Home sweet for Celtics
After awful trip, beat first-place Raptors
CELTICS 117 RAPTORS 108
No amount of team meetings and calling one another out is a substitute for the opportunity that presented itself on the Garden floor last night – the arrival of the Eastern Conference leaders. The Celtics, after the worst road trip of the season – an 0-3 slog through Miami, Orlando and Brooklyn – took an initial hit and recovered to beat Toronto, 117-108.
Kyrie Irving led the way with 27 points and a careerhigh 18 assists, and Al Horford showed up in support with a season-high 24 points, including seven in a scorching fourth quarter. Gordon Hayward added 18 points off the bench.
The Celtics thus weathered a 33-point performance by Kawhi Leonard and another 22 from Serge Ibaka, and lead the regular season series, 2-1.
Irving’s up-top 3-pointer with 1:31 left was good for a 111-106 lead, and when Danny Green’s jumper missed, the Celtics guard fed Horford on successive possessions for a 115-106 lead.
The two sides combined for three three-point plays and two 3-pointers in a 1:10 stretch, with Jayson Tatum’s three-point drive off the break cutting the Toronto lead to 104-103 with 3:54 left.
Missed opportunities at both ends, including an Irving drive off the break, finally popped on Tatum’s pull-up 3 off the break for a brief 106-104 lead with three minutes left.
Green buried a baseline jumper over Marcus Smart, Irving hit from 15 feet, and after a tough defensive possession by the Celtics left Leonard holding the ball as the shot clock expired, Irving hit the big shot up top.
The Celtics survived an 11point, third-quarter paint assault by Ibaka well enough to take an 87-83 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Celtics opened the quarter with a stagnant offense, and Toronto, with a 9-0 run, took a 92-89 lead on a Greg Monroe tip.
Aron Baynes thus lined up, and buried, his first 3-point attempt of the night for a 9292 tie with 6:44 left.
The Raptors took the lead twice in the next minute, including a tough Leonard 18-footer over Smart. Leonard also followed up a Norman Powell drive with two free throws for a 98-94 Raptors lead with 5:16 left.
Irving slashed right back with a three-point play, only for Leonard to cruise off a pick for an up-top 3 and, after Horford answered from downtown, a threepoint play off a drive for a 104-100 lead.
Hayward’s 16-point first half, including 7-for-8 shooting and the Celtics forward’s best defense of the season, sparked a 64-53 halftime lead. Baynes, simply by his return to the floor, had changed everything defensively for everyone in green.
Hayward’s buzzer-beating runner was good for that edge, and the Celtics, with seven points in the first 2:28 of the third, forced a quick Raptors timeout.
Ibaka scored every point in a 5-0 Raptors run that Marcus Morris ended with a three-point play, but Toronto continued to attack from the paint, with Ibaka’s dunk with 4:45 left in the quarter cutting the Celtics lead to 80-73.
Leonard followed by muscling Morris in off the wing for a three-point play that cut the Celtics edge to four points, Ibaka planted a hook over Hayward, and with the Celtics’ lead cut to two, Horford stopped the run at 9-0 with two free throws.
Horford scored the next seven Celtics points, including a three-point play for an 87-80 lead, and despite Ibaka’s 11th point of the quarter on a jumper, they escaped into the fourth ahead by four.