After a brief stop in Brooklyn and two days off, the Boston Celtics are back home to take on the 2-11 Toronto Raptors. The Raptors are playing this game as the second half of a back-to-back and are plagued by injuries. Toronto will be without all-star Scottie Barnes, Celtics killer Immanuel Quickley, Massachusetts’ Bruce Brown and former Celtic Kelly Olynyk. This means the Raptors are rolling out a starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, RJ Barrett and Jacob Poeltl. Boston is also dealing with a major injury issue tonight, as Jrue Holiday was ruled out of this game due to left knee tendinopathy. Neemias Queta will take Holiday’s spot in the starting lineup with Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford.

Tonight also marks the debut of the new “Action Green” City Jersey for Boston, which has received mixed emotions from fans but is overall something new when it comes to a Celtics jersey. This could be a potential trap for Boston as they have a big game against the Cleveland Cavaliers looming on Tuesday, so the Celtics still have business to take care of tonight.

1st quarter

The Celtics were locked down from the start of this game, going on a 14-4 run to start the game as all five starters for Boston scored a point. RJ Barrett was the biggest contributor for the Raptors with a pair of steals and easy buckets at the rim. Toronto got back into the game with contributions from Barrett and two threes from Ochai Agbaji as the Celtics’ offense began to slow.

Jordan Walsh got some minuets in the first quarter with about three minutes left when Jayson Tatum went nuclear. Tatum scored 11 straight points for the Celtics to end the quarter and 13 overall, going 4-7 from the field and 3-6 from three.

Even with Tatum leaving, the Raptors were able to make it a two-point game at the end of the quarter as the Celtics led 28-26. Agbaji led the Raptors in scoring with 8 points and Tatum led the way for the Celtics. Something interesting to note was that the Celtics shot 16 of their 20 shots from three in the first quarter.

2nd quarter

The second quarter started with another Queta alley-oop, putting a lot of pressure on the Raptors defense. Queta put up some impressive screens as the Celtics used him extensively in the pick-and-roll, leading to great results. Sam Hauser made history today as he shot his first career free throw against the Raptors on an and-1 and the first free throw of the season. Jakob Poeltl scored eight straight points for Toronto, but Jaylen Brown was there to answer every time. Brown hit a crazy circus shot and threw it off the backboard to himself for a layup.

The Raptors took the lead 5:37 into a 9-0 run, but the Celtics answered back with another huge Jayson Tatum three, an Al Horford three, and closed with a put-back dunk from Queta.

After a flurry of rocks in the final two minutes of play, the Celtics led the league’s only record-worst Toronto Raptors 56-54 going into halftime. The Celtics didn’t necessarily play poorly, but the three shots worked against them in the first half, shooting 8-27 (29.6%) from beyond the arc. Boston was also dominated when it came to points in the paint battle, holding a 32-20 lead. Jakob Poeltl was the catalyst for the Raptors’ dominance in the paint, leading Toronto with 16 points and 6 rebounds on 7-9 shooting. Jayson Tatum continued to lead the Celtics with 16 points of his own, going 5-11 from the field and 5-11 from three.

3rd quarter

Jakob Poeltl continued his dominance in the paint as he started the second half with a put-back layup after a miss and a 4-yard push shot over Horford. Toronto continued their 16-4 run with two more easy layups at the basket to open a six-point lead. The Celtics went ice cold from three and missed nine straight as Poeltl continued to hit shot after shot from the short role.

The Celtics needed a spark and Payton Pritchard would answer the call, hitting back-to-back deep threes and finding “Flash Gordon” Luke Kornet in transition to help Boston regain the lead.

The Boston bench continued to come up big as Sam Hauser and Jordan Walsh joined the party and hit three straight shots from beyond the arc. The Celtics found their range from three, but the Raptors wouldn’t go away as Boston led 86-85 at the end of the third quarter. After starting the quarter 1-8 from three, the Celtics shot 5-8, which is a big reason why they continued to lead this game. The Raptors continued to dominate the points in the paint battle with a 60-30 lead.

4th quarter

Queta continued to do his Robert Williams impression with his third alley-oop of the game, but the Raptors continued to attack the Celtics in the paint. The Raptors and Celtics continued their dogfight of a game as there were 17 lead changes with 7:55 left in the 4th quarter. Chris Boucher would give the Raptors two more lead changes by hitting threes into the back corner, but Derrick White would be right behind him to even the score again.

With 5:18 to go, Al Horford would make a running layup and be fouled for a huge and-1. After TD Garden got free chicken nuggets and RJ Barrett missed two free throws, Jayson Tatum would make a great pass to Al Horford who knocked down the three. RJ Barrett would then pray on the shot clock for a lucky three and Jakob Poeltl would go to the line to make one of the two. The Celtics would get away with a turnover and allow a big offensive rebound, but were unable to capitalize on the other end to extend the lead. The missed free throw bug continued as Derrick White would go one for two at the line and Davion Mitchell would make the Celtics pay with an and-1 layup on Tatum, giving the free throw Toronto a 110-109 lead yielded with two minutes to go. to go.

The lead didn’t last long as Al Horford would hit another big three for a season high 18 points, but Gradey Dick would tie the score again with 1:27 to go. After a missed three by Derrick White, RJ Barrett made a tough and-1 layup, but missed the free throw. That led to Neemias Queta tying the game at 114 with a layup after a nice pass from Brown, forcing a timeout for the Raptors.

Out of the timeout with 42.5 seconds left, Barrett drove and was denied by Jaylen Brown. It remained Raptor’s ball, but Tatum pulled the chair towards Poeltl as he threw it out of bounds, Celtic’s ball. Tatum had the final shot, he dropped his defender, he advanced from the midrange for the win… and completely shattered it. Overtime.

Overtime

Jaylen Brown gave the Celtics a three-point lead to start overtime and Poeltl would respond at the other end with another bucket and a career-high 33 points. Brown turned the ball over on the next possession and Poeltl made another easy layup. White missed a three but blocked Barrett on the other end, setting up a tough Jayson Tatum layup and a 1-point lead. Sam Hauser put the clamps on RJ Barrett but missed three at the other end, leading to an Abaji three. Tatum missed a prayer on the shot clock, White got the offensive rebound, Hauser missed a three but was fouled under the basket. After Davion Mitchell was fouled before completing the inbounds pass, Tatum made the free throw to cut the deficit to 1.

With 1:50 to go, Queta had to shoot a three on the shot clock that missed, but the Raptors turned it over. Jaylen Brown would knock down a high three to take the lead, but Barrett responded with a draw. Horford missed a wide-open three in the corner, then Toronto challenged the out-of-bounds call and won, making it Raptors with 33.3 seconds left.

After the timeout, the Raptors came up with a play that gave Barrett a free drive to the rim, but Neemias Queta returned the ball, grabbed the rebound and got the timeout with 20.2 seconds left. Celtics bleed the clock, Tatum has the ball, isolates Agbaji, steps back from 10 yards… AND DRILLS THE THREE! JAYSON TATUM WITH THE GAME WINNER! WHAT A SHOT BY TATUM TO GIVE THE CELTICS THE WIN!

With Jayson Tatum, he ended his spectacular evening with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, including the game winner. Jaylen Brown would also be huge for the Celtics and would lead Boston in scoring with 27 points, along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Jakob Poeltl finished with 35 points and 12 rebounds and RJ Barrett finished with 25 points, 15 assist and 10 rebound triple doubles despite the loss.

The Celtics’ next game is on Tuesday, November 18 against the (currently) undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers at 7:00 PM in Boston’s second NBA Cup game.