C’s blasted by Toronto
Boos rain down in Garden opener
The Celtics counted down 75 years of history Friday night with a lengthy video presentation that was merely a red carpet for what really set the crowd off — the introduction of the franchise’s latest Hall of Famer, Paul Pierce.
Pierce sets an impossible standard at the moment for this current group of Celtics, who after getting blown out in a home-opening loss to Toronto, 115-83, are clearly a work in slow progress.
By then the crowd had reversed course.
The boos were loud as the 0-2 Celtics gave up some mammoth runs, 21 offensive rebounds, forked over 25 turnovers for 27 Toronto points, allowed the Raptors to dominate with 58 points in the paint, and never found a groove on offense.
Jaylen Brown followed up his career 46-point night in New York with something closer to earth — nine points on 3-for-13 shooting. Jayson Tatum finished with 18, but only two points after halftime, on a subdued 8-for-14 shooting performance.
The Celtics, after giving up 15 offensive rebounds in the first half and struggling with Toronto’s more energetic approach, gave up something even worse in the third — a 22-6 Raptors run over the last 6:24 of the quarter.
As tough as it may have been to hear boos on the night of his first regular season game, coach Ime Udoka understood.
“They know the passion of the crowd and the fans, not ideal, especially for tonight,” he said. “But you take that, embrace it and use it as fuel. We deserved it, the way we played, and I think our guys know that. That’s what we appreciate about the fan base as well — they’re gonna be on us out there with our effort, and for the most part they just outplayed us. When you get that result out there, I expect nothing less.”
Friday night’s issue was also an oldie, also demonstrated by last year’s Celtics — a front-running team that came out at the oddest times with low-effort moments.
Udoka, who thought his team had the necessary amount of that quality through the preseason and Wednesday’s loss in New York, saw this flash from 2020-21 come out of nowhere.
“I think we did let our offense affect us at times — some non-calls there we got our heads down, and that’s something we want to play through,” he said. “But the first five games, with the game in New York, can’t be that big of a contrast in effort there. We played hard all through the preseason and the first game no matter who was in and out of the lineup. We got some guys back, and honestly it looked like we could have been tired from the double overtime game, but no excuse, you have to play through it, we had a day of rest yesterday, and New York went on to beat Orlando, so no excuse on our part.”
Al Horford and Josh Richardson both played their first games of the season and were part of the solution —
the former with 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, and the latter with a 4-for-4 night from 3-point range.
But in front of a home opener crowd, the Celtics were curiously flat.
“I think we got a little discouraged with our shots not falling,” said Horford. “Defensively, even at halftime, we were good. Unacceptable giving up all those offensive rebounds. You just can’t do that. We put ourselves in a bad position. I think they shot like 20 more shots at halftime. It was something ridiculous, and we were still down by 4. And then we continued, stayed at it, but we could never get over. They make you play different. You have to move the ball more. You have to do certain things. I don’t think we did enough of that. So I just think that got to us and it just kind of deflated us on defense. But give them credit. They’re a scrappy team and they play hard. We were definitely kept in check tonight.”
Udoka’s message was simple. They can only go up from this low point.
“I said that’s as ugly as it can get,” said the Celtics coach. “One thing I can’t stand as a coach is to get punked out there, and I felt they came out and punked us, outplayed us, played harder than us, all the things we talked about. You don’t want to overreact and panic. We’re going to stay together and keep our head up. But I said, use these boos as motivation. We deserved it, the way we played. Us coaches didn’t prepare them as well as we should have, understanding who Toronto is. Doesn’t matter who they have on their team, on their roster, they are going to play with that same intensity and we didn’t match it. Take it in, use it for fuel, use it for motivation to come back ready for Houston in two days.”