5 takeaways: Celtics continue to climb East rankings

The Celtics were primed with excuses going into Saturday night. 

No Jaylen Brown. Second night of a back to back. On the road against a good Toronto team. 

In spite of all of those excuses, and some in-game adversity, Boston delivered one of its more gutsy wins of the season with a 112-96 run over the Raptors. The win also moved the Cs into third place in the East, jumping Toronto in the standings.  

Here are five takeaways from the win…

Boston was kind of feeling its way through what kind of night Saturday was going to be in the first couple minutes of the opening frame. On a second night of a back-to-back and without Brown, were the Cs going to pack it in? 

The last couple minutes of the first proved otherwise as the Celtics rattled off a 16-0 run to go up 12 after 12 minutes. 

It was a run that was mainly fueled by the energy that Boston’s bench was providing all night. The likes of Luka Garza, Josh Minott and Anfernee Simons jump started a Boston team that needed the juice. White capped off the run with a deep triple.

When considering the second quarter performance the Celtics pulled off, the run was all the more crucial to keep them in the game. 

Joe Mazzulla hasn’t been afraid to go away from guys and go back to them days, maybe even weeks later. Maybe it's a test to see who’s engaged, or who really wants it more, but on Saturday night, Garza wanted it more. 

In the big man’s first stint off the bench, he scored six points and also grabbed five offensive rebounds. In a day and age of euro steps and splashy plays, Garza may not be the most graceful guy on the court, but he does provide a level of physicality that not all are willing to match. 

For most of the night — he bullied any and all Raptors that clashed with him on the block. 

Garza finished with 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting, grabbing 10 rebounds, nine of those being on the offensive glass. He’s the first Celtic to grab nine offensive rebounds since Danny Fortson did so in 2000. 

He did appear to earn himself more minutes with his double-double, but who knows, it could be another couple weeks before Mazzulla gives him the nod again. 

After a disastrous second quarter and beginning of the third had the Celtics trailing, Pritchard filled the role of superstar. The guard was hyper-effective whenever he touched the ball, pouring in 19 points. 

It wasn’t just the threes that were falling either, Pritchard was 6-for-6 in the paint as he had the Raptors spinning in circles trying to catch him. 

Pritchard also nearly finished with a triple double as he finished with 10 assists and seven rebounds. 

The guard has actually been Boston’s best player on the second night of back-to-backs this season. After his 33-point barrage, he boosted his average to 24.3 which is good for the best mark on the roster. It’s also the 12th straight game the Cs have won in which Pritchard shoots over 50% from the floor. 

White, after starting a dreadful 2-for-13 from the floor, came through with the biggest present of all when it mattered most. The guard rattled off a 9-0 run by himself in the fourth, with two triples and an and-one effectively ending Toronto's hopes of a Christmas miracle. 

White finished with 15 points on 5-for-20 shooting. It wasn’t his best night by any stretch, especially considering his nine triples just 24 hours earlier against Miami, but winning players come through when the game is on the line, and that’s just what he did. 

It’s become pretty clear in recent weeks that this isn’t just a good stretch for the Celtics — it’s who they are. 

Boston is 12-4 in its last 16, and after defeating Toronto for the second time this month, have leapfrogged the Raptors for third in the East. The Celtics are now just 2.5 games back from the Knicks for the second seed and five back from the East-leading Pistons. 

This group is playing themselves into the title-contending conversation, and with the possibility becoming more real that a big piece is returning down the road, wins like Saturday prove anything is possible with these Celtics.