November 10, 2024

Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics roll over Toronto Raptors 122-100: 4 things we learned

Celtics #Celtics

The Boston Celtics obliterated the Toronto Raptors 122-100 on Friday, embarrassing the defending champions — and a potential playoff opponent — with an impressive two-way effort.

Here are four things we learned from a 22-point victory that wasn’t that close.

1. The Celtics, when fully clicking, are terrifying.

The Celtics showed a little bit of everything on Friday. Defensively, they played somewhat like the Milwaukee Bucks — more focused on guarding the interior than stopping Toronto’s 3-point shooters. The results were excellent. Toronto couldn’t find the range from deep early, and Boston stormed out to a big lead in the first half from which the Raptors never recovered.

Offensively, the Celtics were even better. Every star contributed, every pass was crisp and — until the game was out of reach — Boston’s eight-man rotation was a devastating combination of basketball IQ, athleticism and long-range shooting.

The Celtics, at their peak, are contenders. Friday’s game was the first reminder of that fact since the season resumed.

2. Robert Williams’ improvements looked a little more real.

As always, putting too much stock into a few good minutes is unwise, so we don’t want to extrapolate too much.

But for the second consecutive evening, Williams not only looked playable but genuinely good. Defensively, he swiped less — a focal point of his development on that end — and as a result, he found himself in position more frequently, rather than committing silly fouls or getting beat off the bounce. Offensively, he made a few crisp passes and cuts, and he had one particularly impressive first-half pick-and-roll with Marcus Smart in which he dove at the exact right time, caught the pass and never brought it down for the layup. As a rebounder, he’s devastating when he’s in the right position — bouncy and long with huge hands that can corral the ball easily.

A playable Robert Williams would be useful for the Celtics. Genuinely good Robert Williams would be a game changer.

3. Floaters would unlock a lot of Jayson Tatum’s game.

In the third quarter, Tatum flipped in a pair of floaters — one out of the pick-and-roll, one out of a dribble hand-off. Tatum’s floaters still need some work, but mastering the shot would open up even more of his offensive game. When he can hit 3-pointers at this level, attack off the bounce, pull up from mid-range out of the pick-and-roll, force his way to the line and loft the ball into the hoop from a few feet away, it’s a little unclear exactly how he can be stopped.

4. The Raptors are not this bad ad the Celtics probably aren’t this good, but Boston matches up well.

Toronto is unlikely to play this badly again if the two teams meet in the postseason, and getting another near-perfect offensive game out of the Celtics would be a tough ask.

Still, the Celtics are now 3-1 against the Raptors this season with two impressive blowouts — Friday’s win and a Christmas Day 118-102 victory on the road.

Schematically, the Celtics have a few advantages. Jayson Tatum can guard Kyle Lowry, which opens up other defensive matchups (Marcus Smart vs. Fred Van Vleet, Jaylen Brown vs. Pascal Siakam, etc.). On the other end, the Celtics have a lot of size over the Raptors — two of their best players (Lowry and Van Vleet) are 6-foot-0 or under.

Don’t assume the Celtics will wash the Raptors in a playoff series if they meet (Toronto is very good, despite everything you just saw), but for Boston, Friday’s result was extremely encouraging.

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