BOSTON D-PARTY
With two starters out of action, Raptors still manage to knock off key Eastern Conference rival thanks to strong defensive effort,
Almost 24 hours after picking up his 200th win as the Toronto Raptors’ head coach, Dwane Casey was asked if he remembered win No. 1.
Casey smiled, and sounded relieved as he described what feels like the distant past.
“Andrea Bargnani was the star player,” he said. “I remember all of those guys, every one of them. I remember when we were 30th in the NBA in defence and everyone was crying about the offence. Now we’re top five and everyone’s crying about the defence. I remember all of it.”
Win No. 201 was another reminder of how far Casey’s squad has come. As Kyle Lowry bombed away from three-point land in the fourth quarter of the Raptors’ 105-91 victory, he bookended a 17-point first quarter from veteran forward Luis Scola. The Raptors handled the fourthseeded team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference without two key starters — Jonas Valanciunas dressed but didn’t play, owing to his left-hand injury, and James Johnson sat out with plantar fasciitis. And, of course, DeMarre Carroll has missed most of the season recovering from knee surgery.
None of that mattered. Lowry scored 32 points,15 in the fourth, and the Raptors held the Celtics to 17 points in the final quarter — their defensive identity is another important modification over those 201 wins — as they inched closer to a franchise-best 50 wins.
“It’s never going to be perfect,” Casey said. “You go with the hand you’re dealt and I think we’ve come a long way, and still have a long way to go.”
The oldest pair of legs on the floor came out full speed and set the tone for the first half. The 35-year-old Scola started out with the hot hand, connecting on three of his first four three-pointers. He started to mix in some low-post work and provided a highlight when he stole the ball at midcourt off Celtics guard Avery Bradley and went in for an uncontested two-handed dunk that had the Raptors bench in hysterics. Behind Scola’s 17 first-quarter points, the Raptors dominated the opening frame, shooting 54.5 per cent from the field and 60 per cent from three. Lowry and DeMar DeRozan played a happy second and third banana, combining for nine assists as the Raptors led 30-14 after 12 minutes.
Scola sat much of the second quarter, but the Raptors stayed in control of the game. Lowry got his offensive game going and went into the break with 14 points, four assists and four rebounds. The Toronto lead went as high as 19 in the quarter, though the Celtics threatened twice to get with- in single-digits. Isaiah Thomas’ eight points led the Celtics at the break, but the Raptors were comfortably in front, 55-41.
The comfort slipped away early in the third. Thomas began to wake up in the midst of a 9-1 Celtics run that was sparked by Avery Bradley’s steal and coast-to-coast run to the bucket. Thomas had a pretty reverse layup, then followed it up with a threepointer to get the game back within single digits, 58-50, with 9:21 to play.
As Thomas went to work on his end, DeRozan finally began to get some momentum in his battle. Bradley did an outstanding job on the Raptors’ top offensive threat. DeRozan got his points — he scored nine in the frame to hit14 to that point — but earned every single one, with Bradley in front of him and an alert Celtics team quick to smother with help when necessary.
Thomas did his damage, scoring 12 points in the third, and Boston whittled the lead down to five, 79-74.
But the Celtics went cold to start the fourth, scoring just one bucket through almost seven minutes of play. Lowry hit back-to-back threepointers in a 14-2 run that allowed Toronto to open a 17-point lead.
Lowry continued to bomb away, hitting 32 points on the night, taking the Raptors to their 47th win of the season. The Raptors host the Orlando Magic on Sunday.