and they’re used to this intensity,” he added.Siakam and Lowry were the first pair of Raptors to each notch 20 and 10 in the same playoff game.
Jayson Tatum led Boston with 24 points. Kemba Walker, Tatum and Marcus Smart each shot 1-for-6 from three and Jaylen Brown was just 2-for-11, largely thanks to Siakam locking him down. “It was a rough night for a lot of us,” said Walker, who was dominant in the Game 3 loss but far from it in this one.
Siakam had said before the game that Thursday’s heart-stopping finish had been badly needed by a team that had been feeling both physically and mentally drained. “We haven’t been feeling good, really good lately and that’s a big one,” Siakam had said.
The Raptors rode that momentum, getting out to a nice start that was once again sparked by the engine of the operation, Lowry. The all-star guard had played nearly the entire previous game and only had a day to recuperate, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
Siakam actually started the game with a three-pointer off of nice ball movement before going ice cold from deep. It would be ages until he nailed another, even though his first six shots all came from behind the arc. But he forced Brown into an awful performance and hit the boards hard.
The Raptors led 31-27 after a quarter, but after turning in three straight awful second frames, one-upped themselves with the worst of the bunch. The Raptors looked lost offensively and shot only 32%, with one three-point make, until VanVleet hit a buzzer-beater to tie the game at 49. A tie, even though Lowry, VanVleet and Siakam had combined for 9-for-29 shooting.
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Siakam got the message to start mixing things up and did just that, scoring from other parts of the court on the way to an 11-point third that helped Toronto take an 81-73 lead into one of the biggest quarters of the season.
Lowry was the difference in the fourth and even though Tatum got the Celtics back within five late, they couldn’t complete the comeback.
The Raptors had faced a 2-1 playoff series deficit nine times before this year and had come back to win four times, including two series in a row (Philadelphia and Milwaukee) during last season’s road to the NBA title.
They’d be well on the way to doing it a third straight time with a win on Monday, though VanVleet knows it won’t be easy
“That’s a great team, one of the harder teams to guard in the league,” said the man who has hit more three-pointers than all but two other NBA players the past two years of the playoffs.