Raptors unable to hold off charging Thomas, Celtics
• If this does turn out to be a playoff preview, basketball fans in the cities of Toronto and Boston are in for a treat.
With second place in the East on the line, these Raptors and Celtics went at it tooth and nail, with Boston hitting the three when it needed it and Patrick Patterson’s open look rimming out for Toronto, which pretty much settled the issue.
With the 109-104 win, the Celtics’ lead over the Raptors for second spot behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference grew to 1 ½ games and they can thank tiny-but-mighty point guard Isaiah Thomas for that breathing space.
Thomas scored 19 of his gamehigh 44 points in the final period to push the Celtics to victory in a game in which they trailed by as many as 18 points midway through the third quarter.
He salted this one away with a pair of free throws after Marcus Smart got the better of Norm Powell on a jump ball in the dying seconds of a two-point game.
Kyle Lowry was no slouch in this one either with 32 points — the fourth consecutive game of 30 or more for the Raptors guard — but it was not enough the way Thomas got it going.
Raps head coach Dwane Casey was looking for some carry- over from the defensive effort the night before against the Pelicans when he arrived in Boston.
It might have been asking a lot, this coming against a rested Celtics team while his Raptors were play- ing for the second night in a row.
But as Casey has said many times before, nothing comes easy in the NBA and if his Raptors are serious about being among the league’s elite the way they want to be, it means doing the hard things.
“The good teams make the most of these situations,” Casey said. “Win a close game and bounce back the next night. It’s a challenge, but it’s what we have to do to be relevant.”
For a half and a good chunk of the third quarter, it looked like the Raptors might just run away with this one but again, life in the NBA isn’t that easy.
What had been an 18-point lead got down into single digits early in the fourth quarter and remained there midway through the final period before the battle of the point guards began.
With the home crowd finding its voice as the Celtics came charging back, the Raptors put the ball in Lowry’s hands and, just as he did Tuesday night against New Orleans, it looked like Lowry might bring this one home.
But just as Lowry started to turn it up, Boston’s Thomas was there to remind everyone that he, too, can put his team on his back.
Thomas scored eight consecutive points midway through the third to get the Celtics their first lead.
Lowry then punched back, getting his team back in front with three and a two of his own.
It went back and forth like that for a while, with each point guard taking his turn until Thomas hit a three to put the Celtics ahead for good.
Hurting the Raptors cause in a big way was an uncharacteristic poor night from the free throw line. The Raps converted just 14 of 25 trips to the line, while the Celtics were good on 23 of their 28 free throws.
Also not helping was the Raps’ three-point game, with the visitors hitting just 12 of 36 beyond the arc.
Lost in the fourth quarter heroics by Thomas was the best performance of Jared Sullinger’s short Raptors tenure.
Sullinger either really likes his old stomping grounds or there’s some remaining bitterness from the treatment he received here as a member of the Celtics. Or maybe it’s just time. Either way, Sullinger returned to Boston’s TD Garden where he played the first four years of his NBA career and put on a bit of a show, scoring a season high 13 points in just 15 minutes.
Sullinger is just working his way back into game shape after missing the first three months of the season to rehab following surgery on his left foot.
The Celtics game was his seventh since returning to action — eighth if you include a one-game visit to Mississauga where he played big minutes in a D-League game.
He scored eight in that first game but has been mostly a non- factor since, again excluding the D-League game.
About the only thing the Raptors didn’t do well in the first half was shoot threes — just 4-for-17 — and free throws, where they were 8-for14 from the charity stripe.
Then Thomas got it going and the Celtics didn’t look back.