The defending world champions are in big trouble. Jayson Tatum had a game high 34 points, and Marcus Smart hit five three-pointers in the fourth quarter Tuesday evening leading the Boston Celtics to a 102-99 win over the Toronto Raptors in game two of an NBA second round playoff series at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Boston now leads the best of seven 2-0.
The Atlantic Division rivals went back and forth in the first quarter before a 9-0 Toronto run gave them an eight point advantage 17-9. Brown tied it for Boston with a three-pointer part of an 8-0 surge. The Raptors pushed back into the lead 26-21, but the Celtics finished scoring seven of the final nine points to make it 28-28 after one. The second quarter was alot of the same as both teams held momentary leads, with Boston having the biggest at five points and it was 50-48 Celts at the break. Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 30 points, while Kemba Walker was 0-8 from the floor with only two points over the first 24 minutes.
After the lead was exchanged over the early part of the third quarter, Toronto went on an 11-0 run for the biggest lead of the game at 78-66. The Raptors would lead 78-70 headed to the fourth quarter. Smart led Boston back and when he hit his fifth three-pointer in just over four minutes in the fourth quarter, he was fouled and converted it into a four point play to give the Celtics the lead back 86-85. A Tatum three-pointer and a running jumper by Walker extended to the biggest lead of the night for the green at 95-87 with 4:18 to play. Kyle Lowry hit two from the line for Toronto to cut it to 100-99 with 1:01 remaining, before Walker responded with a step back jumper for a three point Celtics cushion with 41.6 seconds showing on the clock. The Raptors would turn the ball over on their next possession when Serge Ibaka stepped out of bounds, but Boston couldn’t put it away when Brown missed a three with seven seconds left. Fred VanVleet had the final look to try to send it to overtime, but missed his three-point attempt as time expired.
Tatum added eight rebounds and six assists and shot 14-14 from the foul line in the Boston win. Smart finished with 19 points (6-11 three-pointers). He came up one three-pointer short of the NBA record for three-pointers made in one quarter of a playoff game (Antoine Walker, 6 in 2002). Also getting into double figures was Walker with 17 points, six rebounds, and four assists, Brown 16 points, eight rebounds, three steals, and two blocks, and Robert Williams III with 11 points and four rebounds. OG Anunoby led Toronto with 20 points, while Ibaka and Pascal Siakam had 17 points each. The Celtics have now won five of six games head to head with the Raptors this season, including 3-0 in the bubble. Boston is now just two wins away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in the past four seasons. Game three is scheduled for Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.
