If you only watched the first and third quarters, you’d be telling all your friends how the Celtics are going to be a dangerous team this year that could find themselves fighting for an 8th seed. If you watched only the second and fourth quarters, you’d probably be searching out live streams of Kansas basketball while trying to sneak a custom “Wiggins” jersey through the customize filter in the Celtics store.
The Celtics looked pretty impressive in stretches, and comically bad in others (the Courtney Lee missed layup followed by a Jordan Crawford missed layup, and then turnover on a 3-on-1 turned into 3-on-none was one of the more atrocious things you’ll see).
The Celtics lose it 93-87. Oddly, and I swear this is true, Chuck sent out this email earlier tonight: “Who is recapping tonight’s 98-84 loss in Toronto?” Almost nailed it.
The Green:
Jeff Green had a nice game with 23 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. He had some really nice stretches mixed in with stretches where we’d like him to take over more. But let’s focus on the positive, that’s a nice game.
Brandon Bass had a typically fly-under-the-radar good game with 17 points on 6-7 shooting. I’d still like to see more than 2 boards, but he did have 2 assists and 2 steals too.
Vitor Faverani looked great early, scoring the first points of the Celtics season and becoming the first Celtic to score double digits this season. But after a great first quarter, his production tailed off.
Kris Humphries was called Boston’s best big by the Globe’s Gary Washburn, and he kind of has a point. He was a basket and a rebound shy of a double-double in 21 minutes.
The Gross:
22 turnovers is disgusting, especially when they led to 20 Raptors points.
Let me reiterate how horrible that Lee/Crawford mess of a play was. Actually, I’ll let KWAPT do it:
That last Celtics sequence under the basket: pic.twitter.com/Mvw7ycNtyk
— KWAPT (@KWAPT) October 31, 2013
The Greenlights:
The Grid:
- The Celtics out-shot the Raptors 48.5% to 44.2%, but the Celtics took 66 shots to Toronto’s 86.
- The Celtics were 20-29 (69%) from the line.
- Points in the paint: 44-40 Toronto.
- Second chance points: 28-12 Toronto.
- Gerald Wallace took 1 shot
Wallace did have 4 steals, which is nice, but I thought he’d be our steadiest guy. I don’t know where that reluctance to shoot came from. After 1 quarter, Avery Bradley was on pace for a triple-double, but he tailed off significantly to finish with 8 points (4-13 fg), 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Like I said on Twitter, the Celtics just aren’t equipped yet to pull out a close game like this in the 4th quarter. This is when a superstar steps up and does something to carry the team over the hump. Someday, maybe… maybe even later this season. Not now, though.
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