Joy of 6 straight for Celts
Horford, Morris return to power win at Garden
The four-city Western Conference trip and the five-game win streak were merely a tuneup for last night, when the Celtics faced the Eastern Conference leaders.
Al Horford and Marcus Morris were back in the lineup as the Celtics followed a familiar script by playing their best basketball late on their way to beating Toronto, 110-99, at the Garden. It was the second time in three meetings the Celtics have defeated the Raptors. The fourth and final regular-season meeting is Wednesday in Toronto.
The Celtics extended their win streak to six games, and cut Toronto’s conference lead to two games.
Morris, who drew a technical foul along with Toronto’s Pascal Siakam with 10.9 seconds left, incurred another for an early exit by ejection after getting into another beef with C.J. Miles. The Celtics forward walked off the floor waving both arms to an appreciative crowd.
He finished with a team-high 25 points, to go along with 24 from Jayson Tatum and 21 points plus seven assists by Terry Rozier.
The Celtics briefly took an 8886 lead early in the fourth on a Horford hook, and again a minute later when Morris hit an 18-footer. This time the Celtics were able to put two makes together as Rozier drove for a 92-88 lead, triggering a Toronto timeout.
The lead was short-lived, with Serge Ibaka tying the score a minute later from the baseline.
Jaylen Brown drove for only his second basket and a 94-92 Celtics’ lead with 6:22 left.
Morris missed a double-clutch jumper, Semi Ojeleye came down with the rebound, maintaining possession with 5:42 left. The Celtics came out of the subsequent timeout with a Tatum miss, and DeMar DeRozan made them pay with a drive for a 94-94 tie with 5:27 left.
Horford bulled past DeRozan in the post for a three-point play and a 97-94 lead. The sides swapped misses, before Kyle Lowry lost the ball out of bounds, and Morris followed by drilling a 3-pointer with 4:19 left for a 10094 Celtics lead.
Brown then stole the ball from Siakam, passed ahead to Rozier, and the latter drew a foul on DeRozan at the head of the break. Rozier hit twice for an eightpoint lead with 3:54 left.
Rozier poked the ball away from DeRozan during a baseline drive, setting up a Tatum layup in traffic. Lowry hit a 3-pointer, Horford missed the second of two free throws, and with the Celtics holding a 105-97 lead, Miles launched an air ball from 3-point range.
After Morris missed a shot, he blocked a Lowry drive down the other end. Tatum, fouled by DeRozan with 1:24 left, hit twice for the Celtics’ first 10-point lead.
Lowry continued to have a rough night, stepping out of bounds while going for a corner jumper.
Back-to-back hoops from DeRozan early in the third kicked off a 7-2 Toronto run for its biggest lead at 65-59.
A pair of three-point swings — a Tatum trey followed by a Morris three-point play — cut the Toronto lead to 69-67, and when Ibaka hit from downtown, Tatum matched the bomb on the next possession.
Morris finally tied the score at 74-74 with a three-point play after beating Ibaka and drawing the foul with a step-in leaner. Abdel Nader followed with two free throws for a brief lead, before DeRozan tied it from the line.
DeRozan left Toronto one point shy when he missed the second of two free throws, leading to a Monroe post-up for a Celtics lead of 80-77. Toronto tied, and the Celtics lost a chance at going ahead late off Greg Monroe’s point-blank miss. DeRozan closed the quarter out with two straight hoops for an 84-82 Toronto lead.
The first half hit a scorching pace almost immediately, with the lead changing hands on the last seven possessions of the first quarter, including Fred Van Vleet’s buzzer-beating trey for a 33-31 Toronto lead.
Defense tightened up on both sides in the second quarter, though with no change in the close margins.
Each team took the lead twice over the first 8:20, with DeRozan giving Toronto a 46-45 lead on a free throw with 2:57 left. Ibaka boosted that edge to 48-45 with two more, followed by a Jonas Valanciunas dunk to complete the 7-0 Toronto run.
The Celts were down 55-53 at the half.