3 takeaways: Boston Celtics roar past Toronto Raptors
Three takeaways from the Boston Celtics 118-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Christmas Day.
What did the Boston Celtics give their fans on Christmas Day?
Behind the hot hand of Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker, the Celtics delivered their fourth consecutive victory with a 118-102 victory over the shorthanded Toronto Raptors at the Sotiabank Arena early Wednesday afternoon.
Despite being shorthanded, the Raptors jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead before most Celtics fans stopped unwrapping gifts.
However, a quick timeout by Brad Stevens changed all that as the C’s responded with nine unanswered points in route to a 26-7 run that gave them control of the game.
With Gordon Hayward back in the lineup, the Celtics displayed ball movement and hot shooting beyond the stripe that was too much for the Raptors to handle without Marc Gasol, Norman Powell and Pascal Siakam.
In leading the Celtics with 30 points on the night, Jaylen Brown really showed off his versatility of offensive moves scoring from all over the court. The team also got nice contributions from Hayward (14 points), Walker (22 points) and Enes Kanter, who came off the bench to record a double-double with 12 points and 11 points.
Fred VanVleet led the Raptors with 27 points, but without much firepower anywhere else, the Raptors couldn’t keep up with the Celtics falling down by as many as 22 points.
With the victory, the Celtics not only extended their win streak, but improved their overall record to 21-7 on the season, the second best record in the NBA behind the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers.