Jaylen Brown scored a game high 30 points Wednesday afternoon, as the Boston Celtics rolled past the Toronto Raptors 118-102 in Christmas Day action at ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto. The Celtics broke a 34 game winning streak by the Raptors against Atlantic Division opponents on their home floor. Boston also breaks an eight game losing streak at Scotiabank Arena.
Toronto (21-10) came out firing in this one. Two baskets by Serge Ibaka, and two three-pointers by Kyle Lowry gave the home team their only lead of the day scoring the first 10 points just 1:56 in firing up the holiday crowd. Boston put that fire out however and came right back though using a 15-4 run to take a lead they would never relinquish with 4:22 left in the first quarter at 15-14 on a Jayson Tatum putback off his own miss. The Celtics continued the run to 22-4 and built the lead to eight on a Grant Williams wide open layup. The visitors held a nine point lead after the opening 12 minutes, after scoring 28 of the final 37 points.
The Celtics (22-7) took an 11 point lead twice early in the second, before a Fred Van Fleet finger roll layup cut it to 37-34 with 6:52 left. A 12-5 spurt by Boston though increased the lead back to 10, as they held eight point halftime lead. Jaylen Brown gave the green their biggest lead on the day when he knocked down a baseline turnaround jumper with five seconds left in the third at 80-61. Brown caught fire scoring 16 of his teams 27 in the period, as the Celtics also hit 7-11 from three point range to increase the lead. Toronto cut it to 14 with a quick 5-0 run to start the final quarter, but two free throws from Brad Wanamaker and layups from Tatum and Wanamaker allowed Boston to push it to a 20 point advantage. The Celtics ending up building the lead to 22, and the Raptors never got closer than 16 the rest of the way.
Van Fleet led Toronto with 27 points, four rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Chris Boucher added a career-high 24 points and six rebounds. Lowry also contributed 14 points, four rebounds, eight assists, and two steals. Brown shot 10-13 from the floor (5-7 three-pointers), also adding six rebounds and four assists. Kemba Walker had 22 points and four assists. Gordon Hayward had 14 points, five rebounds, six assists, and two steals. Daniel Theis added 13 points and six rebounds, while Enes Kanter had a double double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Tatum also got into double figures with 11 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and two steals. The Celtics shot 42.4% from three-point range (14-33), while the Raptors were only 34.8% (8-23). Boston will host Cleveland at 4 p.m. Friday.
