After a week between playoff games, it was impossible to know what to expect from the opener between the Celtics and Raptors. Regardless if you root for either team or if you are a neutral observer, I doubt many people predicted such an easy win for the C's in Game 1. Boston took it by a score of 112-94 (that truthfully wasn't that close) after building a 19-point lead in the first quarter and never trailing for the entire contest. Haha talk about a winning combination, if they can do something like that in every game for the rest of the series I like their chances to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years.
If the C's do win this series-their first ever against the Raptors-I shall dub today's performance "The Marcus Smart Game." He tied Jayson Tatum (9 rebounds) with a game-high 21 points and six rebounds on 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point land. We all know that Smart's shooting comes and goes like the tides in New England waters so you have to appreciate when he is feeling it like he did today. All of Boston's starting lineup had at least 13 points as Daniel Theis scored 13 and grabbed a career playoff-high 15 rebounds with two blocks, Kemba Walker added 18 points and a playoff career-high 10 assists while Jaylen Brown notched 17 points despite a rough shooting afternoon (6-for-18).
The Raptors are still the defending NBA champions so you have to respect them. Nick Nurse was the Coach of the Year and they have really overachieved in 2019-20 without last season's NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard who took his considerable talents to the Clippers. In many ways, Toronto is a carbon copy of Boston (minus the star power of Tatum): they play great team defense, almost everybody can hit 3s, they compete hard every game and they have a bunch of versatile players. Just like Smart's shooting was a mirage, Toronto struggling so much offensively (36.9% overall including 25% on 3s) figures to pick up in a major way. Kyle Lowry (17 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds) was their leading scorer while Pascal Siakam was held to 13 points, OG Anunoby notched 12 points and seven rebounds but Fred VanVleet was the real weak link with 11 points, eight assists and six steals on a horrific 3-for-16 shooting including 2-for-11 on 3-pointers.
Toronto's bench was actually pretty good as Serge Ibaka put up 15 points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes plus Norman Powell scored 10 points. In the exact same amount of playing time, Ibaka was way more effective than the ghost of Marc Gasol (7 points, 6 rebounds) so that would be an obvious change to the starting lineup for Game 2 at center for the Raptors. Robert Williams did about as well as he possibly could with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks in 19 minutes off Boston's bench. Gasol is way too old, fat and slow to keep up with Time Lord's ridiculous athleticism.
The Celtics just never gave the Raptors any hope of coming back today let alone winning Game 1. They were up 39-23 after the first quarter and 59-42 at halftime thanks to Kemba's buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Tatum hit a sweet fadeaway jumper at the end of the third quarter which gave Boston a comfortable 88-73 lead. A great sign for the C's heading into Game 2 on Tuesday night (5:30, ESPN) is that teams that win Game 1 in best-of-7 NBA series go on to take that series 76% of the time. Of course you can expect the Raptors to play much better but then again odds are that Tatum and Brown will improve as well. Toronto is not Philadelphia, they are tough but I like Boston's depth and abundance of scoring options compared to the Raptors' rather limited offense if they aren't making a bunch of 3s. Game 2 is a huge one since being up 2-0 in the bubble compared to tied 1-1 makes a (Disney) world of difference.
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