Raps continue to sink in the Atlantic
Celtics’ Thomas puts on 44-point show as Boston moves 11/2 games up on Toronto for division lead
BOSTON — 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, the Raptors and Celtics went at it tooth and nail Wednesday 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 1½ 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 — his fourth consecutive game of 30 or more — but it was not enough with the way Thomas was going.
Raps head coach Dwane Casey, when he arrived in Boston, was looking for some carry over from the defensive effort Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
It might have been asking a lot against a rested Celtics team, while his Raptors were playing 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, 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 like Tuesday against New Orleans, it looked like he might bring this one home.
But as Lowry started to turn it up, Thomas was there to remind everyone he, too, can put the Celtics on his back.
Thomas scored eight consecutive points midway through the third to get Boston its first lead.
Hurting the Raptors cause in a big way was an uncharacteristic poor night from the free-throw line. The Raps converted 14 of 25 trips to the line, while the Celtics were good on 25 of their 30 free throws.
Also not helping was the Raps’ three-point game with the visitors hitting 12 of 36 attempts from 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 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 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, Ont., 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, excluding the D-League game.
His 11 points in the first half in just 10 minutes then was a bit of a jump.