TORONTO — All that mattered was putting together 48 minutes of good basketball for the Toronto Raptors.
Jaylen Brown scored 23 points, Derrick White made a late 3-pointer and the Boston Celtics spoiled Toronto’s in-season tournament opener, 108-105, on Friday night. After a strong first quarter, the Raptors were outscored 39-17 in the second and were forced to come back in the second half.
“We won in the second half,” Toronto coach Darko Radjakovic said. “We didn’t do a great job, especially in the second quarter, and we allowed them 39 points. We just have to get it together.
“There were moments where we played really solid defense and really solid offense. We’re talking about arguably one of the best teams in the league right now, and we were able to hold them to 108 points. I thought our intentions and focus were right.”The second half, especially the third quarter, was at a much higher level. ”
To make matters worse for Toronto, All-Star forward Pascal Siakam missed the entire second quarter with foul trouble. Siakam scored eight points in the first quarter but picked up three fouls.
“It was a tough, tough game,” Radjakovic said. “He picked up two fouls early, but we subbed him out early in the first quarter so he could come back and play.
“If you have three fouls, it’s going to be really, really difficult. I wasn’t willing to risk it there and get him a fourth foul…He was huge for us in the second half. I wish he would have played eight or nine more minutes for us tonight.” ”
Jayson Tatum contributed 17 points for Boston (10-2), extending their winning streak to five games and moving up to 2-0 in group play, taking the lead in East Group C.
“I felt like we did a good job tonight, but I thought this was one of our not-so-good performances,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula said. “We were fortunate enough to win, but we learned a lot as a team and were able to feel a lot of things we haven’t felt yet.”
Siakam and Dennis Schroder each scored 23 points for Toronto (5-7), which wore new gold and black City Edition jerseys with the court painted black and gray and the NBA Cup logo displayed in three places. worn.
Coach Schroder said the game had a postseason feel.
“Even though we lost the game, I think at the end of the day it’s good for the league and for special games like the playoffs,” Schroder said. “I’m looking forward to the others.”
The Raptors led 24-18 with 3:54 left in the first quarter, but Siakam was called for a questionable third foul and the coach’s challenge failed. However, Toronto closed the gap to 32-26.
Tatum broke the Celtics’ 39-point cap with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give Boston a 65-49 lead at halftime.
Jakob Poeltl’s layup with 2:58 left in the third quarter gave the Raptors a 77-76 lead. But the lead didn’t last long as the Celtics took an 84-81 lead.
Poeltl’s putback layup with 1:19 left in the fourth quarter gave the Raptors a 103-101 lead. But 18 seconds later, Kristaps Porzingis scored the tying goal for Boston.
White made a corner 3 with 26.8 seconds left, and Scottie Burns missed a game-tying 3-pointer with 11.1 seconds left, giving the Celtics the lead for good.
tournament play
Each conference is divided into three groups of five teams, with each team playing four games within their group (two at home and two on the road) for a chance to advance to the final tournament.
Group play begins Nov. 3 across the NBA and ends Nov. 28. Chicago, Brooklyn and Orlando are the other teams in East Group C along with Toronto and Boston.
Eight teams across the league will qualify for the NBA Cup, including six group leaders and two wild card teams. The quarterfinals will be held on December 4th and 5th at NBA Team Market.
Las Vegas will host the semifinals on Dec. 7 and the championship on Dec. 9. All non-championship games also count toward the regular season standings.
next
The Raptors concluded their four-game homestand against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.
The Celtics will play the third game of a four-game road trip against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2023.
