Raptors, Celtics ready to cap historic series, tonight with Game 7
Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse has worked his top players hard in their second-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Don’t expect that to change in the decisive Game 7 tonight.
Evenly matched with impressive weapons on both sides, these two teams have delivered what many expected: a rough-and-tumble back-and-forth duel that’s going the distance after Toronto’s double-overtime win on Wednesday in Game 6.
After a breezy first-round sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, the reigning NBA champs have been fully tested this time around. It will take another top-shelf effort from Toronto’s big guns to return to the league’s final four at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
“I keep saying that all these guys are critical players to our success and to us being the best version of ourselves,” Nurse said.
Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet are averaging about 42 minutes a game in the series, just ahead of Pascal Siakam (40.5) and OG Anunoby (38.0). Serge Ibaka (22.9), Marc Gasol (21.5) and Norm Powell (24.1) are the other key cogs.
“We needed some scoring punch from Norm,” Nurse said. “He’s our offthe-bench guy to change the rhythm on offence or get us some transition. He’s just a different type of player and scorer than everybody else. It was much needed certainly.”
It has required some dramatics for Toronto to get this far against thirdseeded Boston. Down 2-0, Anunoby delivered a memorable Game 3 buzzerbeater on a long pass from Lowry that gave the Raptors life. The teams then split two games before Lowry anchored a 125-122 victory in Wednesday’s Game 6 to stave off elimination, highlighted by Powell’s 15 points over 10 minutes of overtime.
Now it’s the Celtics who are up against it, with momentum shifting Toronto’s way for a winner-take-all showdown for a berth in the Eastern final against the Miami Heat.
“Out of the last four weeks, I think I slept better last night than I’ve slept at any time,” Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said Thursday. “Because I knew we competed and I know there’s things we can clean up. And I’m also looking forward to this because this is what you’re here for.”
Lowry was again a workhorse in Game 6, pouring in 33 points with eight rebounds and six assists over 53 minutes. The Raptors struggled late in the fourth quarter before eventually coming through in OT.
“We gave ourselves a shot and we know anything can happen,” Powell said. “Focus for 48 minutes together and leave it all out there.”
Jaylen Brown had 31 points and 16 rebounds for the Celtics.
Boston is a 2 1/2-point favourite for the series finale against the secondseeded Raptors, who’ll be considered the home team at the fan-free AdventHealth Arena near Orlando.
“I expected this to be a long series,” Nurse said. “Thank goodness we’ve played just well enough to make it a long series.
“Hopefully we can play better tomorrow. But there’s some special guys on this team — I’ve said that a lot — that really will compete at an incredible level.”