The Celtics beat the Raptors 98-93 in Toronto on Wednesday night after trailing by 22 in the second quarter, and they did it without Paul George, who missed the game with an illness, per the NBA’s official injury report. Jayson Tatum scored 24 points but shot 6 of 21. The player who finished it was Neemias Queta: 11 points, a season-high 13 rebounds, three blocks and a plus-27 that was the best of anyone in the game, per ESPN’s box score.
My take: this was a defensive win, and Queta was the center of it. Toronto scored 38 points in the first quarter and 55 in the last three. Boston’s offense was ugly all night, with 18 turnovers and 14-of-40 shooting from three, and it didn’t matter, because Toronto’s offense dried up once Queta settled in. The Celtics are 10-2, have won five straight and finished a four-game road trip 4-0, per ESPN’s schedule.
How Boston got buried
This was the second night of a back-to-back, less than a day after the 123-101 win in Philadelphia that Paul George decided with 36 points. Without George, Joe Mazzulla started Derrick White, Baylor Scheierman, Tatum, Luka Garza and Queta.
The first quarter went badly. Toronto made 14 of its 24 shots and led 38-29, per ESPN’s play-by-play. The second quarter opened with Tatum and Queta on the bench and Mitchell Robinson at center, and the lead grew to 50-35 by the time Tatum checked back in at 7:28. Jamal Shead’s free throw made it 59-37 with 5:24 left in the half.
Toronto was short-handed too. Kawhi Leonard (left knee), Scottie Barnes (left groin strain), Nate Bittle and Trayce Jackson-Davis were all out, per the injury report. Those absences keep me from reading too much into the win. A Raptors team without Leonard and Barnes should not be up 22 on anyone, and Boston shouldn’t need a comeback to beat it.
The comeback started with Queta and Tatum
Queta checked in with 5:47 left in the half and Boston down 21. The Celtics outscored Toronto 17-3 the rest of the half. Tatum scored 11 of those points: a 3, two free throws, a dunk off a Queta pass and a 3 from White’s assist that came with a flagrant foul free throw on Collin Murray-Boyles. Scheierman added a 3, and White blocked two shots in the run. Boston went to the locker room down 61-54.
The third quarter opened the same way. White hit a pull-up and a floater, Scheierman and White hit 3s, and Jordan Walsh’s layup off a Queta pass gave Boston a 66-65 lead with 7:09 left in the quarter. Walsh’s dunk from a Tatum pass made it 68-67.
Boston pushed it back to 75-72 on a Robinson alley-oop with 2:03 left in the quarter. Then Toronto took the game back. With Robinson at center, the Raptors closed the third on an 8-0 run, with Allen Graves and Alijah Martin hitting 3s, and led 80-75 going into the fourth.
How it was won
The fourth quarter was a defensive grind. Toronto scored 13 points in it and turned the ball over seven times. For the game, the Raptors made 18 of their 61 shots after the first quarter, per the play-by-play. Boston blocked 10 shots to Toronto’s four. White had four blocks and seven assists to go with 19 points and a plus-18.
Queta made a mistake late and then made up for it. With Boston down 91-90, he lost the ball to Shead, and RJ Barrett ran out for a dunk that made it 93-90 with 1:14 left. The Raptors didn’t score again. Queta dunked a Tatum pass at 54.1 seconds, Tatum drew a foul on Ja’Kobe Walter and made both free throws for a 94-93 lead with 25.2 seconds left, and Queta rebounded Barrett’s miss and made two free throws for 96-93. Sam Hauser stole Jamison Battle’s pass and made two more. Queta blocked Immanuel Quickley’s layup with 4.4 seconds left to end it. Boston scored the last eight points.
Queta’s 13 rebounds and 31 minutes were both season highs, per his ESPN game log. He also had five turnovers, including the one that nearly cost Boston the game, and he still finished plus-27. Robinson was minus-17 in 11 minutes.
I argued after the 4-1 start that Queta should close over Robinson in tight games. Wednesday made the case for me. Boston was plus-27 in Queta’s 31 minutes and minus-22 in the 17 he sat.
Tatum’s night, and the George question
Tatum’s shooting line was rough: 6 of 21 from the field and 2 of 11 from three. He still made 10 of 12 free throws, handed out eight assists and was plus-9 in 38 minutes. Two of those assists set up the Walsh dunk and the Queta dunk, and his free throws put Boston ahead for good.
Mazzulla said after the Philadelphia game that Tatum stood up in the locker room and told the team that win would mean very little without a strong game in Toronto, per The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. On the second night of a back-to-back, Tatum’s jumper wasn’t there, so he passed and attacked the foul line instead.
The last time Boston played without George was the 109-93 loss in Houston on Nov. 2, the loss that showed the Tatum rest plan falls apart without him. The offense looked lost that night too, and Wednesday wasn’t much better: Boston shot 30 of 73. The difference was the other end. Houston scored 109. Toronto scored 93, and 13 in the fourth.
What comes next
Boston is 10-2 and a game ahead of Philadelphia in the Atlantic. The Celtics get three days off before they host Dallas on Sunday, per ESPN’s schedule.
When George is back, Boston has its second scorer again. Wednesday showed it can survive a bad shooting night without him if the defense holds. Queta earned more of the late-game minutes at center, and I’d give them to him.