Well it's time to take the Raptors seriously since they outplayed the Celtics tonight in Game 4 and evened up the series 2-2 with a grimy 100-93 victory. Toronto hit 10 more 3-pointers than Boston and for the fourth straight contest, they outscored the Celts in the third quarter (32-24) to create some separation after it was tied 49-49 at halftime. Jayson Tatum (24 points, 10 rebounds) was really the only Celtic that played well as Kemba Walker (15 points, 8 assists) somehow only took nine shots in the entire game while Jaylen Brown (14 points, 6 rebounds) was ice cold shooting 4-for-18 overall and 2-of-11 on 3-pointers.
The best players on the Raptors carried them as Pascal Siakam (23 points, 11 rebounds), Kyle Lowry (22 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals) and Fred VanVleet (17 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists) all played the entire 24 minutes of the second half. Meanwhile, Serge Ibaka (18 points, 7 rebounds) continued to be very effective in limited minutes (22) off the bench. The Game 3 hero OG Anunoby (11 points, 2 blocks) was back to being a nobody. We can all agree that Game 3 was a fluky win by the Raptors but they didn't need any luck in this one, they were the superior team and they earned the right to be back in the series. They doubled up the Celtics in second-chance points (24-12) which perfectly illustrates how much more they wanted this. Boston has to be kicking themselves for not hanging on in Game 3 and now they've dropped two games in a row after starting the postseason 6-0.
Using the momentum from Thursday night, Toronto got things going with a strong first quarter-outscoring Boston 31-27. Foreshadowing the fourth quarter, the C's clawed back in a gross second quarter (22-18). The Celts only were able to put up 20 points in the fourth quarter while the Raptors had 19 points, so they needed way more offense in crunch time to grab the win or at least to send it to overtime. Since his excellent Game 1 outing, Daniel Theis (8 points, 7 rebounds) has been contained while Marcus Smart (8 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) predictably has struggled for the past two games after dominating in the first two contests. For once, Boston's bench was actually pretty solid as Semi Ojeleye and Brad Wanamaker both scored seven points but Robert Williams continues to fade as well as he was held to six points and five rebounds after he scored in double-figures in the first two games of the series.
Toronto handed out five more assists (23-18) than Boston, they blocked three more shots (5-2) and had two fewer turnovers (14-12). Needless to say, Game 5 on Monday night (6:30, ESPN) is enormous for both teams. The Celts went 3-1 against the Raptors in the regular season then after going up 2-0 in this series, you felt like Boston was in great shape, especially when they led by two points with 0.5 seconds left in Game 3. Since then, things have completely been turned upside down starting with Anunoby's prayer followed by tonight's sloppy performance by the C's. I still have confidence that they will win this series but Toronto is for real and Boston can't let up anymore. They should take a cue from Miami who is about to surprisingly sweep Milwaukee to reach the Eastern Conference Final.
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