A strong argument was made on Sunday night in Boston that back-to-back exhibition games have zero reason to exist.
No sensible organization will dress a starter on consecutive nights when the games mean nothing in the pre-season, and certainly not the defending NBA champions, who have 82 games and then perhaps another 15-25 more to get through.
And so, a night after humiliating a Philadelphia team that kept all of its standouts out by 50 points, the Celtics didn’t bother playing superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, or Jrue Holiday, or Derrick White. Heck, even the guy filling in for injured centre Kristaps Porzingis, Luke Kornet, was held out.
It didn’t really matter, as Boston’s mastery over Toronto continued. The Raptors missed starters Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett and reserve Kelly Olynyk a lot more than Boston missed most of its rotation.
The final score of 115-111 Celtics didn’t tell the story at all. The Celtics led by as many as 34 points and never actually looked threatened.
Toronto has gone just 3-19 in regular season games against the Celtics since 2019-20 (with losses in 11 of 12) and couldn’t compete against the champs even in this tuneup. It was 41-20 after a quarter and Boston by 32 through 24 minutes.
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had to be troubled by how awful his team looked against a lineup it should have feasted on (even without Quickley, Barrett and Olynyk). Scottie Barnes, easily the most talented player on either side on the night, had a single basket in the first half, missed 3-of-4 shots, had zero free throw attempts, just a single assist, along with two fouls and four turnovers. Jakob Poeltl was strong, but Gradey Dick struggled and two players battling for high spots in the rotation, Ochai Agbaji and Davion Mitchell did not stand out in that first half.
At least Barnes and Dick played well in the second half, while rookies Jonathan Mogbo and Jamal Shead impressed. Mogbo played easily his best of three exhibition games and collected 10 rebounds, to go with eight points and four assists. Shead had 14 points and five assists.
Drew Peterson, who is on a two-way contract, led Boston with 23 points off the bench. Dick led Toronto with 18.
NOT WHAT YOU WANT
Dick got lit up defensively in the first quarter. Sure, so did most of his teammates, but the way Boston got whatever it wanted against the sophomore was particularly egregious. Last year Dick at least looked like he was trying his hardest and was usually in the right positions to at least get in the way of opponents. That wasn’t the case early on.
To make matters worse, Dick, probably the best pure shooter on the team, missed seven of his first eight shots before hitting a second.
Dick is considered the leading candidate for the team’s fifth starting spot once everyone is healthy, but he’ll need to play a lot better to keep that job. At the least, he needs to improve his defensive performance.
To his credit, he heated up offensively, nailing five of his next 10 shots, including four three-pointers in the third quarter on seven attempts.
FITTING MATCHUP
How fitting was it that Toronto played at Boston on the day Vince Carter went into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame?
Carter’s NBA career began in the same building in Beantown on February 5, 1999. Carter scored 16 points in a Raptors win, which had been a rare thing (they only won 16 games in the previous season) as the first competitive Raptors era got underway.
The other Class of 2024 Hall of Fame connection between the two clubs was Toronto acquiring fellow inductee Chauncey Billups from the Celtics about a year before Carter’s debut. The two never played together though, with Billups being dealt again the day after the NBA lockout ended in 1999. Toronto could have had three future Hall of Famers on its roster that year (Tracy McGrady was previously inducted) had Billups not been moved on so early. At least the team ended up with Antonio Davis and Morris Peterson from the draft picks acquired for Billups. They got nothing when McGrady or Carter eventually left.
AROUND THE RIM
Toronto showed some life in outscoring Boston 32-22 in the third quarter. Dick’s shooting and much better work from Barnes caused the turnaround. Agbaji surprisingly handed out four assists in the third. The former Kansas star has only had more than three assists in a game three times in his career … Shead had missed his first nine three-point attempts of the pre-season before hitting in the fourth quarter to cap a 9-0 Raptors run. Shead has shown everything but an outside touch in the three games … Chris Boucher is the only Raptor remaining from the 2020 playoff series between the Celtics and Toronto. Half of the 12 Raptors who played in that seven-game battle are out of the NBA. Boston’s roster is completely different, aside from top players Tatum and Brown.
@WolstatSun